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Tag: Ashish Mehta

  • Love and Information makes a grand return to the NCPA

    Love and Information makes a grand return to the NCPA

    Mumbai: Following the show’s sold-out success and overwhelming response from critics and audience members last April, the NCPA is delighted to bring back Love and Information to its revered Experimental Theatre this August.

    Written in 2012 by celebrated British playwright Caryl Churchill, Love and Information is a creative and experimental presentation that delves into the contemporary lives of the present society through an unconventional yet immersive theatrical experience.  

    As a series of over 50 disparate scenes divided into seven sections, the play is an exercise in reimagining the medium. The disruptive format of the script provides no stage directions, no character attributions and no notes for performance. Additionally, the play follows a non-linear narrative and is devoid of central characters, emphasising the cumulative impact of diverse, brief scenes ranging from seconds to minutes. The scenes are of varying lengths and the structure allows for the viewer to narrow in on a world oversaturated with information. The vignettes mirror the rapid pace of channel-hopping or scrolling through social media, highlighting potential implications for relationships in an era dominated by instant gratification and short attention spans.

    The play doesn’t limit itself to its technical uniqueness but also promises to challenge the audience by addressing a wide range of subjects covered from mental illness to privacy erosion to memory atrophy that cloud modern-day lifestyles.

    It has been adapted for Indian audiences in English and other regional languages including Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi. It features a talented cast including Ashish Mehta, Dusha, Kashish Saluja, Lovleen Misra, Mahesh Saini, Mallika Singh Hanspal, Mohit Solanki, Mrinmayee Godbole, Prajesh Kashyap, Rachel Dsouza, Rytasha Rathore, and Siddhesh Dhuri.

    Don’t miss this immersive theatrical presentation in Experimental Theatre at the NCPA, Mumbai.

  • Dentsu buys Pune’s Sokrati, rebrands Merkle India

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sokrati, India’s leading data-driven performance marketing and analytics agency, launching Merkle in the country – the first launch of the global data-driven performance marketing agency in the Asia Pacific region.

    The deal is expected to close this week.

    Post-acquisition, Sokrati will be rebranded as Merkle Sokrati, further scaling Dentsu Aegis India’s data and performance marketing offering.

    Founded in 2009, Sokrati is headquartered in Pune and employs a staff of 120 digital marketing professionals. The company develops its integrated marketing offering with the help of data analytics, CRM based marketing and the integration of offline data and hyperlocal marketing, with a focus on the automotive, telecommunications and banking and financial services sectors. It offers digital and performance marketing with deep specialisation in e-commerce, with service lines encompassing search and performance, social, retargeting, display and video production, and product ads.

    Nick Waters, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific, said: “India is the fastest growing large economy in the world. It is on track for 400 million smartphone users, making it second only to China, and has emerged as a major e-commerce market. Sokrati’s strength in mobile, e-commerce, data, analytics and performance media provides an ideal basis from which to launch Merkle in India as we develop the roll-out plan for Asia Pacific. We will develop the unique M1 addressable media platform for India as a next step.”

    Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia, said: “Sokrati has strong ability in CRM and data to accelerate the launch of Merkle in India and further bolster our data practice, which is becoming increasingly critical in all aspects of our business. It will also give our clients added value as we bring CRM and data into the heart of our digital offering. With Dentsu Aegis Network India already being a leader in performance marketing services, with iProspect and the recent acquisition of SVG, the complementary addition of Sokrati will enable the network to take a clearly dominant position in the rapidly growing Indian digital advertising market. With Sokrati on board, we will now be more than twice the size of any of our competitors in search and performance. Out of 3,500 staff in India, about 1,500 will be digital professionals, and over 35% of our revenue – a market-leading statistic – will come from digital.”

    Over the past four years, Sokrati was consecutively ranked Deloitte’s top 50 Technology Companies in India. In addition, it has won Google India awards, including Best Quality Accounts and Largest Increase in Overall Revenue, consecutively in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

    Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle Asia Pacific, said: “Given Sokrati’s strong credentials and proven capabilities in data & analytics, Sokrati will be in the ideal position to give strong footing to Merkle’s launch in the Indian market, in line with Merkle’s global growth strategy. India is strategic to Dentsu Aegis Network and is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.

    “Sokrati’s data DNA, analytics-driven and performance approach to digital marketing make it a natural extension for Merkle into the Indian market. Furthermore, they are focused on expanding their CRM capabilities and connecting these capabilities across media and channels. Merkle is in a strong position to support this expansion and Sokrati’s ecommerce-heavy client base is data rich, innovative, and ready to benefit from Sokrati’s push into cross-channel marketing.”

    The co-founders of Sokrati – Ashish Mehta, CEO, Anubhav Sonthalia, Enterprise Business Head, and Santosh Kumar Gannavarapu, Head of Innovations, will be joining the Dentsu Aegis Network leadership team in India. Anubhav Sonthalia will be the CEO of Merkle Sokrati and report to Vivek Bhargava, CEO of Performance, Dentsu Aegis Network India, and Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle Asia Pacific.

    Anubhav Sonthalia, Co-Founder & Enterprise Business Head of Sokrati, said: “Our business is built on a highly data-driven culture, supported by the strong passion for digital and performance marketing from myself and two other founders – Ashish and Santosh. It is not often you meet amazing talent with the same drive and mindset, and we could not be more pleased to be joining forces with world-leading agency Merkle, as we expand our global footprint as part of Dentsu Aegis Network. It has been an incredible journey from the start, and we are all very excited about the next chapter for Sokrati.”

  • Satyadev Dubey’s friends complete his dream Marathi film

    Satyadev Dubey’s friends complete his dream Marathi film

    MUMBAI: Before he could expire, Satyadev Dubey was helming a Marathi film about landsharks and an old-age home inspired by Chandrashekhar Phansalkar’s play Ram Naam Satya Hai.

    But he couldn’t complete the project. After his demise on 25 December, his friends from the industry have come together to complete the film.

    “The film is ready. Dubey wanted to start dubbing. But one fine day, he decided to make radical changes. We had some conversations about the changes, but he never made notes of his ideas,” said Dubey’s close associate Sunil Shanbag in a statement.

    The film is a story about builders who are threatening to take over an old- age home.

    Practically, everybody who Dubey was close to like Sonali Kulkarni, Makrand Deshpande, Akash Khurana, Shishir Sharma, Suhas Joshi, Ashish Mehta and even some of his friends from the MIG club have contributed to the making of the project.

    Apart from the actors, various people from the theatre and film fraternity pitched in to support his film.