ITV

Tag: B. Saikumar

  • Arre appoints Viacom18’s Jaideep Singh as director

    MUMBAI: Entertainment business veteran and former Viacom18 Integrated Network Solutions head, Jaideep Singh has been roped in by Arré as a director on its management team. Singh will guide the platform’s monetisation drive/strategy, launch Arré’s music vertical and contribute his experience towards expanding other content verticals as well. He will be working closely with founders B. Saikumar, Ajay Chacko and RayC as Arré expands its content footprint as India’s fastest growing original content brand on digital.

    Saikumar said “We are delighted to have Jaideep join us at Arré to lead our business efforts as we expand and strengthen our content and platform. Jaideep brings invaluable experience and skills with respect to IP creation and monetisation, to further our growth objective, as we enter into an exciting year 2 of Arré.”

    Arré has built a distinct voice by its unique take on culture and society using stories, doodles and audio besides video. It is one of the country’s fastest growing digital brands on social media besides being widely distributed across a range of domestic and international platforms like SonyLIV, YuppTV, Vodafone Play, Ola Prime Play, TF1 Xtra (OTT Network in France) etc. in addition to its own website and apps on IOS and Android.

    Singh added, “Developing sustained business models in the entertainment sector has always been my passion. The explosive growth that Arré has witnessed as a brand is a story in itself and I am very excited to be part of this journey. My current ventures, Volocity Media and Ignition Creative will also help in creating some state-of-the-art engagement interfaces at Arré.”

    He is currently partnered with two US based companies as a part of his entrepreneurial venture. He is the chairman of Ignition Creative (APAC and Middle East Board), an integrated marketing agency and the managing director, APAC and Middle East, for Volocity Media, a technology innovation group working in the field of developing digital products and platforms for building social communities.

    Singh holds to his credit 20 years of diverse experience across marketing, media and entertainment. He has worked with notable companies, including, JK Tyres, Confederation of India Industries and Radio Mirchi. His last stint was a stellar 10-year position at Viacom18 India, where, as senior vice president and business head of Integrated Network Solutions, he launched a host of domestic and global impact IPs, secured strategic media partnerships with brands, government sectors and engaged with entertainment and media divisions across the globe. He established the INS and Live Viacom18 divisions of Viacom18, which boast of national and regional properties like the global EDM festival Vh1 Supersonic, MTV Xtreme, MTV Bollyland, the Indie artist festival EMERGE, the comedy festival Chuckle Festival, and SPIRO, which dominated the subcontinent with 300+ events and produced hundreds of hours of content.

  • Arré premieres ‘The Adventures Of Abbaas Mastan’ on Facebook

    MUMBAI: Arre is all set to take the viewers to the wildly fictionalised world of two film students on one global mission – to make the world’s most viral video. The Adventures Of Abbaas Mastan is a first-of-its-kind format, presented in the new universal language of gibberish where the entire cast of characters speak absolute nonsense while still making perfect sense.

    Led entirely by subtitles, the series is a unique, language-agnostic show that can adapt itself to any expression without getting lost in translation. Currently featuring English subtitles, the show will soon be available in Hindi and other languages.

    Arré founder B. Saikumar said, “The original idea behind the show was to do a humourous takedown of two of the world’s most pressing issues – terrorism and obsession with internet fame. With ‘The Adventures of Abbaas Mastan’, we’ve tried a whole new format based on gibberish-speak. The series captures the attempt of these blundering, well-meaning film buffs, who attempt to make a viral video in captivity.”

    Abbaas and Mastan, fresh out of film school and die-hard fans of Karan Johar and Quentin Tarantino, are being held by a terrorist organisation to deliver 3 million views on a video. They try to channel the art of their masters as they plan the world’s most viral video… the beheading of a gora kaafir.

    The show is a comedy of errors with two peaceable and lovable idiots at the centre, who are trying to find their way to Internet fame and remain true to their filmmaking idols in Hollywood and Bollywood… all the while desperately trying to avoid the actual beheading. Bhuvan Arora and Vyom Sharma win hearts with their portrayals of the peace-loving Abbaas and Mastan who are familiar with only one kind of shooting – the type that happens with a camera.

    “When people come across posts and videos on Facebook that strongly resonate with them, they further share it with their friends. Good topical humour definitely strikes a chord with most and is a great conversation starter. We are excited to see how the Arré community on Facebook has built itself so strongly as a premium content destination with refreshing humorous content of a social nature. We wish them the very best for this series!” added FB India strategic partnership development -entertainment Biswamitra.

    Season one of The Adventures Of Abbaas Mastan consists of four chapters and two episodes are live now.

  • Arre’s ‘A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend’ wins at WebFest

    Arre’s ‘A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend’ wins at WebFest

    MUMBAI: Arré’s first web series A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend has won the best overall web series and best suspense/thriller at South Florida WebFest in Miami. The show has been selected from among a selected screening of the best 27 global web series and short films that were shortlisted.

    A.I.SHA, Artificial Intelligence Simulated Humanoid Assistant (A.I.SHA) is India’s first AI-based digital series. The story pivots around the widely debated and chilling premise of what happens when artificial intelligence develops feelings and consciousness. Sam, the show’s protagonist, creates A.I.SHA, without realising the consequences, and thus begins a series of events that rapidly spirals out of control.

    “I am happy that A.I.SHA has broken new ground in the web series space in India and globally. We’re now excited about Season 2 and hopefully will pack in enough thrills and chills for our viewers,” said Arre founder B. Saikumar.

    The series is directed by Sahir Raza, written by Raghu Ram and Harman Singha and produced for Arré by Monozygotic. The show was presented by Gillette Flexball. To bring technical authenticity, the series has also partnered with Palo Alto Networks, a next-generation security company, as Cyber Security Advisers and Dell as the Technology Partner.

    Following the resounding success of season 1, Arré also launched a Telugu version of the show in association with Yupp TV and also plans to release a Tamil version of the show to reach out to a wider audience.

    The team has also begun pre-production work for season 2, which is planned for launch early next year.

  • Arre’s ‘A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend’ wins at WebFest

    Arre’s ‘A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend’ wins at WebFest

    MUMBAI: Arré’s first web series A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend has won the best overall web series and best suspense/thriller at South Florida WebFest in Miami. The show has been selected from among a selected screening of the best 27 global web series and short films that were shortlisted.

    A.I.SHA, Artificial Intelligence Simulated Humanoid Assistant (A.I.SHA) is India’s first AI-based digital series. The story pivots around the widely debated and chilling premise of what happens when artificial intelligence develops feelings and consciousness. Sam, the show’s protagonist, creates A.I.SHA, without realising the consequences, and thus begins a series of events that rapidly spirals out of control.

    “I am happy that A.I.SHA has broken new ground in the web series space in India and globally. We’re now excited about Season 2 and hopefully will pack in enough thrills and chills for our viewers,” said Arre founder B. Saikumar.

    The series is directed by Sahir Raza, written by Raghu Ram and Harman Singha and produced for Arré by Monozygotic. The show was presented by Gillette Flexball. To bring technical authenticity, the series has also partnered with Palo Alto Networks, a next-generation security company, as Cyber Security Advisers and Dell as the Technology Partner.

    Following the resounding success of season 1, Arré also launched a Telugu version of the show in association with Yupp TV and also plans to release a Tamil version of the show to reach out to a wider audience.

    The team has also begun pre-production work for season 2, which is planned for launch early next year.

  • Arré to launch ‘Re-Gender’, ‘Official Chukyagiri’ & ‘Abbas-Mastan’

    Arré to launch ‘Re-Gender’, ‘Official Chukyagiri’ & ‘Abbas-Mastan’

    MUMBAI: UDigital’s digital media brand, Arré has been in the news for its bold content after announcing its first digital reality series based on social experiment Ho Ja Re- Gender. The ten months old brand is all set to take entertainment level a notch higher with its two more series Official Chukyagiri and Abbas-Mastan.

    Co-founded by Ronnie Screwvala, B. Saikumar and Ajay Chacko in October 2015, the platform saw the exit of Screwvala in April 2016. The other two founders viz. B. Saikumar, Ajay Chacko along with Enam group acquired the residual stake held by Unilazer Ventures and Screwvala.

    Ho Ja Re-Gender has 20 episodes with the first episode to go on- air from July 23. It is the series is India’s first digital reality series based on a social experiment where six young people find out what it’s like to be the opposite sex. Three men and women will undergo the experience of a lifetime by transforming themselves into the opposite gender. Complete with prosthetics, makeup and clothes, they will role play the other gender through various everyday tasks and special missions inside and outside the house they live in.

    The series is about understanding what it truly means to be male or female in our times and what better way to understand it than becoming the opposite sex?

    Re-Gender, based on a licensed international format from Armoza Formats, comes to India after a successful run in Iran and Germany and will be hosted in India by popular television celebrity Ranvijay Singha and his wife. It also features Rithvik Dhanjani, Karan Wahi, Raghu Ram and Bharti Singh.

    Another series Official Chukyagiri is a slice-of-life fiction web series that is an emotionally charged yet humorous take on life in corporate India viewed through the eyes of an intern.

    Speaking about the content strategy, Arre founder and managing director B. Saikumar said, “We wanted to launch Arré with a differentiated property, one that was entertaining, contextual and clutter-breaking. I am happy that A.I.SHA was the right show to launch with, since the viewer response has been overwhelming and it has set a good benchmark for our upcoming shows. We’re excited about Season 2 and hopefully will pack in enough thrills and chills for our viewers.”

    Third series, Abbas-Mastan is a show about two peace loving terrorists who are also movie buffs. Also producer of A.I.SHA, Raghu Ram, Founder of Monozygotic announced the launch of the show’s season two.

  • Arré to launch ‘Re-Gender’, ‘Official Chukyagiri’ & ‘Abbas-Mastan’

    Arré to launch ‘Re-Gender’, ‘Official Chukyagiri’ & ‘Abbas-Mastan’

    MUMBAI: UDigital’s digital media brand, Arré has been in the news for its bold content after announcing its first digital reality series based on social experiment Ho Ja Re- Gender. The ten months old brand is all set to take entertainment level a notch higher with its two more series Official Chukyagiri and Abbas-Mastan.

    Co-founded by Ronnie Screwvala, B. Saikumar and Ajay Chacko in October 2015, the platform saw the exit of Screwvala in April 2016. The other two founders viz. B. Saikumar, Ajay Chacko along with Enam group acquired the residual stake held by Unilazer Ventures and Screwvala.

    Ho Ja Re-Gender has 20 episodes with the first episode to go on- air from July 23. It is the series is India’s first digital reality series based on a social experiment where six young people find out what it’s like to be the opposite sex. Three men and women will undergo the experience of a lifetime by transforming themselves into the opposite gender. Complete with prosthetics, makeup and clothes, they will role play the other gender through various everyday tasks and special missions inside and outside the house they live in.

    The series is about understanding what it truly means to be male or female in our times and what better way to understand it than becoming the opposite sex?

    Re-Gender, based on a licensed international format from Armoza Formats, comes to India after a successful run in Iran and Germany and will be hosted in India by popular television celebrity Ranvijay Singha and his wife. It also features Rithvik Dhanjani, Karan Wahi, Raghu Ram and Bharti Singh.

    Another series Official Chukyagiri is a slice-of-life fiction web series that is an emotionally charged yet humorous take on life in corporate India viewed through the eyes of an intern.

    Speaking about the content strategy, Arre founder and managing director B. Saikumar said, “We wanted to launch Arré with a differentiated property, one that was entertaining, contextual and clutter-breaking. I am happy that A.I.SHA was the right show to launch with, since the viewer response has been overwhelming and it has set a good benchmark for our upcoming shows. We’re excited about Season 2 and hopefully will pack in enough thrills and chills for our viewers.”

    Third series, Abbas-Mastan is a show about two peace loving terrorists who are also movie buffs. Also producer of A.I.SHA, Raghu Ram, Founder of Monozygotic announced the launch of the show’s season two.

  • Arre to launch new series ‘A.I.SHA – My Virtual Girlfriend’

    Arre to launch new series ‘A.I.SHA – My Virtual Girlfriend’

    MUMBAI: Arre, the digital media brand co-founded by Ronnie Screwvala, B. Saikumar and Ajay Chacko will premiere a new sci-fi thriller series titled A.I.SHA – My Virtual Girlfriend. The platform has associated with Gillette Flexball for the series which will release on 9 April 2016.

    The web series is the story of a relationship between a man and woman…only, the woman is the first-of-its-kind Artificial Intelligence Simulated Humanoid Assistant (A.I.SHA), created by the show’s protagonist, Sam.

    Tech geek and coder Sameer Luthra (Sam) is frustrated with life and his soul-sucking boss (Sid, played by Raghu Ram). A.I.SHA, his secret project, is what keeps him going. A.I.SHA is the best thing that ever happened to Sam. A.I.SHA is beautiful, A.I.SHA is smart. A.I.SHA is also crazy. Can A.I.SHA redeem or ruin Sam’s life? Do we truly understand the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI)? What if AI was to become self-aware? Is it man and machine or man versus machine?

    Produced by Raghu Ram and Rajiv Laxman through their first production venture, Monozygotic, Ram will also be seen playing a pivotal role in the show. “I’m very excited to step into creating fiction for the first time in my career with A.I.SHA. With the arrival of a new-age digital media destination like Arré, there is a scope for telling fresh, new, and edgy stories for young people that’ll never be told on TV. I hope the new viewers like what we’ve worked so hard to create,” said Ram.

    Commenting on the association and the initiative, Gillette India country marketing manager Karthik Srivatsan said, “Gillette is extremely proud to collaborate with Arré in launching, A.I.SHA, India’s first digital sci-fi thriller web series. The partnership resonates the core belief at the heart of Arré and Gillette. While Gillette’s core philosophy has always been to innovate, to serve evolving consumer needs, Arré has come up with this modern-age content destination in line with evolving viewership patterns. While, with the recent launch of Gillette FlexBall, Gillette has rebuilt the modern man’s shaving with the revolutionary FlexBall technology that has been specifically engineered to provide a three dimensional motion for the ultimate shaving experience, A.I.SHA is the first-of-its-kind clutter-breaking online series, which we are sure will keep the audience glued.”

    To bring technical authenticity, the series has also partnered with Palo Alto Networks, the next-generation security company,as the cyber security advisers and Dell as the technology partner.

    Watch the trailer of the web series:

    A.I.SHA #MyVirtualGirlfriend Trailer | An Arre Original Web Se…

    Sam is a 26-year-old app developer, a loner and a loser, until he creates the most beautiful app of his life. His revenge on his bullying boss, Sid, is his magnum opus – A.I.SHA. But all is not perfect with his perfect creation. What happens when the app gets a mind of her own? Sam can run, but can he hide from his Virtual Girlfriend? #MyVirtualGirlfriend

    Posted by Arre on Tuesday, April 5, 2016

  • Arre to launch new series ‘A.I.SHA – My Virtual Girlfriend’

    Arre to launch new series ‘A.I.SHA – My Virtual Girlfriend’

    MUMBAI: Arre, the digital media brand co-founded by Ronnie Screwvala, B. Saikumar and Ajay Chacko will premiere a new sci-fi thriller series titled A.I.SHA – My Virtual Girlfriend. The platform has associated with Gillette Flexball for the series which will release on 9 April 2016.

    The web series is the story of a relationship between a man and woman…only, the woman is the first-of-its-kind Artificial Intelligence Simulated Humanoid Assistant (A.I.SHA), created by the show’s protagonist, Sam.

    Tech geek and coder Sameer Luthra (Sam) is frustrated with life and his soul-sucking boss (Sid, played by Raghu Ram). A.I.SHA, his secret project, is what keeps him going. A.I.SHA is the best thing that ever happened to Sam. A.I.SHA is beautiful, A.I.SHA is smart. A.I.SHA is also crazy. Can A.I.SHA redeem or ruin Sam’s life? Do we truly understand the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI)? What if AI was to become self-aware? Is it man and machine or man versus machine?

    Produced by Raghu Ram and Rajiv Laxman through their first production venture, Monozygotic, Ram will also be seen playing a pivotal role in the show. “I’m very excited to step into creating fiction for the first time in my career with A.I.SHA. With the arrival of a new-age digital media destination like Arré, there is a scope for telling fresh, new, and edgy stories for young people that’ll never be told on TV. I hope the new viewers like what we’ve worked so hard to create,” said Ram.

    Commenting on the association and the initiative, Gillette India country marketing manager Karthik Srivatsan said, “Gillette is extremely proud to collaborate with Arré in launching, A.I.SHA, India’s first digital sci-fi thriller web series. The partnership resonates the core belief at the heart of Arré and Gillette. While Gillette’s core philosophy has always been to innovate, to serve evolving consumer needs, Arré has come up with this modern-age content destination in line with evolving viewership patterns. While, with the recent launch of Gillette FlexBall, Gillette has rebuilt the modern man’s shaving with the revolutionary FlexBall technology that has been specifically engineered to provide a three dimensional motion for the ultimate shaving experience, A.I.SHA is the first-of-its-kind clutter-breaking online series, which we are sure will keep the audience glued.”

    To bring technical authenticity, the series has also partnered with Palo Alto Networks, the next-generation security company,as the cyber security advisers and Dell as the technology partner.

    Watch the trailer of the web series:

    A.I.SHA #MyVirtualGirlfriend Trailer | An Arre Original Web Se…

    Sam is a 26-year-old app developer, a loner and a loser, until he creates the most beautiful app of his life. His revenge on his bullying boss, Sid, is his magnum opus – A.I.SHA. But all is not perfect with his perfect creation. What happens when the app gets a mind of her own? Sam can run, but can he hide from his Virtual Girlfriend? #MyVirtualGirlfriend

    Posted by Arre on Tuesday, April 5, 2016

  • Arré’s first digital sitcom ‘I Don’t Watch TV’ to launch in March

    Arré’s first digital sitcom ‘I Don’t Watch TV’ to launch in March

    MUMBAI: UDigital’s digital media brand Arré, which is co-founded by Ronnie Screwvala, B. Saikumar and Ajay Chacko, is all set to launch a wild comedy on the evolving TV entertainment industry in March this year. 

    The trailer of the web series titled I Don’t Watch TV was launched on YouTube on 11 February, while the five episodic weekly series will kick-start in March on YouTube as well as on Arré.

    As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the show is produced by Nakul Mehta’s Timbuktu Films and features other eminent actors from the industry like Drashti Dhami, Karan Wahi, Karan Patel, Rithvik Dhanjani, Kritika Kamra, Rajeev Masand, Disha Parmar, Aneri Vajani, Riddhi Dogra, Mishkat Verma, Mukesh Chhabra and Sana Sheikh in never seen before avatars.

    The link of the trailer is: 

    Directed by Ajay Singh, the show gives a close personal look at the daily soap’s world through Mehta’s eyes.

    When contacted, actor turned producer Mehta voiced, “I Don’t Watch TV is something that I have enjoyed working for. I wanted to share this with the audiences for a long time as it is personal and quite intense in a lot of ways. The show has its own language and will cater to its own audience. I produced it because I would love to watch such content. Television makes you laugh at their expense while on digital you can laugh at your expense, which is what makes me happy about the fact that IDWT is going on a platform like Arré.”

    According to information available with this website, the show’s per episode cost is approximately in the region of Rs 16-18 lakh.

    When asked about the new show, Arré co-founder Ajay Chacko added, “The need of the hour is social relevance and we not only churn out radical content but also play around with it within the social context. The show features extremely talented actors who have the advantage of taking up adventurous content with more experimental characterisation. This is new content with new talent. Digital gives you the opportunity to create different tones of content, be experimental and maybe also give form to the next big cliché. We don’t think we want to move to TV with this type of content; we are comfortable with what we have.”

    Arré had also launched a digital reality show, based on the Israeli format Re-Gender with the same name in India exploring the relationship between the sexes. The series was a social experiment that broke down the rules of gender perception and stereotypes defined by the society and the challenges faced.

    With a possibility of a second season of I Don’t Watch TV, the digital media company also has three more web series in the pipeline, which will be rolled out in the next couple of months.

  • Arré’s first digital sitcom ‘I Don’t Watch TV’ to launch in March

    Arré’s first digital sitcom ‘I Don’t Watch TV’ to launch in March

    MUMBAI: UDigital’s digital media brand Arré, which is co-founded by Ronnie Screwvala, B. Saikumar and Ajay Chacko, is all set to launch a wild comedy on the evolving TV entertainment industry in March this year. 

    The trailer of the web series titled I Don’t Watch TV was launched on YouTube on 11 February, while the five episodic weekly series will kick-start in March on YouTube as well as on Arré.

    As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the show is produced by Nakul Mehta’s Timbuktu Films and features other eminent actors from the industry like Drashti Dhami, Karan Wahi, Karan Patel, Rithvik Dhanjani, Kritika Kamra, Rajeev Masand, Disha Parmar, Aneri Vajani, Riddhi Dogra, Mishkat Verma, Mukesh Chhabra and Sana Sheikh in never seen before avatars.

    The link of the trailer is: 

    Directed by Ajay Singh, the show gives a close personal look at the daily soap’s world through Mehta’s eyes.

    When contacted, actor turned producer Mehta voiced, “I Don’t Watch TV is something that I have enjoyed working for. I wanted to share this with the audiences for a long time as it is personal and quite intense in a lot of ways. The show has its own language and will cater to its own audience. I produced it because I would love to watch such content. Television makes you laugh at their expense while on digital you can laugh at your expense, which is what makes me happy about the fact that IDWT is going on a platform like Arré.”

    According to information available with this website, the show’s per episode cost is approximately in the region of Rs 16-18 lakh.

    When asked about the new show, Arré co-founder Ajay Chacko added, “The need of the hour is social relevance and we not only churn out radical content but also play around with it within the social context. The show features extremely talented actors who have the advantage of taking up adventurous content with more experimental characterisation. This is new content with new talent. Digital gives you the opportunity to create different tones of content, be experimental and maybe also give form to the next big cliché. We don’t think we want to move to TV with this type of content; we are comfortable with what we have.”

    Arré had also launched a digital reality show, based on the Israeli format Re-Gender with the same name in India exploring the relationship between the sexes. The series was a social experiment that broke down the rules of gender perception and stereotypes defined by the society and the challenges faced.

    With a possibility of a second season of I Don’t Watch TV, the digital media company also has three more web series in the pipeline, which will be rolled out in the next couple of months.