Month: November 2022

Ayan Mukerji and Namit Malhotra on tech, VFX’s role in Brahmastra

There were 2400 VFX shots in Avengers: End Game, and there were 4500 VFX shots in Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva. Mukerji states that 30 percent of their overall budget was invested in VFX

Ayan Mukerji, director, writer, producer of Brahmastra and Namit Malhotra, founder, Prime Focus, chairman and global CEO of DNEG talk about tech talk about the way ahead for VFX in Indian cinema and more. Listen in.

Is Elon Musk ticking off too many business ambitions?

Musk has been vocal in the months leading up to his acquisition that he wanted to revamp how Twitter verifies accounts and handles bots. While the decision, predictably raised a storm on Twitter, his staccato decision making and rapid-fire announcements have raised serious concerns on the future of the platform. Twitter despite being much smaller than Facebook, You Tube and Instagram has de facto become the world’s virtual town square, where news breaks happen; movie stars; top athletes and heads of state share lock horns and their thoughts and squabble.

Combining the blue tick and Twitter premium subscription is certainly a problem. The best way forward would be to separate the two. This will make the whole process, transparent, equitable and remunerative and help Twitter retain its credibility without jeopardising its economics, suggests Lloyd Mathias.

Simply Speaking: A brand is a dream, and its real home is the unconscious

Brands have created their own brand worlds. They've opened a window to this world through their products, advertisements, catalogues, stores, celebrity endorsements, and so on. All these get subconsciously associated to their brands.

Fashion brands know the power of tapping latent emotional desires. They convey and own dreams and aspirations. They derive more from authority, class and provenance of the brand than mere expertise. They know the mood and feeling of the dream world that they want to connect with and that becomes their marketing strategy.

Bookstrapping: Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Before Your Memory Fades’ by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot) is a book about loss and regret, anger, and confrontation, all conducted within the parameters of the time it takes for the coffee to go cold. (Image: Amazon)

If you are a reader who feels that ‘emotional storytelling’ is largely a visual medium, our reviewer recommends you pick this up. She says you have an unusual experience. BookStrapping Rating: 3.5 stars.

Meta India chief Ajit Mohan’s sudden exit and his time at Facebook

Under his close to half-decade leadership the company has also made significant investments in businesses across sectors in India. For instance, in June 2019, the company invested in social ecommerce platform Meesho. In February 2020, the company joined others like General Atlantic and Sequoia India to be a part of a funding round of $110 in ed-tech start-up Unacademy. In April 2020, they announced a $5.7 billion, investment in Jio Platforms, making Meta its largest minority shareholder

Ajit Mohan who worked as the India head of the tech giant’s India operations for almost four years not just scaled the company’s operations but introduced a lot of firsts in the India market.

Elon Musk starts firing Twitter India teams

Some media reports suggest that Twitter has sacked the entire marketing team while others are stating that the company is laying off atleast 50% of its India team. (Representative Image via Unsplash)

The layoffs are part of the Elon Musk-owned company’s plan to reduce its 7,500-person workforce as a measure to save costs.

BYJU’s faces backlash over Lionel Messi, FIFA association

Byju’s has been looking to cut costs aggressively since last year after it reported a net loss of Rs 4,589 crore in FY21 (2020-21), the largest by a startup in India for that year. In October last year, the company laid off over 2,500 employees, or about 5 percent of its workforce across departments, in order to reduce "redundancies" and turn profitable for the current fiscal year FY23 (2022-23).

The announcement has irked netizens who are unleashing their fury on the edtech firm which has recently announced mass layoffs.