ITV

Tag: Biswapati Sarkar

  • YRF partners with Posham Pa Pictures for theatrical releases

    YRF partners with Posham Pa Pictures for theatrical releases

    MUMBAI: It’s the coming together of a successful legacy studio and a new age creative production banner. Yash Raj Films (YRF)  today announced that it is partnering with series producer Posham Pa Pictures to jointly develop and produce theatrical films beginning 2025.  

    YRF is known for several iconic films like Chandni, Kaala Patthar, Lamhe,  Darr, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Chak De! India, Dhoom and others. Posham Pa Pictures has been behind streaming series such as Netflix’s Kaala Paani, Mamla Legal Hai and Jaadugar and Disney+ Hotstar’s Home Shanti.

    The partnership marks Posham Pa’s foray into theatrical films releases. YRF will provide it with the studio infrastructure and its strong distribution capabilities, which is the vision of Aditya Chopra – the son of YRF founder, the late Yash Chopra. The transformation of YRF from being just a producer to a studio is being led by the firm’s CEO Akshaye Widhani. 

    Said Widhani: “It is truly the coming together of similar creative minds that are constantly striving for excellence by pushing the content envelope. Posham Pa Pictures have shown that they know the pulse of the audience by giving us unique and incredibly fresh stories that have won them unanimous acclaim. Our partnership will now aim to create ground-breaking theatrical experiences for today’s audiences who are seeking out new and novel storytelling to engage, endorse & celebrate.”

    Posham Pa was founded by partners Sameer Saxena, Amit Golani, Biswapati Sarkar and Saurabh Khanna. 

    “The coming together of YRF and Posham Pa Pictures throws open a world of exciting, unchartered creative possibilities,” said Saxena. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to jointly create theatrical experiences like never before with YRF and entertain the audience with unique, fresh stories.”

    (Picture courtesy: Biswapati Sarkar’s  X account)

  • Porter launches new ad campaign for cricket season

    Porter launches new ad campaign for cricket season

    Mumbai: With the cricket excitement pouring in, cricket lovers all across the country are rising up to support the Indian team. Porter, India’s premier tech-based, on-demand logistics company, is kick-starting the launch of its campaign to celebrate this love, passion, and unwavering support. To be streamed on digital platforms during India’s games, the campaign comprises three fun ad films that highlight Porter’s relentless commitment to ensuring seamless, efficient, and affordable deliveries.

    An ode to the cricket fans of India, these films reflect the lucky beliefs of the cricket fanatics as beacons of hope and a mark of support to the Indian cricket champions to keep them going. From a lucky bucket to a lucky t-shirt to lucky mascots, the films also highlight how Porter delivery partners aid the timely delivery of anything, anytime and anywhere, helping fans support their team.

    The first film, ‘Bucketasana’, highlights a cricket fan’s desire to perform his lucky pose to help the Indian team strike a sixer and Porter’s support in delivering the perfect bucket to help him do the upside-down lucky pose. The second film, ‘Lucky T-shirt?’, shows a Porter driver-partner delivering a lucky tattered t-shirt to a cricket fan from their home. Along with two other friends wearing similar lucky t-shirts, he puts on his t-shirt and watches the match while cheering through the winning moments. The last film, ‘Lucky Charm’, showcases Porter driver-partners as the lucky charm for the match for a shopkeeper. Everyone gathers at the shop to watch the match and is elated by a sixer hit, thanks to the good luck brought along by the driver-partners.

    Featuring Biswapati Sarkar, Nikhil Ratnapakhi and Narendra Khatri, and conceptualised by Punt Creative, the campaign aims to reach the high-spirited cricket lovers of the country far and wide. Along with online streaming platforms, the campaign will be leveraged on other digital platforms, and through radio and OOH as well, creating a 360° approach.

    Speaking on the campaign, Porter VP, customer growth & engagement Mohit Rathi said, “As India gears up to host one of the most important events in international cricket, this is the time for cricket fans all across the nation to rise up in support of our team. Through this campaign, we want to highlight how Porter can be a part of billions of fans’ match day excitement and deliver smiles and good luck. The campaign showcases our commitment to delivering anything, anytime and anywhere – the assurance that Porter hai, ho jayega. We hope this resonates with the viewers and inspires them to stick to their own special rituals.”

    Talking about the campaign, Punt Creative copy supervisor Drishti Chikhal said, “The World Cup is an exciting opportunity for any brand to generate brand love. To do that for Porter, we had two motivations: the first being Porter’s commitment to deliver anything, anywhere, anytime that gave us a chance to let our thoughts run wild, and the second, the real stories of cricket fans that would help us stand out amidst the many ads played during the break. Owing to the format, each film was written with the short duration in mind, based on a deep-rooted insight that came from knowing, observing or being fans of the sport ourselves.”

    The company’s first advertising campaign, “Delivery Hai? Ho Jayega,” launched in August 2022. In March 2023, Porter unveiled its most recent social media brand campaign, “House shifting hai? Ho Jayega,” emphasising the breadth of services it offers for packers and movers. Porter additionally introduced its new logo as a part of a brand refresh initiative to update the brand identity.

  • ETMONEY launches India’s first tax rap ‘Tax Ka Bhoot’

    ETMONEY launches India’s first tax rap ‘Tax Ka Bhoot’

    MUMBAI: As Indians enter the last month for saving tax for this financial year, ETMONEY has launched a rap song featuring India’s newest dance sensation, TikTok star Yuvraj Singh, famously known as Baba Jackson and actor Biswapati Sarkar on the average Indian’s fight against the ‘Tax Ka Bhoot’ haunting their lives.

    Available on YouTube as well as leading music streaming apps, the ‘Tax Ka Bhoot’ rap sung by Abby Viral revolves around relatable slices of an average taxpayer’s annual struggle and frustration of managing expenses and aspirations while paying taxes. The video also characterises the ‘Tax Ka Bhoot’ as a group of masked unnamed villains from a syndicate determined on troubling the average Indian with their nefarious ways of dismantling their efforts to save and live a good life. The video is conceptualised and produced by RVCJ Digital Media in partnership with the ETMONEY marketing team led by COO Santosh Navlani.

    ETMONEY COO and head of marketing Santosh Navlani said: “Taking our tax campaign ahead in its final phase in run-up to 31 March deadline, we have launched India's first-ever RAP on Tax. The primary motivation to become financially savvy for our mobile-first millennial users is to  "avoid the pain of tax deduction", and this led to the idea of the video that highlights the pains of Indian taxpayers & what they can do to avoid them.”

  • Screenwriters, broadcasters, and digital freedom: ISC’2016

    Screenwriters, broadcasters, and digital freedom: ISC’2016

    MUMBAI: What do we really mean by digital media? When did it start? Why did it start? If you too are concerned about these questions and wanted a detailed insight, the Fourth Indian Screenwiters’ Conference 2016’s session on ‘The Digital Explosion’ was the place to get all your answers. Held last week, it saw writers, producers, film makers, broadcasters get together to discuss the issues plaguing the writing community today.

    The panelists included ‘newcomers’ such as the screenwriter of Masaan, standup comedian and National award winning lyricist Varun Grover, The Viral Fever (TVF) creative director Biswapati Sarkar and Y-Films senior manager Nikhil Taneja, with 16 years experience across broadcast media Youtube India operations head content Satya Raghvan and Mukta Arts strategy vice president and Whistling Woods International business development vice-president Chaitanya Chinchlikar.

    Session moderator and FWA activist and Malamal Weekly and Bhool Bhulaiyya screenwriter Manisha Grover set the ball rolling by asking when did digital writing really start in the Indian context and what sparked it off.

    “We initiated the web series Jay Hind when the internet was in its early stages here but it has grown so rapidly that now we have vanished, says Grover. Jay Hind was a popular Indian stand-up comedy show made exclusively for the internet platform and was launched in 2009.

    Grover recalls the day when he pitched the show to NDTV Imagine. “In those time there were only two comedy shows – Movers and Shakers and Aisi Taisi Democracy – which were also written by me. The broadcasters were very excited about the script. We made the pilot and they loved it and sent it to their focus group. The focus group didn’t like our host as they couldn’t relate to him. The channel asked us to shoot the pilot again with a different host. But it was my arrogance that didn’t allow me to do what the broadcaster wanted me to do.”

    Other writers on the panel to narrated how rejection by broadcasters led them to move on to digital. A move that turned out to be a boon for them as it allowed their ideas to come to fruition as completed episodes for the web.

    “My seniors were pitching a show for which I wrote a few episodes,” recollected Biswapati. “We went to MTV and after reading the script, they said the content is too intelligent for Indian audiences. We didn’t understand what they meant but i guess our timing was better at that time because YouTube was growing and it slightly became easy to make the series. For me digital is not a ‘also’ medium.”

    In the digital world, Youtube is pioneer, which has given a creative platform to many writers, was the consensus of the panel. “I think the big conclusion that we have drawn that digital Youtube is a ‘writers’ first’ platform. It’s probably the only medium where the writer can dictate the entire product that will come out,” added Raghvan.

    Raghvan went on to explain that in the Youtube ecosystem the web series revolution was sparked off over a year and half ago and the biggest series we saw was Permanent Roommates season one which is a TVF product. The latter has also produced some formats but Permanent Roommates was the first finite story. “Till now we have seen 40 series on the platform in different shapes and sizes not only in Hindi but also in Tamil,and Telugu,” revealed Raghvan. “We are also waiting for some Marathi productions this year and people are working on it. We will also start doing this in Bengali in couple of months.”

    Till 2014, in India some 150 million internet connection were there that too from the big metros. Between 2014 -2015 we saw a lot of growth in south India, expounded Raghvan.

    “We are doing shows for a certain kind of audience that is there on the internet. The question that arises is what what can we give to them on the internet that they can’t find on television and in films. Digital is mostly about good writing,” adds Taneja.

    The panel concluded that writers need to hone the fine art of writing for digital, as in the future, it is going to emerge as the medium and not as an “also” medium.

  • Screenwriters, broadcasters, and digital freedom: ISC’2016

    Screenwriters, broadcasters, and digital freedom: ISC’2016

    MUMBAI: What do we really mean by digital media? When did it start? Why did it start? If you too are concerned about these questions and wanted a detailed insight, the Fourth Indian Screenwiters’ Conference 2016’s session on ‘The Digital Explosion’ was the place to get all your answers. Held last week, it saw writers, producers, film makers, broadcasters get together to discuss the issues plaguing the writing community today.

    The panelists included ‘newcomers’ such as the screenwriter of Masaan, standup comedian and National award winning lyricist Varun Grover, The Viral Fever (TVF) creative director Biswapati Sarkar and Y-Films senior manager Nikhil Taneja, with 16 years experience across broadcast media Youtube India operations head content Satya Raghvan and Mukta Arts strategy vice president and Whistling Woods International business development vice-president Chaitanya Chinchlikar.

    Session moderator and FWA activist and Malamal Weekly and Bhool Bhulaiyya screenwriter Manisha Grover set the ball rolling by asking when did digital writing really start in the Indian context and what sparked it off.

    “We initiated the web series Jay Hind when the internet was in its early stages here but it has grown so rapidly that now we have vanished, says Grover. Jay Hind was a popular Indian stand-up comedy show made exclusively for the internet platform and was launched in 2009.

    Grover recalls the day when he pitched the show to NDTV Imagine. “In those time there were only two comedy shows – Movers and Shakers and Aisi Taisi Democracy – which were also written by me. The broadcasters were very excited about the script. We made the pilot and they loved it and sent it to their focus group. The focus group didn’t like our host as they couldn’t relate to him. The channel asked us to shoot the pilot again with a different host. But it was my arrogance that didn’t allow me to do what the broadcaster wanted me to do.”

    Other writers on the panel to narrated how rejection by broadcasters led them to move on to digital. A move that turned out to be a boon for them as it allowed their ideas to come to fruition as completed episodes for the web.

    “My seniors were pitching a show for which I wrote a few episodes,” recollected Biswapati. “We went to MTV and after reading the script, they said the content is too intelligent for Indian audiences. We didn’t understand what they meant but i guess our timing was better at that time because YouTube was growing and it slightly became easy to make the series. For me digital is not a ‘also’ medium.”

    In the digital world, Youtube is pioneer, which has given a creative platform to many writers, was the consensus of the panel. “I think the big conclusion that we have drawn that digital Youtube is a ‘writers’ first’ platform. It’s probably the only medium where the writer can dictate the entire product that will come out,” added Raghvan.

    Raghvan went on to explain that in the Youtube ecosystem the web series revolution was sparked off over a year and half ago and the biggest series we saw was Permanent Roommates season one which is a TVF product. The latter has also produced some formats but Permanent Roommates was the first finite story. “Till now we have seen 40 series on the platform in different shapes and sizes not only in Hindi but also in Tamil,and Telugu,” revealed Raghvan. “We are also waiting for some Marathi productions this year and people are working on it. We will also start doing this in Bengali in couple of months.”

    Till 2014, in India some 150 million internet connection were there that too from the big metros. Between 2014 -2015 we saw a lot of growth in south India, expounded Raghvan.

    “We are doing shows for a certain kind of audience that is there on the internet. The question that arises is what what can we give to them on the internet that they can’t find on television and in films. Digital is mostly about good writing,” adds Taneja.

    The panel concluded that writers need to hone the fine art of writing for digital, as in the future, it is going to emerge as the medium and not as an “also” medium.