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Tag: Kochi

  • Brewing Kerala’s pride, one sip at a time

    Brewing Kerala’s pride, one sip at a time

    MUMBAI: This Kerala Piravi, Tata Tea Kanan Devan poured out a cinematic tribute to its home state, blending culture, nature and nostalgia into one flavourful celebration.

    The new brand film opens with a single dewy tea leaf, shimmering in the morning light, a quiet nod to the Kanan Devan hills where the brand was born. In a heartbeat, the leaf unfurls into sweeping drone shots of emerald plantations, gliding boats on tranquil backwaters, and the rhythmic grace of Kathakali, Kalari, and classical dance. It’s a montage that captures Kerala’s rhythm, strength and serenity, brewed with a filmmaker’s finesse.

    But Tata Tea Kanan Devan isn’t stopping at the screen. The brand has extended its celebration into the real world with a 3D anamorphic installation at Lulu Mall, Trivandrum (October 30–November 2), where visitors can walk into Kerala’s symbols brought vividly to life. Across Trivandrum, Kochi, Thrissur and Kozhikode, bold outdoor displays add another layer of pride and colour to the campaign.

    “Tata Tea Kanan Devan has always been more than just a brand, it’s part of Kerala’s story,” said Tata consumer products president – packaged beverages, India & South Asia Puneet Das. “This Kerala Piravi, we wanted to celebrate the state’s essence in a way that feels cinematic yet deeply personal.”

    Echoing the sentiment, Monks India head, business & integration Sonali Khanna added, “Our film brings Kerala’s iconic motifs to life, giving viewers a dazzling glimpse of God’s Own Country.”

    With each frame, sip and swirl, Tata Tea Kanan Devan proves that homegrown pride, much like good tea, tastes best when brewed from the heart.

     

  • Screen time turns scream time as PVR Inox rolls out Kerala Comedy Fest

    Screen time turns scream time as PVR Inox rolls out Kerala Comedy Fest

    MUMBAI: Why should the big screen have all the fun? This June, Kerala’s moviegoers can expect less drama and more laughter as PVR Inox transforms its plush cinemas into live comedy hotspots. India’s largest multiplex chain, PVR Inox, is hitting refresh on the moviegoing experience with the launch of the Comedy Fest in Kerala, a three-weekend-long celebration of stand-up comedy in partnership with Comedy Lounge, the state’s foremost comedy collective. From rising local stars to crowd-favourite comics, the fest promises a chuckle-fuelled line-up all served in the comfort of air-conditioned auditoriums with top-tier sound and lighting.

    The festival kicks off on 14 June at PVR Lulu Mall, Kochi, with ‘Straight Outta Kochi’, Comedy Lounge’s signature showcase featuring top Kochi-based comics. The bilingual act (English & Malayalam) is designed to tickle funny bones across Kerala.

    Next up, on 21 June, is the ‘Vishnu Pai Crowd Work Show’ at Inox Sobha City Mall, Thrissur. Known for his razor-sharp wit and pan-India performances, Vishnu Pai Kerala’s top-rated English-language comic brings his improv-style set that thrives on audience interaction.

    The month wraps up with the ever-popular Kochi Open Mics on 28 June, back at PVR Lulu Mall, bringing a blend of English, Malayalam, and Hindi humour from emerging comics, keeping things fresh, unscripted, and full of surprises.

    But this isn’t just a one-off laugh riot. It’s part of PVR Inox’s broader strategy to diversify cinema spaces into multi-format cultural hubs. From indie film screenings to live theatre and now stand-up comedy, the brand is reimagining its venues as stages for local stories and spontaneous joy.

    “This isn’t just about bringing comics into theatres,” said PVR Inox Ltd chief business planning & strategy Kamal Gianchandani. “It’s about expanding the definition of entertainment and connecting with audiences in a format that’s local, lively and unmissably real.”

    As Kerala’s stand-up scene gains momentum, the Comedy Fest offers comics a high-quality platform and audiences a fresh reason to head back to the theatre this time, not for the plot twists, but for the punchlines.
     

  • Den Networks disputes Rs 38 crore GST orders, plans legal appeal

    Den Networks disputes Rs 38 crore GST orders, plans legal appeal

    MUMBAI: Den Networks Limited has found itself in the middle of a tax showdown, with authorities in Lucknow and Kochi slapping it with two Goods and Services Tax (GST) penalties totalling nearly Rs 38 crore. The company, however, has strongly refuted the allegations, calling the orders erroneous and confirming plans to file appeals against them.

    Dismissing both allegations, Den Networks has reiterated that these tax demands do not impact its day-to-day operations, and that the financial exposure is limited to the penalty amounts. The company remains confident of a favourable outcome in the appeals process. With a legal battle looming, the GST dispute is far from settled Den Networks is preparing to make its case, challenging the tax authorities’ interpretation in an attempt to reverse the penalties and clear its name.

    The first order, issued by the CGST and Central Excise Commissionerate, Lucknow, on 31 January 2025, imposed a penalty of Rs 4.75 crore under Section 74 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Uttar Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. Tax authorities claimed that Den Networks had wrongfully adjusted deferred revenue for FY 2017-18, allegedly leading to lower GST payments. The company insists this assessment is incorrect.

    The second order, passed by the CGST Kochi Commissionerate on 3 February 2025, demanded a staggering Rs 33.25 crore in differential tax, along with an equal penalty amount under Section 122(2)(b) read with Section 74(9) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, and corresponding Sections of the Kerala State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, for the period from July 2017 to March 2022. The dispute centres on how GST should be applied—tax authorities argue it should be charged on the total amount collected by local cable operators (LCOs) from subscribers, rather than on the revenue received by Den Networks from LCOs. The company maintains that it has calculated and discharged GST correctly as per regulatory norms.

  • Cinepolis opens first Imax location in Kochi; fifth in India

    Cinepolis opens first Imax location in Kochi; fifth in India

    MUMBAI: Kochi-ites can now enjoy the immersive experience that one can only get in an Imax theatre. Exhibitor  Cinépolis today announced the launch of the Queen of the Arabian Sea’s first Imax theatre at  Centre Square Mall. This is the ffth . This marks the fifth IMAX location for Cinépolis in India, following installations at Viviana Mall (Thane), Westend Mall (Pune), Nexus Shantiniketan (Bangalore), and Nexus Seawoods (Navi Mumbai).

    Equipped with the cutting-edge Imax with laser projection system, the new screen delivers 4K projection with unparalleled image quality and stunning visuals. With a seating capacity of 229 and a stadium-style layout, the auditorium ensures every guest enjoys an unobstructed view. Complementing the immersive visuals is Imax’s patented sound system, which delivers exceptional clarity and depth, evenly distributed to elevate every moment on screen.

    Said Cinépolis India managing director Devang Sampat: “Kochi is a city renowned for its love of cinema. With this launch, Cinépolis further demonstrates its commitment to technological leadership and innovation, offering audiences an elevated movie-watching experience. The addition of this premium format aligns with the evolving preferences of cinemagoers, who increasingly seek movies crafted for immersive technologies. As more filmmakers embrace these advanced formats, Imax  at Cinépolis Kochi is set to redefine how the city experiences blockbuster films.”

    Imax vice-president of theatre development Preetham Daniel added: “Audiences in the coastal city can soon experience the unparalleled clarity and immersive sound of Imax, just in time for our exceptional holiday film line-up and an exciting slate of Filmed For Imax  titles extending through 2025.”

    Centre Square Mall spokesperson Blisson Antony highlighted : “This partnership with Cinépolis elevates our positioning as the premier destination for entertainment and lifestyle in the city. We are confident that the new Imax  location will be a magnet for cinephiles, offering them an unparalleled venue to enjoy the best in global and Indian cinema.”

  • Covid takes its toll on 65-year-old iconic luggage brand

    Mumbai: The pandemic has taken its deathly hold not just on people’s lives but also their livelihoods. Business organisations across different sectors are struggling to wade through the detrimental impact of Covid-19, and many others are facing closure. One such casualty has been the Chennai-based luggage retailer, Witco.

    After running for nearly 65 years, the iconic luggage retail chain has announced its decision to shut shop after it could not recover from the severe downturn caused by the ongoing pandemic. “We regret to inform you that we have closed down our business. The decision to close down this business was not an easy one, but unfortunately due to COVID-19 and the restrictions on international travel it was not sustainable for us,” the company wrote on its website.

    The company’s mainstay was international travel which contributed a significant portion to revenue. “While domestic travel resumed to some level towards the end of last year, International travel did not pick up and this impacted our sales,” the company’s MD VP Harris told Moneycontrol.

    The initial three months of the last financial year were a complete washout because of the lockdown, and the company could recover only 25-30 per cent of business after the economy reopened. “Given our rentals, employee salaries, and other expenses, we would have not been able to survive even if we had done 50 percent of our pre-Covid business,” he added.

    According to Harris, Witco’s downward spiral began with demonetisation, announced by the government in November 2016, which worsened further, after GST impacted its sales. The pandemic and lockdown proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the retail chain. The brand also tried to take the e-commerce route to survive and registered on Amazon and Flipkart but that too did not yield returns, shared Harris.

    Travel & tourism has been one of the worst affected sectors due to the pandemic. The market share for travel-related accessories and equipment has also taken a huge hit. While most sectors are still hopeful of recovery by the end of this financial year, the travel sector remains apprehensive and could take a long time to revive, according to industry experts. Consequently, the outlook for related segments such as luggage, too, remains grim.

    The brand with a strong presence in Chennai also had stores in Trichy, Kozhikode, Bengaluru and Kochi. Witco offered not only travel bags, but also laptop bags, backpacks, school bags, as well as handbags, from renowned brands like Samsonite, Delsey, American Tourister, Nike, Puma, VIP, Skybags, Baggit, Hidesign, Wildcraft and more.

    The sudden closure of the brand has left its decades-old customers dismayed. Several of them reminisced on social media, and shared childhood memories of shopping at the stores before starting the academic year of school and college or for their first trip abroad.

    “This is super sad. Witco was that one stop that you always window shopped and ogled in Forum Mall. It was also the place where we bought the first two large samsonite boxes that every graduate student buys before he goes to the US (and that was 18 years ago!),” shared one of the customers.

    Another tweeted, “This is terrible news. the 65-year-old brand shuts down. I fondly remember trips to Anna Nagar Witco ahead of school reopening to purchase school bags. One such backpack bought in 2002 is still in use.”

  • BharatPe plans to scale up to 65 cities by December 2020

    BharatPe plans to scale up to 65 cities by December 2020

    NEW DELHI: Merchant payment app BharatPe has announced aggressive expansion plans across tier-1, 2 and 3 cities in India, under which it aims to scale up its presence in 65 locations across the country. The company is currently present in 35+ cities, and has set its sights on adding another 30 cities to its list by December 2020. 

    The cities include tier-1 cities like Kolkata and Chennai, emerging cities like Coimbatore, Kochi, Dehradun, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Patna as well as tourist hubs like Amritsar, Varanasi, Agra, Allahabad, amongst others. The company aims to add another three million merchants to its existing list of over 5 million merchants by the end of FY21. 

    The announcement is in line with the company’s commitment to become the preferred financial services partner for over 60 million SMEs in India. BharatPe will be rolling out its one-of-a-kind interoperable UPI QR with zero transaction fees, and it’s recently launched zero rental, zero fees card acceptance machine (BharatSwipe) in the new cities. Additionally, the app would be extending attractive collateral-free loans of upto Rs 7 lakh at competitive interest rates to merchants, with the objective of helping them grow their business. BharatPe will offer its hybrid repayment model with a combination of daily QR/POS collection and weekly payments made directly from the bank account to the merchants availing loans. 

    BharatPe group president Suhail Sameer said, “The pandemic has fuelled exponential growth of the digital payments industry in the country as a large number of customers are opting for cashless payments. We have seen our business grow manifold over the last few months. Our payments vertical has recorded consistent double digit growth on a month-on-month basis. Also, our lending vertical has scaled very well and we are on track to disburse loans of Rs 1000 crores by the end of the year.” 

    Added Sameer “We are committed to create a well-rounded financial ecosystem for SMEs with our variety of products including payments, loans, gold and insurance. This decision to double our footprint in the country is in line with this. We have handpicked cities that are either business hubs or emerging commercial centres, for this phase of expansion. We look forward to enabling millions of more businesses in the new cities we are venturing in.” 

    BharatPe will be rolling out its range of financial services for merchants, across all the new cities. These include Amritsar, Kota, Guntur, Kakinada, Rajmundri, Jodhpur, Coimbatore, Madurai, Nagpur, Kochi, Trichy, Raipur, Trivandrum, Bilaspur, Durg Bhilai, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Patna, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Jamshedpur, Chennai, Agra, Allahabad, Aurangabad, Dehradun, Patiala, Rohtak, Silchar, Agartala, Shillong and Varanasi.
     

  • Socxo releases an e-book on Holiday season marketing – Time for buzz marketing with the Mango Man!

    Socxo releases an e-book on Holiday season marketing – Time for buzz marketing with the Mango Man!

    Mumbai/Bangalore: Socxo, the Bangalore based brand advocacy solutions start-up, has today launched an e-book for marketers to gear up this coming holiday and festive season. And this season in most parts of the world is a full quarter – October to December.

    The e-book guides marketers in leveraging word of mouth marketing this holiday season for their campaigns to maximize awareness, engagement, and trust at a time when the marketing world is ablaze with product launches and promotions, seasonal festive offers, and deals. This approach is proven to act as a sweetener to the deals that are already being flashed. And the real deal is a trusted deal.

    The key steps towards building an interesting holiday campaigns include:

    Getting the right technology

    Planning campaigns and selecting the right platforms

    Select the nano-influencers

    Buckets around which campaigns should be built.

    Measuring and optimizing.

    The e-book highlights the importance of using nano-influencer and brand advocates as the channel for building trusted reach. Not everything can be sold by celebrities and actors and brands end up missing the countless nano-influencers who aren’t actors, rock stars, who have thousands of loyal followers and may not be target of hate mails and messages. It’s time to think beyond celebrity endorsements and get into building your brands loyal believers.

    Speaking on the e-book, Ajit Narayan, CMO & Program Head, Socxo, “Brand advocacy has huge potential, provided its used strategically. It goes beyond celebrities internet or otherwise and focuses on leveraging the brand’s believers. The key to people who actually have a stake in the brand and business. Employees, Customers, Partners and Fans. It’s time for brands to shift their thinking and efforts towards the Mango man (Aam aadmi.) The common man as a network is far more powerful than any celebrity alone."

    "It is an untapped tool by marketers, and holds strong potential in building campaigns, especially during the festive season. With the current quarter being all about festivals and holidays, we conducted this research on how nano-influencers can be capitalised and used smartly. The e-book is designed as the guide on how to think and execute content marketing initiatives and campaigns around nano-influencers", he further added.

    Socxo is a SaaS and mobile based Brand Advocacy Marketing platform, based in Singapore, Bangalore and Kochi.

  • Dentsu Aegis Network moves into new office in Kochi

    Dentsu Aegis Network moves into new office in Kochi

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network, has expanded its footprint in Kochi with a new office in Jawahar Nagar. The new office will house DAN brands like Dentsu India, Carat, Posterscope, Perfect Relations, Vizeum, Fountainhead MKTG and Milestone. The new structure is at par with the global infrastructure standards of the company, and operates as an open plan workspace, accommodating all the verticals under a single roof.

    Commenting on the move, Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network India said, “This is a great move for us considering we are rapidly growing our client roster in southern markets. The advertising potential in Southern markets has seen exponential growth over the last few years. This move is in line with our strategy of collocating our brands and employees in a single premises. With various DAN brands now in the same office space in Kochi as well, we are ready to offer holistic solutions to our existing and prospective clients.

    The new Dentsu Aegis Network office located in Jawahar Nagar, Kochi, has been fully functional from September this year.

  • Carat India elevates Pramod PP to senior business director, Carat – Kochi

    Carat India elevates Pramod PP to senior business director, Carat – Kochi

    MUMBAI: Carat India, the flagship media agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has promoted Pramod PP to Senior Business Director, Carat – Kochi. With this announcement, Carat intends to strengthen its consumer focus and business solutions for the Kerala Market. Pramod PP will report to Rajni Menon, CEO, Carat Media Brands.

    Pramod comes with over 15 years of experience in media. Has been part of Carat India for over 8 years now. Prior to this move, he was Business Director, Carat – Delhi where he was responsible for managing a wide array of clientele including Preethi Kitchen Appliances and Adidas. He was also actively involved in the buying of some of the agency’s key Global clients such as Mastercard and Microsoft. 

    Commenting on his new role, Pramod PP said, “I am looking forward to raise the bar further and focus on excellence in customer experience and service. I am also clear that Carat will soon become a single source solution for a vast array of prestigious brands across the South Market.”

    Talking about Pramod’s elevation, Rajni Menon, CEO, Carat Media Brands said, “Pramod will play a critical role in maintaining Carat’s unparalleled expertise in the brand servicing industry.  The need for a strong brand voice is imperative, due to increased competition and rapidly evolving market strategies.”

  • First Promo of Pro Volleyball League goes on air

    First Promo of Pro Volleyball League goes on air

    MUMBAI: With the league a couple of months away, volleyball fans across the country were treated to the first promo of Pro Volleyball League on Wednesday. The promo of the league which is an initiative of Baseline Ventures Pvt. Ltd.  and the Volleyball Federation of India features 2008 Olympic Gold medalist David Lee along with players from the Indian team. India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu, whose father represented India in Volleyball can also be seen cheering on the players in the action packed 30 second commercial.

    The first season of the league which will commence in February 2019 will feature six teams and will comprise of a total of 18 matches.  Each team will play each other once in a round robin format and the top 4 will qualify for the semi-finals. The matches will be held in cities of Chennai and Kochi.

    Each team will comprise of 12 players including 2 Foreign Players, 1 Indian Icon Player and 2 Indian U-21 players. The rest of the players will be from a pool Indian Senior Players and other domestic players.

    The league has signed a multi-year broadcast deal with Sony Pictures Network and will be aired on Sony Six, Sony Ten 3 and Sony Liv. The first season will begin on 2nd February and the league will stage its first final on 23rd February. The six franchises that will feature in the first season will be announced on 26th November.