<keyword id="6355315" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Elon-Musk">Elon Musk</keyword> had recently hinted at <keyword id="2470415" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="tesla-model-3">Tesla Model 3</keyword>'s delayed India entry and it disappointed many <keyword id="107096" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tesla">Tesla</keyword> fans. Many Indians were anticipating an early Tesla launch in India but the hopes were dampened, especially of technology entrepreneurs and executives, including Paytm's founder <keyword id="198636" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vijay-Shekhar-Sharma">Vijay Shekhar Sharma</keyword>, <keyword id="211471" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vishal-Gondal">Vishal Gondal</keyword> of GOQii and Tech Mahindra's chief strategy officer Jagdish Mitra. They coughed up $1,000 for pre-bookings last year and were not really happy with Musk’s clarification. Sharma told ET he can't wait till the India launch anymore and plans to import a "right-hand driven, Model 3, which could be the first such car on Delhi roads. It's about worshipping the vehicle of the future and the man behind it. Tesla epitomises not just sustainable transportation but also the entrepreneurship streak through Musk and there is a great personality match.” After the GST rollout, an imported Tesla Model 3 in India will cost over double its selling price of $35,000 (Rs 22,61,525) in the US. Meanwhile, Gondal told ET, “…bit disappointed because Tesla seems to be 'clueless' about Indian policies. I am a big fan of Elon Musk and I will do anything to support a thinker like him, even in a small way.” On Monday, Musk had tweeted that his company may have to put on hold its launch plans in India due to the absence of an ecosystem for the supply of electric vehicle components. Responding to a query from Twitter user Avinash Singh on Tesla's India plans, Musk had said, "Maybe I'm misinformed, but I was told that 30% of parts must be locally sourced and the supply does not yet exist in India to support that.”

Elon Musk’s recent India announcement has disappointed Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Vishal Gondal

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/55069290.cms" />The 41st edition of IIT’s annual cultural fest, <keyword id="37794" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rendezvous">Rendezvous</keyword>, was a starry affair like last year. Deemed to be one of the most fun fests, it kick-started on Monday with pomp and show. 
 On day 1, street plays and beat boxing competition kept the fun and excitement going in the campus. It continued with Blitzkrieg – an English rock band competition, which literally had the crowd head-banging. Energy was at an all time high as soon as Euphoria hit the stage. Crowds grooved to singer <keyword id="19788" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="palash-sen">Palash Sen</keyword>’s ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. He dedicated the show to Indian soldiers. The band DU performance had started with Lady Shri Ram College for Women, following which it has performed at IIT four times. 
 
Before they came in for final showdown, four bands competed in IIT’s Hindi rock band competition Spectrum. Following this band TMKC (Teri Music Ki Chahat) made its way to the stage and sung their version of ‘Muqabala Muqabala’ keeping the crowds with them all along. 
 The event also saw lyricist <keyword id="10355" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Javed-Akhtar">Javed Akhtar</keyword>. He was a guest at a session titled 'Mukhatib: In conversation With Javed Akhtar'. Known for his bold views on several topics of social interest, this man of fame did not shy away in voicing his concerns over Triple Talaq, at <keyword id="57604" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="iit-delhi">IIT Delhi</keyword>. He said- "This is not the first time that I am saying this. Is it a topic which can have two points of view? It is a shame that the country is allowing this. The whole idea is sick. It is a matter of shame. Triple talaq is not allowed in Pakistan or Bangladesh, but it's allowed in India." 
 
As students moved away from the thought provoked session, music composers Vishal-Shekhar gripped IIT Delhi with their music fever as they brought the curtains down on IIT the four-day-long fest. The madness started with 'Bachna Ae Haseeno' and went on to some of the famous songs like 'Dus Bahane', and 'Salaam Namaste’. But it was the energy that the duo bought to the stage, dancing all along on Punjabi dhol beats, that made the entire event come alive. 
 
It sure was one hell of an event, something you just couldn’t afford to miss! 
 
(Image credit: BCCL)

Here’s all that unfolded at
Rendezvous, IIT Delhi’s biggest cultural fest

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48654957.cms" /> 
 <keyword id="1671" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shah-Rukh-Khan">Shah Rukh Khan</keyword> and <keyword id="6354713" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="kajol">Kajol</keyword>, who are shooting for <keyword id="22746" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="rohit-shetty">Rohit Shetty</keyword>’s upcoming movie <keyword id="1665132" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dilwale">Dilwale</keyword>, would be seen in a song shot in a single take. The romantic number would be shot at the famous black sand and white surf location in <keyword id="55091" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Iceland">Iceland</keyword>, and we can’t wait to see India’s most loved on-screen jodi to sizzle in this song. 
 
However, director Rohit Shetty is not the first Indian director to have thought of shooting a song in a single go. In the past, there have been songs or sequences where the director didn’t call for a cut and shot it in one go. 
 
Surely, this takes a lot of planning, rehearsal, and retakes, but what comes out in the final cut is spellbinding, and completely worth it. 
Here is a list of the songs and sequences that were shot in a single take. 
 
1. <keyword id="1013107" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="roop-tera-mastana">Roop Tera Mastana</keyword> (Aradhana, 1969) Director <keyword id="328587" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shakti-Samanta">Shakti Samanta</keyword> shot the entire sensual song in one take, with actors <keyword id="20397" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rajesh-Khanna">Rajesh Khanna</keyword> and <keyword id="1888" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sharmila-Tagore">Sharmila Tagore</keyword>. The song had the magical voice of <keyword id="6378234" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kishore-Kumar">Kishore Kumar</keyword> and S.D Burman composed the music. The song was more than 03:30 minutes long. 
 
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HenA-OUyo0s" width="420"></iframe> 
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HenA-OUyo0s">[Source]</a> 
 
2. Chale Jaise Hawaein (Main Hoon Na, 2004) Director <keyword id="3783" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Farah-Khan">Farah Khan</keyword> decided to shoot the opening sequence for this movie in a single take, and it was all the way more difficult because unlike Roop Tera Mastana, this song had a lot of dance steps, extras, background dancers, along with <keyword id="3872" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amrita-rao">Amrita Rao</keyword>, the actress. Farah Khan choreographed the first 02:40 minutes of the song in a single take. 
 
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lmPfioaW1Tw" width="560"></iframe> 
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmPfioaW1Tw">[Source]</a> 
 
3. I Wanna Make Love To You (Aitraaz, 2004) The Abbas-Mustan movie starring <keyword id="2823" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Akshay-Kumar">Akshay Kumar</keyword>, <keyword id="1655" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Priyanka-Chopra">Priyanka Chopra</keyword>, and <keyword id="2165" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kareena-Kapoor">Kareena Kapoor</keyword> had this sensual song, which was shot in one room, and in one take. The 03:39-minute song was sung by <keyword id="5293" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sunidhi-Chauhan">Sunidhi Chauhan</keyword>, with music composed by <keyword id="8539" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Himesh-Reshammiya">Himesh Reshammiya</keyword>. 
 
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vLr0jVmGNmY" width="560"></iframe> 
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLr0jVmGNmY">[Source]</a> 
 
4. <keyword id="3018475" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zara-Bach-Ke">Zara Bach Ke</keyword> (Cash, 2007) This song, directed by <keyword id="32859" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anubhav-Sinha">Anubhav Sinha</keyword>, had five actors viz. Riteish Deshmukh, <keyword id="10357" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zayed-Khan">Zayed Khan</keyword>, <keyword id="2807" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shamita-Shetty">Shamita Shetty</keyword>, <keyword id="981" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dia-Mirza">Dia Mirza</keyword>, and <keyword id="1952" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Esha-Deol">Esha Deol</keyword>, dancing in what looks like a maze of different corridors. The song is around 03:39-minutes long, and was sung by Anushka Manchanda, Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani while the latter two being the music directors. 
 
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q81ymh8vl4Q" width="560"></iframe>​​ 
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q81ymh8vl4Q">[Source]</a> 
 
5. Ek Villain (2014) The movie starring Sidharth Malhotra, <keyword id="89958" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shraddha-Kapoor">Shraddha Kapoor</keyword> and Riteish Deshmukh had a fight sequence, which was 2-minutes long, and was shot in a single take. The sequence showed Malhota getting onto a ship and fighting with dozens of goons, one by one, in a single take. The scene was brilliantly executed because the fight looked real and the background music added a lot of drama to the scene. 
 
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6SVKBZthBUo" width="560"></iframe> 
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SVKBZthBUo">[Source]</a> 
 
6. Gallan Goodiyaan (Dil Dhadakne Do, 2015) 
This song from 2015's comedy-drama had a lot of actors, including Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Rahul Bose, Ridhuma Sud, Zarina Wahab, Vikrant Massey, Parmeet Sethi, Divya Seth, and Manoj Pahwa dancing with hundreds of background songs. Out of all the songs listed, this one has the most fast-paced beats, and is also the longest one-take song (04:38 minutes). Directed by Zoya Akhtar, this song was sung by ​Yashita Sharma, Manish Kumar Tipu, Farhan Akhtar, Shankar Mahadevan, and Sukhwinder Singh, with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music and Bosco-Ceaser's choreography. ​Thanks to our reader ​Jahangir Hussain for pointing out that we had missed this song. 
 
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jCEdTq3j-0U" width="560"></iframe> 
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCEdTq3j-0U">[Source]</a>

SRK Kajol to shoot one take song in Dilwale, but it’s not Bollywood’s first

<ul><li><keyword id="2823" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Akshay-Kumar">Akshay Kumar</keyword> has invested an undisclosed amount in <keyword id="2143783" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="GOQii">GoQii</keyword> – a health and wellness <keyword id="138263" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="startup">startup</keyword>. </li><li>With the investment, Kumar will also be the brand ambassador for the startup. </li><li>GoQii counts investors like Ratan Tata, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, DSG Consumer Partners etc.</li></ul><keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword> actor Akshay Kumar invested an undisclosed amount in health and wellness startup GoQii and is now the brand ambassador of the company as well. “Health is not a short-term goal and can be achieved by adopting a healthy lifestyle. I along with the team of leading GOQii Coaches will be working to making 1.3 billion Indians healthy,” said Akshay Kumar. The actor will also be a GOQii coach conducting live video sessions on GOQii Play. GoQii, which is founded by <keyword id="211471" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vishal-Gondal">Vishal Gondal</keyword> in 2014, recently started a legal battle against <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> for deep discounting of its products. With the investment, Kumar will also host the India Health Quiz on GoQii’s OTT platform GoQii Play. Gondal, who used to run a gaming company Indiagames, came up with the idea of GoQii when he stopped exercising during his stint at the gaming company, and gained a lot of weight. “I tried everything and the only thing that worked was a coach in my neighbourhood who remotely coached me. I ended up running marathons, went to Everest Base camp ,” Gondal had told Business Insider during an interview. He realised back then that people didn’t lack access to gyms but instead lacked motivation to work out. Today, GoQii has marquee investors like Ratan Tata, Vijay Shekhar Sharma Mitsui, DSG Consumer Partners among others on its board. For Gondal, it has been a great journey from being called crazy for starting a hardware startup with a subscription model to today being one of the market leaders along with Xiaomi in the affordable <keyword id="18974" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="fitness">fitness</keyword> wearable space. “Another big thing we were able to do was use the health data to give our users discounts from insurance companies. So we went from being a coaching and wearables company to have an entire healthcare ecosystem on our platform,” said Gondal.

Bollywood star Akshay Kumar invests in GoQii, which took on Flipkart for its deep discounts

<ul><li>Indian filmmakers believe that a ‘big’ Indian superhit movie like Oscar-winning Parasite is waiting to happen.</li><li><keyword id="46758" type="General" weightage="70" keywordseo="RRR" source="Orion">RRR</keyword> and Elephant Whisperers’ Oscar win has helped Indian filmmakers cross the bridge, they believe.</li><li>India has the talent and technicians to tell a story-on-screen that the whole world will wake up to, says producer Guneet Mongia.</li><li>A Parasite-like record-breaking success is waiting to happen, says Vishal Bharadwaj. </li></ul> <keyword id="122490" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="film-critic" source="Orion">Film critic</keyword> Anupama Chopra had one thought when she watched the Chinese movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in 2000, “When will India make a crossover movie like that?” Since the 90s, many Hindi movies have been released in the US and UK, entertaining Indians abroad and bringing in forex. A few even found success at film festivals, but no Indian movie could capture the hearts of people across countries – not the way Ang Lee’s movie did. UK-based Gurinder Chadha too made superhit movies like ‘Bend it like Beckham’ and ‘Bride and Prejudice’ about Indians, but they were told from an immigrant Indian perspective. Even when Mumbai stories like Slumdog Millionaire were told, they were told by US-based directors like Danny Boyle. Desi movies were far from achieving any kind of acclaim or success. Chopra was further disheartened when director Anurag Kashyap told her once that <keyword id="20382" type="General" weightage="90" keywordseo="indian-movies" source="Orion">Indian movies</keyword> were just a comic relief. She never believed that, she shared at Zee5 Global’s panel discussion on ‘Coming of Age of South Asian Entertainment: The Time is Now’ in Mumbai. 2023: The year that changed it all Then Rajamouli’s RRR happened, and its song-and-dance number Natu Natu won an Oscar in 2023. That’s victory for the Indian way of story-telling on-screen that was once made fun of. “RRR changed the way Americans saw <keyword id="35703" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-films" source="Orion">Indian films</keyword>. People in the US were having watch parties for RRR. We were no longer that awkward brown guy with a strange accent. There was a sense of crossover taking place and that got us ambitious,” said Archana Anand, chief business officer of ZEE5 Global. Guneet Monga who also won the Best Documentary Short Film at the Oscars in 2023, believes that the path has been charted, and better things are waiting to happen. “We'll soon have our very own Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. We have the talent and technicians,” she added. The director of Maqbool, Vishal Bharadwaj also chimed in, saying, “At the rate we are going, a Parasite is waiting to happen here. An Indian film that will break all records and make it big all over the world.” Parasite is a South Korean black comedy which created history by becoming the first non-English language movie to win the Best Picture academy award. It swept the awards that year, bagging three more Oscar awards for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. Movies that went as ‘series’ Before the Oscar wins, Indian movies have been breaking through slowly albeit steadily, reminisced the film-makers. The West started looking at Indian movies differently after the iconic movie-maker Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen which released in 1994. He later went on to make a full-fledged international movie Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett. “We’ve had AR Rahman’s success with his music in Slumdog Millionaire. I’ve had my own experience with Maqbool going to Toronto. With humility, I want to say that many people are doing doctorates on my Shakespeare trilogy,” said Bhardwaj. Music composer AR Rahman shared an Oscar for his song ‘Jai Ho’ with song writer Gulzar for the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Distribution is key to taking Indian movies to lands afar, believes Monga, adding that streaming services play a role. “Gangs of Wasseypur was the first Indian five-and-half-hour film that was released as an eight-part miniseries in the US,” she told the audience.

RRR a stepping stone — The great Indian crossover film is still a ‘crouching tiger’

The nominations for the 23rd edition of the International Indian Film Academy and Awards, popularly known as IIFA, were announced on Monday. 'Brahmastra Part One: <keyword id="33379" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="shiva" source="Orion">Shiva</keyword>', 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2', 'Darlings' and are leading the pack with ten, five and five nominations, respectively. 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2', 'Darlings', 'Drishyam 2', '<keyword id="8223714" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="gangubai-kathiawadi" source="Orion">Gangubai Kathiawadi</keyword>' and 'Vikram Vedha' have made it to the nomination list of the Best Picture category. Top picks for the Direction category are 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2', 'Brahmastra Part One: Shiva', 'Darlings', 'Gangubai Kathiawadi', 'Monica O My Darling' and 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect'. The nominees for Performance in a Leading Role (Female) are Yami Gautam Dhar for 'A Thursday', Tabu for 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2', Alia Bhatt for 'Darlings', Shefali Shah again for 'Darlings' and Alia Bhatt for 'Gangubai Kathiawadi'. Kartik Aaryan ('Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2'), Abhishek Bachchan ('Dasvi'), Ajay Devgn ('Drishyam 2'), Rajkummar Rao ('Monica O My Darling'), Anupam Kher ('The Kashmir Files') and Hrithik Roshan ('Vikram Vedha') are the nominees for Performance in a Leading Role (Male). The nominees for Performance in a Supporting Role (Female) are Sheeba Chadha ('Badhaai Do'), Mouni Roy ('Brahmastra Part One: Shiva'), Nimrat Kaur ('Dasvi'), Tabu ('Drishyam 2') and <keyword id="133292" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="radhika-apte" source="Orion">Radhika Apte</keyword> ('Monica O My Darling'). For the Performance in a Supporting Role (Male) category the nominees are Abhishek Banerjee for 'Bhediya', Shah Rukh Khan for 'Brahmastra Part One: Shiva', Vijay Raaz for 'Gangubai Kathiawadi', Anil Kapoor for '<keyword id="10488529" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="jugjugg-jeeyo" source="Orion">Jugjugg Jeeyo</keyword>' and Sikander Kher for 'Monica O My Darling'. Pritam ('Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2' and 'Brahmastra Part One: Shiva'), Sanjay Leela Bhansali ('Gangubai Kathiawadi'), Oaff and Savera ('Gehraiyaan'), Tanishk Bagchi, Pozy ('Niranjan Dhar'), Kanishk Seth and Vishal Shelke ('Jugjugg Jeeyo') have bagged the nominations for Music Direction. Jonita Gandhi for the song 'Deva Deva' ('Brahmastra Part One: Shiva'), Shreya Ghoshal for 'Rasiya' ('Brahmastra Part One: Shiva') 'Jab Saiyaan' (Gangubai Kathiawadi), Lothika for 'Doobey' ('Gehraiyaan') and Kavita Seth for 'Rangi Sari' - traditional/folk song ('Jugjugg Jeeyo') are in the race for Playback Singer (Female) category. The nominees for Playback Singer (Male) are Arijit Singh for 'Kesariya' and 'Deva Deva' ('Brahmastra Part One: Shiva'), Mohit Chauhan for 'Gehraiyaan' (reprise), Kanishk Seth for 'Rangi Sari' - traditional/folk song ('Jugjugg Jeeyo') and Aditya Rao for 'Behney Do' ('Rocketry: The Nambi Effect') Furthermore, the nominees for Best Story (Original) are Akshat Ghildial and Suman Adhikary for 'Badhaai Do', Ayan Mukherji for 'Brahmastra Part One: Shiva', R. Balki for 'Chup', Jasmeet K. Reen and Parveez Shaikh for 'Darlings' and Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri for 'The Kashmir Files'. The nominees for Best Story (Adapted) are Aamil Keeyan Khan and Abhishek Pathak for 'Drishyam 2', S.Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges for 'Gangubai Kathiawadi', <keyword id="4186994" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="yogesh-chandekar" source="Orion">Yogesh Chandekar</keyword> for 'Monica O My Darling', R.Madhavan for 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect' and Pushkar-Gayatri and BA Fida for 'Vikram Vedha'. The nominees for Lyrics are Varun Grover for the song 'Atak Gaya Hai' ('Badhaai Do'), Amitabh Bhattacharya for the song 'Kesariya' ('Brahmastra Part One: Shiva'), A.M. Turaz for the song 'Jab Saiyaan' ('Gangubai Kathiawadi'), Ankur Tewari for the song 'Gehraiyaan' ('Gehraiyaan') and Raj Shekhar for the song 'Behney Do' ('Rocketry: The Nambi Effect'). Global voting will go live on Tuesday, December 27, 2022. The 23rd edition of IIFA will be held at Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, on February 9, 10 and 11, 2023. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/what-india-watched-on-netflix-in-2022-korean-dramas-rrr-alia-bhatt-movies-in-the-list/slidelist/96455203.cms">Korean dramas, RRR, Alia Bhatt &amp; more - These kept India hooked to Netflix in 2022</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/first-time-on-screen-pairings-in-2023-in-bollywood/articleshow/96447413.cms">From SRK-Taapsee to Ayushmann-Ananya: First time on-screen Bollywood pairings in 2023</a>

'Brahmastra', 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2', 'Darlings' lead in IIFA nominations

New Delhi, May 2 () Internet companies like Urban Company, MakeMyTrip, Dunzo, HealthifyMe and Zomato are changing their social media handles and app icons to promote wearing face masks as a hygiene practice amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Apna Mask initiative -- an effort by StartUpVsCOVID (a startup community with over 1,000 members) -- is promoting homemade masks and aims to drive behavioural change to ensure that people wear masks and stay protected as they step out of their homes. The #ApnaDeshApnaMask campaign was kicked off by startup industry stalwarts like Rajan Anandan of Sequoia India, Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Alok Mittal (Indifi), Vishal Gondal (GoQii) and others. They were later joined by celebrities like Vidya Balan, Dia Mirza, Juhi Chawla, Divya Khosla Kumar, Juhi Parmar, Deepshika Deshmukh, Sonu Sood, Shama Sikander, Preetika Rao and others. Within a span of two weeks, the initiative has garnered 100 million outreach across digital platforms, including WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The team working on the campaign also reached out to various organisations to support the initiative, especially as parts of the country get ready to come out of the lockdown which has been extended till May 17. "Urban Company, MakemyTrip, Dunzo, HealthifyMe, Zomato, Redbus, Ixigo, MoneyTap, MyUpchaar, Bounce, RazorPay, Medanta, WittyFeed, LBB, Porter, Meesho, Daily Hunt, 1mg, Paytm Games have changed their social media handles while some are changing the app icons as well," a statement said. These brands are also inviting more companies to join the initiative. "Given the immense response we have received, we will have more brands join #ApnaMask in this critical initiative. We believe some of these steps will be helpful in building habit changing behaviour towards wearing homemade masks," Poonam Kaul, co-founder of ApnaMask, said. In a separate statement, Crowdera -- an online fundraising platform -- said it is offering its premium syndicated fundraising technology solutions for free to companies and NGOs working to help the COVID-19 affected individuals, families and health workers. "Crowdera will be extending its support through offering its products and services worth almost USD 150,000 (Rs 1 crore) free to organisations aiding the affected...The solution will help corporations and NGOs to quickly syndicate with their own employees, influencers, other foundations, or charity partners to raise funds 10X more than through a regular crowdfunding campaign," it said. Under this pledge, Crowdera has already extended its support to companies like Rapido, Repos, BYJU'S, SirfTaxi, and Tartl to engage their employees and partners in fundraising for the COVID-affected workforce. SR ABMABM

Apps don face masks to promote healthy practices amid COVID-19

<ul><li>PM Modi pays homage to <keyword id="43212" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pulwama">pulwama</keyword> martyrs calls them “exceptional individuals.” </li><li>Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan reacts to a fan’s post and pays tribute to martyrs.</li></ul>Even after a year, the country still cannot wipe out the memories. Celebrities and commoners alike took to social media to discuss it. The number of Pulwama tweets at 3,13,000 tweets is much higher than Valentine’s Day. Here is the look at few of the celebrities and key personalities that paid tribute to beloved martyrs. Narendra Modi 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays homage to the martyrs at the Nation..." msid="74133293" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays homage to the martyrs at the National War Memorial, on the occasion of the 71st Republic Day Parade 2020, in New Delhi. (Photo)(&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>









 PM Modi paid homage to the security personnel calling them “exceptional individuals” who devote their lives to protect the nation. “Tributes to the brave martyrs who lost their lives in the gruesome Pulwama attack last year. They were exceptional individuals who devoted their lives to serving and protecting our nation. India will never forget their martyrdom,” said Modi on his twitter handle. 
	
	
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="narendramodi" handlename="Narendra Modi" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1134082549041393672/QbihPzrL_normal.png" favoritecount="54686" retweetcount="12163" status="Tributes to the brave martyrs who lost their lives in the gruesome Pulwama attack last year. They were exceptional… https://t.co/DIsFbFuHi6" createdat="1581653923000" id="1228171687792742401"></div>









 Amitabh Bachchan 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="Mumbai: Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan performs during a function to pay homag..." msid="74133349" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan performs during a function to pay homage to 26/11 victims at Gateway of India in Mumbai.Photo)(&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>









 Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan reacted to a fan’s post of him and Abhishek Bachchan honouring the martyr’s families by handing out donations last year. The celebrity wrote, “On this day, we remember them that sacrificed their lives so we could live” Last year Bachchan donated ₹5 lakh each to the kin’s of 40 CRPF personnel who were martyred in the Pulwama terror attack. 
	
	
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="SrBachchan" handlename="Amitabh Bachchan" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1138177088136011776/Rnp146CU_normal.jpg" favoritecount="7138" retweetcount="579" status="On this day we remember them that sacrificed their lives so we could live .. https://t.co/7tOOtd9yig" createdat="1581657998000" id="1228188781037047808"></div>









 Vishal Dadlani 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="Vishal dadlani" msid="74133425" hostid="261"></div>









 The singer who is always seen in duo with Shekhar Ravjiani, remembered the martyrs in a tweet saying. “1 year ago, in #Pulwama, 40+ soldiers were killed when a car full of RDX exploded while travelling along with a convoy of soldiers. Deepest condolences to their families and all of India. Some questions were asked then, that still remain unanswered.” He also tweeted a picture of a newspaper with questions. 
	
	
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="VishalDadlani" handlename="VISHAL DADLANI" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1094176875419701248/FMY8LrVe_normal.jpg" favoritecount="1221" retweetcount="412" status="1 year ago, in #Pulwama, 40+ soldiers were killed when a car full of RDX exploded while travelling along with a con… https://t.co/MaVC2QQug8" createdat="1581657146000" id="1228185206344974342"></div>









 Arvind Kejriwal 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a program, &amp;#39; Ex-serviceme..." msid="74133463" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a program, &amp;#39; Ex-servicemen with Kejriwal&amp;#39; at Constitution Club in New Delhi.Photo/Subhav Shukla)(&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>









 Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, expressed his emotion in Hindi on Twitter and wrote, “A soulful tribute to soldiers who martyred on this day in the Pulwama terrorist attack.” 
	
	
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="ArvindKejriwal" handlename="Arvind Kejriwal" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/945853608389574656/REH_LpUJ_normal.jpg" favoritecount="25808" retweetcount="2848" status="पुलवामा में आतंकवादी हमले में आज ही के दिन शहीद हुए जवानों को भावपूर्ण श्रद्धांजलि।" createdat="1581655822000" id="1228179655087153152"></div>









 <keyword id="6356250" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="yami-gautam">Yami Gautam</keyword> 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="Yami gautam" msid="74133597" hostid="261"></div>









 The star who was featured in the movie based on Uri attack tweeted a photo of all 40 CRPF martyrs and called it an “unforgettable date”. “Our tears should only make our voice, intention &amp; actions stronger against terrorism,” she said. 
	
	
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="yamigautam" handlename="Yami Gautam" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1113483042054602752/AhSXQDFX_normal.jpg" favoritecount="1866" retweetcount="220" status="February14 th, 2019 shall always remain an unforgettable date . Tribute to our brave CRPF jawans 🙏🏻 Our tears shoul… https://t.co/h7P7vyszEU" createdat="1581657267000" id="1228185714094792705"></div>









 Sunny Deol 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="New Delhi: BJP leaders Arjun Ram Meghwal and Sunny Deol arrive to attend the BJP..." msid="74133693" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;BJP leaders Arjun Ram Meghwal and Sunny Deol arrive to attend the BJP parliamentary party meeting at Parliament House, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019.Photo/Atul Yadav) (&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>









 The star who is known for patriotic films like Gadar paid his tribute in his native Punjabi tongue language. 
	
	
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="iamsunnydeol" handlename="Sunny Deol" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/870562955066097664/1QXiqgV4_normal.jpg" favoritecount="1443" retweetcount="148" status="ਪੁਲਵਾਮਾ ਹਮਲੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਸ਼ਹੀਦ ਹੋਏ ਵੀਰ ਜਵਾਨਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਪ੍ਰਣਾਮ। पुलवामा में शहीद हुए वीर जवानों को शत शत नमन। #Pulwamamartyrs" createdat="1581656035000" id="1228180545588195328"></div>









 In February 2019, a convoy of 78 buses carrying around 2,500 CRPF personnel was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit. His sneak attack on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in Pulwama district, resulted in the deaths of 40 CRPF personnel and the attacker. Weeks later Indian Air Force (IAF) jets bombed a JeM camp in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/uk-new-finance-minister-rishi-sonak-son-in-law-of-infosys-narayana-murthy/articleshow/74129644.cms">Britain’s new FM Rishi Sunak is a ‘first generation immigrant’ with family ties to Narayana Murthy, a doyen of Indian IT</a>

Pulwama attacks: Amitabh Bachchan, Modi and Kejriwal pay homage to martyrs

The much-awaited <keyword id="62161" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dharma-Productions">Dharma Productions</keyword>' Student Of The Year 2 has partnered with <keyword id="191951" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Smule">Smule</keyword> for the biggest <keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword> singing contest where music enthusiasts can showcase their talent and win a chance to fly and perform in the US. The star-studded cast of SOTY2, featuring <keyword id="133664" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tiger-Shroff">Tiger Shroff</keyword>, debutantes Ananya Panday and Tara Sutaria, will be reaching out to Smule’s community of 50 million monthly users to take part in the contest. The Smule users will also get an opportunity to sing along with Tara Sutaria, who’s also a professional opera singer, on the Smule app. Smule, through its contest - ‘Smule pe gaao America jaao’, aims to reach out to its huge yet tightly-knit community of music lovers to come, sing along and fulfil their dream of visiting the US. The ‘Smule pe gaao America jaao’ contest has got not just the users but also original singers and star cast of the movie, including Tara Sutaria and Dev Negi to sing SOTY2’s songs on Smule. The artist community of Smule which includes Shahid Mallya, Nikhita Gandhi, Akshay Dhawan et al will also be coming onboard to encourage the user community to be part of the contest. Additionally, Smule’s community influencers, including Ashmik Patil - the winner of Smule Mirchi Cover Star, have already expressed their excitement about what’s in store for them and the entire community of singers. One lucky winner will also get a lifetime opportunity to perform live at the largest Bollywood music festival in North America - the Gaana Music Festival, alongside the likes of popular voices such as Vishal &amp; Shekhar, Sunidhi Chauhan, Divine, <keyword id="253" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Alka-Yagnik">Alka Yagnik</keyword>, Hariharan, Jassie Gill, Babbal Rai and more. It’s not the first time that Smule has organized or partnered with something really interesting and empowering for its millions of users. Post an investment and partnership with Times Bridge, Smule has partnered with a few high-octane properties like Indian Idol 10, Mirchi Music Awards, and multiple artists like Armaan Malik, Amaal Mallik, Naezy, Darshan Raval and Nikhita Gandhi. Within a short period of its launch in India, Smule has become the largest and the most preferred social networking platform for singers to engage with and simply share the joy of singing with each other.

Dharma’s Student Of The Year 2 and Smule join hands to host the biggest Bollywood singing contest

<ul><li><keyword id="2962484" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mi-India">Mi India</keyword> launched the latest edition of its annual report ‘<keyword id="10631021" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="patchwall-replay-2020">PatchWall Replay 2020</keyword>’.</li><li>The report throws light on the latest insights and interesting trends from the <keyword id="350845" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Show-Business">show business</keyword>.</li></ul> Mi India in its annual trend report ‘<keyword id="10631022" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="patchwall-replay">PatchWall Replay</keyword> 2020’ revealed that there was a 161% increase in news views in 2020. The study evaluates the consumption patterns of over 5 million consumers across 25+ content partners and throws light on the latest insights and interesting trends from the show business. Mi India had introduced PatchWall on Mi TV’s in 2018. Designed specifically for the Indian market, PatchWall provides one of the largest content libraries comprising both Indian and global content partners. In 2020 alone, PatchWall witnessed over 14 billion interactions across different categories such as movies, TV shows, music, kids entertainment etc. From strict lockdowns to a roller-coaster of emotions, the year 2020 was entailed by unprecedented challenges. However, with the world going digital across entertainment, work, education, and communication, 2020 witnessed an immense growth in the media streaming landscape. After surveying 5 million consumers, Mi India’s PatchWall Replay 2020 details out all the trends that dominated the Indian OTT space in the last year. Commenting on the unveiling of the report, Eshwar Nilakantan, Category Lead - Mi TVs, Mi India, said, "Mi TVs have become an integral part of families and consumers’ lives and they further solidify Mi India’s leadership in the smart TV segment. Having sold over 5 million TVs, we not only understand the requirements of Indian consumers, but have also taken significant steps to address their needs. “Content first” has always been our Mi TV team’s philosophy and that led the company to introduce PatchWall on Mi TVs and since then, we have rolled out over 40+ features and extended partnership with 25+ content partners. We are happy to unveil PatchWall Replay 2020’, it throws light on what India watched in 2020, across all OTT platforms.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="From blockbusters to originals, content that trended" text="From blockbusters to originals, content that trended">From blockbusters to originals, content that trended</cmsannotation> While the pandemic put a halt on ‘Let’s go and watch a movie, it’s Friday’ in 2020, the love for movies among people didn’t subside. For a Friday release, PatchWall generated similar traffic as a housefull on a first day - first show across all 3k+ multiplex chains in India. There was a 2.5X increase in the number of people watching movies on weekdays as compared to 2019, making views increase by 97% in the movies category. Laxxmi, Dil Bechara, Angrezi Medium, Lootcase, Chhalaang, Khaali Peeli and Chintu Ka Birthday, among others were some of the popular movies, trending in 2020. India gravitated towards strong performances, Rajnikanth trended in February, followed by Deepika Padukone and Saif Ali Khan in March, and Superhero movies taking the spot in May. July was ruled by Sushant Singh Rajput, and soon India’s focus shifted to cricket in August. Akshay Kumar and Mulan made highlights in November and December respectively. According to the report, April to August were blockbuster months, because of movies releasing on OTT platforms during that time. 2020 was the year of some fantastic performance and original shows and series. With Indian audiences appreciating new categories in TV shows, the segment recorded 133 percent increase in engagement. Shows such as Mirzapur 2, Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, Pataal Lok, Sam Jam, Loser, Geetha Subramanyam scored big. April to June aired a devotional vibe in the living rooms with people reminiscing their old times with shows like Mahabharat, Ramayana, Devon ke Dev..Mahadev, and Shaktiman. There were more than 3 million interactions across these shows. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Kids’ content streaming witnessed new highs" text="Kids’ content streaming witnessed new highs">Kids’ content streaming witnessed new highs</cmsannotation> With education turning its route to the digital mode, the edutainment category saw a 177 percent increase along with a 205 percent increase in overall kids streaming. Wheels on the bus’, ‘Tales of Akbar and Birbal’, ‘Bal Ganesha’ were the stars of kids’ edutainment category, and ‘Show yourself’ and ‘Baby Shark’ became the new kids anthem. Interestingly, there were more than a million kids mode sessions trusted a million times by parents across India. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Regional language consumption increased" text="Regional language consumption increased">Regional language consumption increased</cmsannotation> The regional language content made space in the streaming landscape and a 56 percent increase was observed in this segment. PatchWall has content across 16+ languages including Punjabi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Assamese, Odia, Rajasthani, Urdu along with Haryanvi. The top languages that saw an increased consumption trend were Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Bengali. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Fitness pumped its way up" text="Fitness pumped its way up">Fitness pumped its way up</cmsannotation> Online platforms served as fitness companions as well. With no access to gyms, Zumba classes, Yoga etc., the fitness category received a good boost with an increase of 93 percent views. From how to lose weight in 21 days to meditation for relaxing and yoga stretches, people tried to maintain their fitness regimes. Interestingly, users were pigging out on searches such as Sarson da saag, Jeera Chicken, Yoga stretch and instant 5 ingredient ice-cream. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Bigger appetite for Live news" text="Bigger appetite for Live news">Bigger appetite for Live news</cmsannotation> With a lot happening across the globe, news in any mode took most of the space. In response to this, a 161% increase in news views paved its way. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Grooving to music in our living rooms" text="Grooving to music in our living rooms">Grooving to music in our living rooms</cmsannotation> More than 20 million minutes were spent by PatchWall unsers listening and grooving to their favorite songs. Badshah, Arijit Singh, the duo Vishal-Shekhar, A.R Rahman, and Neha Kakkar rocked the charts the whole year and the popular music videos that glued Indians to their screens included Genda Phool, Illegal Weapon, Dus Bahane, Bhankaas, and Khulke Jeena ka. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Eat. Binge. Sleep. Repeat. with PatchWall" text="Eat. Binge. Sleep. Repeat. with PatchWall">Eat. Binge. Sleep. Repeat. with PatchWall</cmsannotation> The new trend surfacing was Eat.Binge.Sleep.Repeat. The newly launched features of PatchWall such as India Top 10 Today, Celebrity Watchlist, and Collections recorded 87 million views. India Top 10 Today: It garnered 48 million views with top trending titles such as Laxmii, Dil Bechara, Mirzapur 2, Scam 1992- The Harshad Mehta Story, Mulan, Darbar, Chintu ka Birthday, Pataal Lok, and Aarya, along with Colour Photo. Celebrity Watchlist &amp; Collections: This feature accounted for 39 million views with people exploring the watchlists of Vidya Balan, <keyword id="475128" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pankaj-Tripathi">Pankaj Tripathi</keyword>, Ali Faizal, Maanvi Garoo, and Abhishek Bachchan. In just 2.5 months, more than a million people created Watchlists, and watched more trailers with the new User centre feature added on Patchwall. PatchWall Replay 2020 shows how the OTT space witnessed a major boom in 2020 with people looking for fresh and rejuvenating content across platforms.

2020 saw a 161% increase in news views: Mi India PatchWall Replay 2020

<ul><li>Our weekly virtual chat features some of the most loved creative heads and directors who take us on a walk down memory lane, talking about some of the most talked-about and well-appreciated ads they have worked on.</li><li>In the latest episode, <keyword id="271660" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ram-Madhvani">Ram Madhvani</keyword>, Founder and Director, Equinox Films spoke to us about Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite film, <keyword id="2510610" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Airtel-Wynk">Airtel Wynk</keyword>’s ad and Happydent’s well-known Palace campaign.</li></ul>For Ram Madhvani, Founder and Director, Equinox Films, the world of advertising has been a great teacher. While the ad world helped people meet people who have all become a very important part of his life, including his wife, Madhvani, during a recent conversation said that advertising had also taught him work ethic. “I get a sense of responsibility from the world of advertising. Here things happen on time. Apart from that, I have also learnt a lot about communicating with the audience and the idea that its about what you say, how you say it and how you make people feel. I have learnt a lot of the craft of reaching out to the public, thanks to advertising,” said Madhvani, on the latest episode of BTS with Insiders. Madhvani who is known for his feature films including Neerja and Let’s Talk is also credited with directing some of the most loved ads in recent times that include multiple ads for Airtel including Har Ek Friend Zaruri Hota Hai, DOcomo, Coca-Cola, Asian Paints and Bisleri among many others. On BTS with Insiders, Madhvani spoke about 3 ads that he holds dear. <div type="javascript" title="Facebook" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FAdmedia.businessinsiderindia%2Fvideos%2F265560761224557%2F&show_text=true&width=552&height=421&appId" width="552" height="421" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe>]]></cdata></div> Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite More than a year after Amazon launched Kindle in India, it came out with a campaign to introduce Indian consumers to the e-reader through a long-form film. The ad was a celebration of people who love stories and books and depicts the joy of reading through the journey of a young man who travels to a village to leave children spellbound with the stories he narrates to them, the same stories he reads on his Kindle device. Speaking about why the campaign was special for him, Madhvani said, “Since Kindle is all about stories and filmmaking is all about stories, the Kindle film was a demo film about stories. And that’s how we sold it to the client. It was a tremendously exciting opportunity for us too. The film had amazing music by Tajdar Junaid with lyrics and the voice of <keyword id="21050" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Swanand-Kirkire">Swanand Kirkire</keyword>. The ad has been shot real, without any lights. Many of the shots have been done without permissions, even the one on the plane. I was scolded by a lady on the plane too. We wanted to make the shots real. My producers were able to set this up in a way that we were able to do this in a very small unit.” The intent was also to make the film feel real and more like a documentary. “While the ad is shot in Sri Lanka, its not meant to look like Sri Lanka. We had to shoot there because we didn’t get permission in Lakshadweep. But I have this quest for the Indian eye. I wanted to understand what an Indian aesthetic is and I realized when you’re framing stuff, apart from it being emotional, its chaotic. The West has told us about the S curve, the rule of thirds or about minimal framing. I had all these conversations with <keyword id="3945289" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="raj-deepak-das">Raj Deepak Das</keyword> who is a great motivator. He said, ‘We need a new language.’ So we decided all our frames should have foreground, mid ground and background and all the compositions are going to be chaotic,” he shared. The ad was well received and had over 5.3 million views on Amazon’s official Youtube channel in just 7 days and today Kindle is seeing a huge adoption among Indian readers. Airtel Wynk In 2014, Madhvani worked with Taproot on a campaign for Airtel’s music streaming app Wynk. The setting of the film was larger-than-life. It brought together over 700 musicians under one room and featured around 14 different genres of music. All the music featured in the ad were original compositions. The campaign also featured Sanya Malhotra. “A lot of this is thanks to Agnello Dias, Gopal Vittal and others from the marketing team of Airtel who allow us these acts of madness, believe these ideas and embrace them. That only comes due to the relationships you build with people. Great work comes from a certain creative greed and I can’t lead that. I can only smell that greed. I have realized great creative directors who want great work, people like Dias, Das, Prasoon Joshi and Sajan Raj Kurup, are all mast in their own creative zones and all I did was held on to their tail. In a way they are my co-directors,” added Madhvani. The film was shot in a day. All the musical parts were rehearsed and pre-recorded. “There were so many people, we had a lot of rushes and so many different genres of music. So it was a lot to handle. However, the entire team handled all of that really well and <keyword id="194866" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hemant-Chaturvedi">Hemant Chaturvedi</keyword>, our director of photography, gave it a rock concert feel. It was also Sanya’s first ad. She came with a completely spontaneous, unfrazzled talent and I would love to work with her again,” added Madhvani. Happydent’s ‘Palace’ In 2015, Happydent’s Palace commercial was named as one of the World's 20 best ads of the 21st century by the Gunn Report. The ad was conceptualized by Prasoon Joshi and directed by Madhvani. Speaking about how Joshi’s grand vision was executed, Madhvani said, “Its great working with Prasoon because he has a poet’s mind. It was meant to be a montage film and we had presented a commercial in Delhi which wasn’t a great commercial. And I had thought he would never give me Happydent. But it was really nice of him to trust me. I asked him if we could make a narrative film rather than a montage and he agreed. It was tough. The music was done by <keyword id="73991" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shantanu-Moitra">Shantanu Moitra</keyword> and the song was sung by Kailash Kher. Composers Vishal-Shekhar were in the next studio. When the duo came to see the commercial, they said they wanted to be a part of it. So they ended up giving the Qawwali claps in the film,” added Madhvani with a laugh. He also shared the day after the ad was released, Madhvani visited the Ogilvy office and he got a standing ovation there. “That was a really sweet moment. Also, Sameer Suneja (who is now the global CEO of Perfetti Van Melle) really supported us. We showed him an 85 as well as a 60 seconder because originally it was originally supposed to be 60 seconds long. But after watching the 85 seconder, he said he did not want to watch the other version. It took a lot of courage from the client as well as from Prasoon to back the idea and back me. So I take no credit except for just made sure that I executed it in a cussed kind of way,” explained Madhvani. While the shoot was supposed to happen in some palace in Rajasthan, it finally happened in Panvel due to lack of funds. However, that hardly affected the final outcome and the ad is still one of Happydent’s most iconic ads.

I take no credit for the Happydent Palace ad, except for making sure I executed in a cussed kind of way: Ram Madhvani

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48186599.cms" />Indian <keyword id="436047" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ecommerce">eCommerce</keyword> industry, which has been growing rapidly so far could soon be hitting a speed bump. The ecommerce industry’s once ‘secret weapon’, the <keyword id="1152455" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cash-On-Delivery">Cash-on-Delivery</keyword> system, is now soon turning into their worst nightmare. The industry is in trouble as consumers are backing out after promising <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=cash-on-delivery+">cash-on-delivery</a> (COD) and returning products purchased, leaving the etailer and its supply partner with mounting losses. 
 
As far as the COD model goes, the consumer always has the option of returning the product if not satisfied, which means the etailer doesn’t receive money for the said product, and also has to bear the shipping costs of the product ‘to and fro’ that adds salt to injury! Also, flexible return policies provided by various <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=eCommerce+">eCommerce </a>sites open ways for consumers to avail as much as they can and return the product for any odd reason. 
 
According to the financial advisory firm Motilal Oswal, the number of mobile wallet users is estimated to jump five-fold from the current 3 crore to 15 crore by 2019, however, COD still accounts for 60% of all ecommerce orders. 
 
Gurudatt Nadiger who started selling household essentials this February has now realized that he has lost more than he had gained. Nadiger says, “Consumers today are not willing to wait longer than two days and might buy the product elsewhere and reject the delivery." 
 
As per a business management platform for eCommerce sellers, Sellerworx, 70% of all returns are made up of customers who do not accept deliveries, of which a majority are cash-on-delivery arrangements. In this case, merchants are still charged with the commission. 
 
As eCommerce biggies are aiming to enlist more and more merchants on their online market, the digital payment method is also gaining pace at firms like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal">Snapdeal</a>. 
 A <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> spokesperson has said, "As more customers opt for prepaid payment options, we have seen significant efficiencies being built into our digital commerce ecosystem." 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Flipkart">Flipkart</a>, India’s leading eCommerce firm which popularized the cash-on-delivery model now remains agnostic about which payment method customers choose. <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>, reportedly, is expecting to get some 1,00,000 sellers on its platform sell merchandise worth $10-12 billion by the end of this year. 
 
Mobile wallet Paytm, which launched its ecommerce platform in February, has seen its cash-on-delivery orders drop from 10% in the beginning to 5% now, said founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. "We have the least returns because consumers pay in advance, and merchants prefer that," he said, adding that this may be a trend. 
 Analysts believe that apart from the loss due to returned goods, in COD, the credit cycle also gets hampered. "In a cash transaction, merchants receive money only after a product is delivered, for the extra few days, the vendor needs more working capital. There is a cost to it," said Gaurav Gupta, senior director at <keyword id="6358918" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Deloitte">Deloitte</keyword> India. 
 
In the global eCommerce market, particularly in China, Russia and a number of Southeast Asian Countries, COD is gaining popularity. However, in China — one of the largest markets for ecommerce — the proportion of cash payments has dropped from 70% in 2009 to 30% last year, giving way to mobile payments, according to business intelligence firm Asia Briefing. 
 
Experts believe a similar trend will follow in India as well. "India is still a cash economy to a large extent, so it will not phase out immediately," said Vishal Gaur, associate dean of Cornell's Johnson School of Management. 
 
"But single workers or working couples are generally comfortable using credit cards or mobile payment options. So it's really a question of the target market." 
 
Image: thinkstock

You Searched For "vishal shekhar" and got 12 results

Elon Musk’s recent India announcement has disappointed Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Vishal Gondal

BI India Bureau

Here’s all that unfolded at Rendezvous, IIT Delhi’s biggest cultural fest

Anushree Singh

SRK Kajol to shoot one take song in Dilwale, but it’s not Bollywood’s first

Nandini Sharma

Bollywood star Akshay Kumar invests in GoQii, which took on Flipkart for its deep discounts

Sanchita Dash

RRR a stepping stone — The great Indian crossover film is still a ‘crouching tiger’

Katya Naidu

'Brahmastra', 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2', 'Darlings' lead in IIFA nominations

IANS

Apps don face masks to promote healthy practices amid COVID-19

PTI

Pulwama attacks: Amitabh Bachchan, Modi and Kejriwal pay homage to martyrs

Navdeep Yadav

Dharma’s Student Of The Year 2 and Smule join hands to host the biggest Bollywood singing contest

BI India Partner

2020 saw a 161% increase in news views: Mi India PatchWall Replay 2020

BI India Partner

I take no credit for the Happydent Palace ad, except for making sure I executed in a cussed kind of way: Ram Madhvani

Samarpita Banerjee

eTailers in trouble as COD gaining pace in Indian markets

BI India Bureau