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India’s first masculine positivity show ‘Be A Man, Yaar!’ makes history

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Mumbai: GenZ-driven youth media and impact organisation, Yuvaa is proud to announce that its trailblazing talk show, ‘Be A Man, Yaar,’ gained international recognition with a prestigious feature on the iconic Times Square. With a mission to provide men a comfortable space to express themselves, host of the show Nikhil Taneja is now all set to cater to the international audiences.

Redefining the traditional masculinity and promoting positive gender roles, ‘Be A Man, Yaar’ has achieved continued success in two consecutive years with some heartfelt conversations with the trailblazers from the Indian Entertainment Industry like Karan Johar, Vicky Kaushal, Kartik Aaryan, Bhuvan Bam, Zakir Khan, Javed Akhtar, Naseeruddin Shah, and more. The feature on esteemed Times Square marks as a significant milestone in the show’s mission to showcase what it means to be a boy, a man, and a human.

With the feature in International landscape in association with their audio partner Amazon Music, Yuvaa is ready to take the show to global South Asian audiences and spark meaningful conversations that resonate with audiences globally. Starting with the aim to make every Indian man feel less alone by making them feel more heard, more seen, and more represented, the show now aims to represent the vulnerable stories of men across the globe.

Introducing ‘Be A Man, Yaar’ to an international audience, Nikhil Taneja also hosted a screening in New York for the South Asian media and entertainment community, in collaboration with renowned ‘desi’ publication, Brown Girl Magazine. Nikhil showcase the newly launched Season 2 of the series, set the context for the show and giving insights on how its season 1 was #1 podcast on Amazon Music last year and its Times Square feature. In a QnA with Trisha Sakhuja-Walia, founder of Brown Girl Magazine, Nikhil also spoke about his own journey with mental health and masculinity that led him to creating the show.

Hosting notable names like Shivani Bafna, Kaneez Surka, Sudeep Kanwal, Hira Mustafa, Pulkit Datta, Hiba Beg, amongst others, the event focused on playing a few segments from the episodes featuring Karan Johar, Vicky Kaushal, Bhuvan Bam and Javed Akhtar giving a cross-section and diverse flavour of the many facets of the show, and its idea to start a conversation around masculine positivity.

On the Times Square milestone, Nikhil Taneja said, “It was a proud moment, as an Indian, to see our show on a billboard in Times Square, New York, alongside that of talk show icon Jon Stewart. I have the deepest gratitude to the team at Amazon Music, all our guests, partner and of course the incredible audience, that’s turned ‘Be A Man, Yaar!’ from just another chat show into a movement, a call for change, and an invitation to explore the depths of positive, vulnerable and authentic masculinity. The show’s international recognition is a testament to the power of ‘Be A Man, Yaar’ in challenging traditional gender norms and promoting a more inclusive understanding of masculinity.”

The second season of show features guests like Javed Akhtar, Kartik Aaryan, Bhuvan Bam, Manish Malhotra, Rohan Bopanna, Dr Vikas Divyakirti, Gajraj Rao, Boman Irani, Imran Khan, Ankush Bahuguna, Viraj Ghelani, Aryan Pasha and Prateek Kuhad, in an engaging, honest and candid conversation with Nikhil.

New episodes of the thought-provoking talk show #BeAManYaar, presented by The Man Company are now live on Yuvaa’s YouTube channel, and the extended unfiltered versions of the episodes are exclusively available on Amazon Music.

iWorld

Netflix celebrates a decade in India with Shah Rukh Khan-narrated tribute film

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MUMBAI: Netflix is celebrating ten years in India with a slick anniversary film voiced by Shah Rukh Khan, a nostalgic sprint through a decade that rewired how the country watches stories. The campaign doubles as both tribute and reminder: streaming did not just enter Indian homes, it quietly rearranged them.

Roll back to 2016 and television still dictated schedules. Viewers waited weeks, sometimes months, for favourite films to appear on prime time. Family-friendly filters narrowed options further, and piracy often filled the gaps. Then Netflix arrived, softly but decisively, carrying a catalogue of international titles rarely seen in Indian theatres and placing them a click away. Old blockbusters and new releases suddenly coexisted on the same digital shelf.

The platform’s real inflection point came in 2018 with Sacred Games, a breakout series that refused to dilute India’s grit for global comfort. Audiences embraced its unvarnished tone, signalling readiness for stories that did not need box-office validation or censorship compromises. What followed was a steady procession of relatable narratives. Competitive-exam anxiety fuelled Kota Factory. College relationships unfolded in Mismatched. Everyday pressures, not grand spectacle, proved bankable.

Language barriers thinned as foreign series arrived with Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubbing, expanding viewership beyond urban English-speaking pockets. Marketing mirrored the shift. For global releases such as Squid Game, Netflix leaned on regional creators and influencers to localise buzz and make international content feel native.

The library widened beyond fiction. Documentaries stepped out of festival circuits into living rooms. Stand-up comedians found scale. Established filmmakers, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali with Heeramandi, embraced the platform’s long-form canvas. Subscriber numbers swelled to 12.37 million in India, according to Demandsage, and behaviour followed suit. Late-night binges became routine. Friday release rituals loosened. Watch parties turned solitary screens into social events.

Economics demanded adjustment. Early subscription pricing carried a premium aura that deterred many households. Over time, Netflix recalibrated plans to align with Indian spending sensibilities, conceding that accessibility is as critical as content. To extend momentum around marquee titles, the platform also experimented with split-season releases, stretching anticipation and watch time.

The anniversary film, narrated by Shah Rukh Khan, captures the linguistic shift that mirrors the cultural one: from “Netflix pe kya dekha?” to “Netflix pe kya dekhein?” The question moved from recounting the past to planning the next binge. In ten years, Netflix morphed from foreign entrant to familiar fixture, exporting Indian stories abroad while importing global ones home. The remote no longer waits; it chooses, clicks and moves on. In the streaming age, patience is out, playlists are in, and the next episode is always one tap away.

 

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e-commerce

Tulasi Mohan Padavala elevated to Associate Director at Blinkit

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Gurugram: Blinkit has elevated Tulasi Mohan Padavala to associate director, capping a three-year climb inside the quick-commerce firm and signalling confidence in an executive steeped in ecommerce, category management and on-ground sales execution.

Padavala shared the update publicly, saying he was “happy to share” the promotion, a succinct announcement that nevertheless marks a notable step up within one of India’s fastest-moving delivery platforms. The new role follows nearly three years at Blinkit, where he most recently served as senior category manager from February 2023 to January 2026, focusing on strategic sourcing and assortment planning.

The promotion places Padavala in Blinkit’s mid-to-senior leadership tier at a time when the company continues to expand its rapid-delivery footprint and sharpen category economics. His brief tenure as associate director began in January 2026, with responsibilities expected to span category growth, supplier strategy and cross-functional execution.

Before Blinkit, Padavala spent a short but intensive stint as global ecommerce manager at Wholsum Foods, the parent of Slurrp Farm and Millé, between November 2022 and February 2023. There he worked on digital marketplace expansion and online retail operations, adding a direct-to-consumer and international ecommerce layer to his résumé.

A longer stretch at Amazon shaped much of his cross-border commerce experience. As business development manager for Amazon’s India Global Selling programme from February 2021 to October 2022, Padavala helped Indian D2C brands enter the North American market. His remit ranged from seller recruitment and category revenue management to coordination with industry bodies, regulators and logistics partners. Key outcomes included launching more than 50 D2C consumable brands in the United States, driving a cumulative gross merchandise sales figure of $1m in FY21-22, tripling sales for participating brands during Prime Day through marketing and visibility levers, growing the monthly recurring revenue of more than 10 newly launched sellers from zero to an average $20,000 each, and negotiating ecommerce partnerships that reduced initial launch costs by 20 per cent.

Padavala’s earlier career was forged in the field rather than the dashboard. At Coffee Day Group, he spent close to five years across multiple sales leadership roles. As sales manager in the Greater Delhi Area from July 2019 to January 2021, he led vending-machine and consumables sales for small and medium enterprises with a team of more than 15 assistant and territory sales managers, managed over 2,000 clients, drove upselling and cross-selling, maintained channel partnerships and ensured timely collections. Prior to that, he served as area sales manager in Delhi between May 2018 and June 2019, handling south and east Delhi markets, and earlier in Hyderabad from April 2016 to May 2018, where he led Andhra Pradesh sales for the vending division, supervised service and logistics functions and managed a base of more than 600 machines with a four-member team.

His professional arc began with internships that combined analytics and process improvement. At Boehringer Ingelheim in 2015, Padavala analysed the impact of brand extension on the drug Pradaxa, identified key performance indicators through market research and assessed sales forecasts, recommendations that drew positive responses in pilot studies. Earlier, at Genpact in 2014, he automated manual sales-order backlog reporting using VBA and Excel, increasing efficiency by 800 per cent, and worked on benchmarking metrics within supply-chain planning processes.

From automating spreadsheets to scaling cross-border ecommerce and now steering quick-commerce categories, Padavala’s trajectory tracks the evolution of India’s retail economy itself. Blinkit’s bet is clear: blend data, discipline and delivery speed. The promotion formalises what his career already suggests. In the race for instant commerce, experience that moves from warehouse floors to global dashboards is no longer optional. It is the engine.

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e-commerce

Bharatpe plays a super over as Rohit Sharma fronts T20 push

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MUMBAI: When the stakes rise and seconds matter, even payments need a match-winning finish. That’s the cue for Bharatpe, which has rolled out Super Over, a nationwide campaign led by Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma, timed neatly ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

The campaign draws a straight line between the pulse of cricket and the pace of everyday digital payments. A new brand film taps into India’s emotional bond with the game, while positioning UPI as the quiet hero that keeps daily transactions ticking along at match speed.

As part of Super Over, users making payments via Bharatpe UPI can bag daily rewards ranging from match tickets and signed merchandise to a chance to watch a T20 World Cup fixture alongside Rohit Sharma himself. Both consumers and merchants are also assured Zillion Coins on every eligible transaction, adding a little extra sparkle to routine payments.

Behind the scenes, Bharatpe is also batting for safety. The platform is backed by Bharatpe Shield, a fraud-protection layer designed to offer enhanced security, comprehensive coverage and dedicated support aimed at helping users transact with greater confidence as digital payments scale up.

Announcing the campaign, Bharatpe head of marketing Shilpi Kapoor said Super Over mirrors the aspirations of everyday Indians, combining speed, security and instant rewards to make UPI transactions feel both reliable and rewarding.

The campaign will play out across digital platforms, social media and on-ground activations nationwide, staying live through the T20 World Cup season proof that in cricket, as in payments, timing is everything.

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