MAM
DUBAI BASED INDIAN BUSINESSMAN TAKING BOLLYWOOD BEYOND BORDERS
Muscat : Bollywood has become a melting pot of bringing together different ethnicities, cultures, traditions and fans from all over the world. Addressing the rage among audience across borders, world renowned Danube Group re-launched FILMFARE Middle East Magazine with celebrated actress Deepika Padukona along with director and Producer Karan Johar and many others in 2018, with the aim to reignite the magic of silver screen and bring the best of B-town to the Arab world. Celebrating a successful first year, the glittering event will have an air of class, luxury, panache and some truly spectacular moments commemorated by the reigning super stars from Indian cinema ranging from Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Swara Bhaskar, Tabu to Rajkumar Rao, Jim Sarbh, Ali Quli Mirza, Ishaan Khatter and Jhanvi kapoor at Shangri la barr al jissah on 29th March 2019. Omani singer Haitham Mohammed Rafi will be opening the evening.
The anticipation around the event is gaining momentum as not only the reigning but the actors like Shatrughna Sinha, Madhu Bhandarkar, Jackie Shroff, Asha Parekh, Raza Murad, Shan, Padmini KolKolhapure, from yesteryears will gather on the festive evening and the past will walk alongside the present at the Red Carpet to cheer the lauding fans. If this was not all, the audience are in for a treat with a curated list of power packed performances by Nora Fatehi, twin singer Sukriti Kakkar and Prakrati Kakkar and evergreen Bappi Lahiri, Kubra Sait, Aman Verma and DJ Scorpio. The event will witness an amalgamation of golden years with the talent of millennials as legendary singer Bappi Lahiri who is celebrating 50 golden years of music in cinema will set the mood for the evening with some melodious medleys.
Rizwan Sajan, Founder and the Chairman of Danube Group shared, “After breaking the record of 1.3 billion dollars’ turnover in 2018, we have been growing ever since and we credit this success to our fans and fraternity across the world. Our only strategy is reaching to the right people and keeping our engagement simple. We are thrilled to be associated with one of the biggest industries in the world which reaches out to audience across borders and ethnicity.”
FILMFARE Middle East unveiled at Bollywood Parks Dubai at Raj Mahal Theatre on 30th March, 2018 in its brand new avatar caters predominantly to the large Asian expatriate population in the UAE and the GCC, as well as a significant Arab population who love their Bollywood cinema and celebrities. The brand brings India’s biggest Bollywood film and celebrity content to the audience month on month; and with it, the rich legacy of Indian cinema to the Arab world.
Sharing about the vision to re-launch the magazine to the Asian audience, Mr. Rizwan shared, “Filmfare Middle East is a cult brand and it was my dream to revive this brand. We started this venture because we believed that this magazine holds an essence for the cinema and a huge readership among its target audience. We’re grateful to our readers and advertisers for their loyal support as this one year marks the success of our vision to create one-stop content provider for Bollywood cinema.”
About FILMFARE Middle East:
Filmfare ME sets the benchmark for content in the Middle East. It has been launched by a group that is visionary and foresighted about its business. Under Starz Media Incorporation supported by the Danube Group, the magazine has made a mark in Middle East. Also, it’s the only Bollywood magazine in Arabic language.
MAM
Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement
Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted
MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.
The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.
The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.
Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.
Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.
For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.
More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.
The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.
In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.
Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.
“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.
The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.
Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.
The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.
MAM
Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships
At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.
Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.
Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.
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