Tag: LGBT+

  • IWEI recognises DDB Mudra Group as top employers for LGBT+ community

    IWEI recognises DDB Mudra Group as top employers for LGBT+ community

    New Delhi: India Workplace Equality Index (IWEI), a comprehensive benchmarking tool for LGBT+ inclusion at the workplace, has recognised DDB Mudra Group in its list of top employers 2020. The group was awarded a ‘silver’ and has become the first in the Indian advertising industry to feature in the list, joining the ranks of 65 other companies across sectors including Wipro, Uber, GSK, Nielsen etc. 

    This recognition acknowledges DDB Mudra Group’s commitment to promote awareness, acceptance and advocacy for the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies. Initiatives such as inclusion of same-sex and live-in partners in the employee medical insurance policy, DDB Transit – the first-of-its-kind internship program for the transgender community and open pride – an employee resource group committed to I&D efforts are instances of the group’s concerted effort to make the workplace more diverse, progressive and united. 

    DDB Mudra Group EVP & head – HR Rita Verma said, “At DDB, we keep D&I at the core of what we do. People perform better when they have the freedom to be themselves. Hiding a key part of their identity at work because they feel unsure or unsafe, can take a toll on employee motivation and performance. We strongly believe that creativity thrives when there is diversity, and we will continue our efforts for a diverse and thriving work environment.”

    The index measures nine areas: policies and benefits, employee lifecycle, employee network group, allies and role models, senior leadership, monitoring, procurement, community engagement and additional work.

  • StayUncle opens hotel rooms for LGBTQ

    StayUncle opens hotel rooms for LGBTQ

    MUMBAI: Hotel booking website Stay Uncle has launched a unique marketing campaign to address the problem of hotel booking for the LGBTQ community.

    To reach out to the masses and spread awareness about the problem StayUncle created an ad, which showcased a gay couple walking into a hotel to book a room and how people around judge them. Stay Uncle raised a question to most of the Indian brands about their stance on the rights of the LGBTQ community.

    Stay Uncle’s unique initiative was not limited to releasing an online ad but their unique marketing tactic pulled in a lot of brands to come out and speak on the rights of the LGBTQ community, though most of them were silent.

    Brands celebrated scrapping of article 377 with a lot of enthusiasm but it is now that we can actually see something happening on-ground.

    Twitteratis picked up this unique initiative and in return they also started asking questions to different brands on the ongoing topic.

    Stay Uncle co-founder and CMO Blaze Arizanov says, “We all had opinions while the article 377 made an exit, but we at Stay Uncle took this a little more seriously and introduced same sex friendly hotels for the LGBTQ community. The idea of the entire campaign was to launch the Ad in a unique way so that most of the brands come out in full support for the community not just limited to having opinions but deeds too.”

    The campaign was planned and executed by Buzzoka, India’s leading Influencer marketing company. Buzzoka CEO Ashutosh Harbola adds, “It is always a pleasure to work with Stay Uncle and the team as their initiatives are path breaking and allows us to justify our creative flair as an organisation.”

    Stay Uncle has been a disruptor in the marketing sphere with bringing out of the box marketing ideas for launching their products. One of their previous campaigns, which had a Fake Online Website (www.staylaid.com) to book girls online, went viral and gave a very strong message to the users.

    The entire campaign went viral on Twitter and saw over 15,000 conversations floating with a reach of over 20 Million.

  • Emotions rule the roost in top international ads

    Emotions rule the roost in top international ads

    MUMBAI: With temperatures dipping and holiday season around the corner, brands overseas are churning out more dollars to advertise and communicate with viewers. This is the foreign version of India’s Diwali time when ad slots are exorbitantly priced. Using the Christmas holidays, every brand tries to be cheeky in the ads. An increase in ad inventory also aids them.

    Continuing with our weekly series to present most loved international ads of the week, we bring to you our second edition. This week saw Serena Williams, who recently delivered a baby girl, sharing a heartfelt message to her daughter. We also see Samsung’s make fun of people who waste time in watching the washing machine tumbling clothes while Smirnoff takes a stand for the LGBT community.

    If you are looking for some inspiration to power you through this week, the new video from Gatorade will likely do the trick for you. 23-time grand slam champion Serena Williams is seen narrating a message to her newborn baby girl in the commercial to play sports for the lessons they can teach and the impact they can have. She says in the ad, “Sports will teach you the strength of your allies. Whether your bond is by blood or by ball, whether she shares the colour of your skin or the colour of your jersey, you’ll find sisters in sweat.”

    Samsung created a three-minute long film about a washing machine. That’s right, it is a whole film about clothes tumbling round and round while you watch it. According to Samsung’s research, British adults on an average spend 88,904 minutes of their lives watching the washing machine go around. The whole point of the ad was to tell viewers that you shouldn’t be spending much time watching the washing machine and that there is a faster washing machine available with Samsung. Sounds boring? But it surely has connected with an unnoticed habit!

    Toyota has created its new holiday ad that features a real family of actors — grandparents, their daughter and her husband, and their children. The ad features a powerful, multigenerational story about a family and the tree they have loved for years. Conceptualised by Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, the campaign was aired between The Voice and This is Us as the only ad in the break. It was purposely filmed in the This Is Us show by taking nostalgic cues from it with a tale of two generations.

    Vodka brand Smirnoff has launched its new campaign to help inspire Britain’s nightlife to become more open-minded about gender and is partnering with the LGBT Foundation to enforce real change. The commercial features people from the LGBT community and asks people to be more inclusive and accepting of gay people. The film ends with a message, “Labels are for bottles, not people”. Now that’s powerful!

  • Right to be gay: new show on NDTV Prime from 25 Nov

    Right to be gay: new show on NDTV Prime from 25 Nov

    MUMBAI: Live and let live. The launch of this show on TV is one of those days when your happiness knows no bounds.

    Director and writer Amit Khanna, who created the first ever LGBT web-series called All About Section 377, has added one more feather in his cap. The series which won hearts in the digital space, is all set to make its debut on the Indian television from 25 November. Not only is this the first LGBT serial on TV, but it is also the first web-series that has been picked up by a broadcaster.

    With Hitachi on board as the title sponsor, the show will be aired on NDTV Prime every Friday at 9pm. The repeat telecast will be aired on every Saturday and Sunday though the channel has not yet decided a time slot, yet. Khanna said, “The response has been terrific. In fact, I am so happy with the way viewers have poured comments on the YouTube channel; it has been very motivating for the entire team. This encouragement has led to such a big move and this will be the very first time an LGBT web-series will be showcased on National Television.”

    All about Section 377 is about freedom of love, love in its purest form. It connects to each and every individual irrespective of age from anywhere in the world. The web-series is a light and fun representation of the dilemmas faced by homosexuals.

    It takes a light-hearted look at a gay couple’s life as seen through the eyes of straight homophobic man. It is about Suresh who comes to Mumbai from Delhi to pursue acting and modeling. Being a homophobic, his worst nightmare comes alive when he realizes that his cousin, who he is supposed to live with, is gay and also lives with his boyfriend in the same apartment. Hence begins the journey of a homophobic man who lives with a gay couple and how his perceptions change over a period of time. The response towards this web series has been overwhelming. Khanna has received some heart-throbbing letters and messages from those who belong or are staying with a person belonging to the community. He has also received tremendous appreciation for his acting skills in the web-series.

    “I am touched by the effect of this web-series. A lot of youth have come out of the closet. Boys and girls have been living a life where they can’t express freely. A mother wrote a letter to me, thanking me for creating the web-series. It actually changed her perception towards her son who is gay,” added Khanna. Khanna and his team are currently working on the series’ second season which will be launched shortly.

  • Right to be gay: new show on NDTV Prime from 25 Nov

    Right to be gay: new show on NDTV Prime from 25 Nov

    MUMBAI: Live and let live. The launch of this show on TV is one of those days when your happiness knows no bounds.

    Director and writer Amit Khanna, who created the first ever LGBT web-series called All About Section 377, has added one more feather in his cap. The series which won hearts in the digital space, is all set to make its debut on the Indian television from 25 November. Not only is this the first LGBT serial on TV, but it is also the first web-series that has been picked up by a broadcaster.

    With Hitachi on board as the title sponsor, the show will be aired on NDTV Prime every Friday at 9pm. The repeat telecast will be aired on every Saturday and Sunday though the channel has not yet decided a time slot, yet. Khanna said, “The response has been terrific. In fact, I am so happy with the way viewers have poured comments on the YouTube channel; it has been very motivating for the entire team. This encouragement has led to such a big move and this will be the very first time an LGBT web-series will be showcased on National Television.”

    All about Section 377 is about freedom of love, love in its purest form. It connects to each and every individual irrespective of age from anywhere in the world. The web-series is a light and fun representation of the dilemmas faced by homosexuals.

    It takes a light-hearted look at a gay couple’s life as seen through the eyes of straight homophobic man. It is about Suresh who comes to Mumbai from Delhi to pursue acting and modeling. Being a homophobic, his worst nightmare comes alive when he realizes that his cousin, who he is supposed to live with, is gay and also lives with his boyfriend in the same apartment. Hence begins the journey of a homophobic man who lives with a gay couple and how his perceptions change over a period of time. The response towards this web series has been overwhelming. Khanna has received some heart-throbbing letters and messages from those who belong or are staying with a person belonging to the community. He has also received tremendous appreciation for his acting skills in the web-series.

    “I am touched by the effect of this web-series. A lot of youth have come out of the closet. Boys and girls have been living a life where they can’t express freely. A mother wrote a letter to me, thanking me for creating the web-series. It actually changed her perception towards her son who is gay,” added Khanna. Khanna and his team are currently working on the series’ second season which will be launched shortly.

  • From a barber’s shop to a tea stall: BBC Urdu looks at the lives of India’s young Muslims

    From a barber’s shop to a tea stall: BBC Urdu looks at the lives of India’s young Muslims

    MUMBAI: India’s young Muslims, their views, hopes and concerns, are the subject of the new series of BBC Urdu, a part of BBC World Service — From a barber’s shop to a tea stall (Nai Ki Dukan Se Chai Ki Dukan Tak) going live on TV, radio and online on Monday 14 November.

    The six-part TV and radio series and special content for the website bbcurdu.com is produced and presented by Mirza AB Baig. As he visits New Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, Mirza Baig talks to Muslim youths who, due to high unemployment, are used to socialising in barber shops and tea stalls in their communities.

    Each episode focuses on issues that young men and women were keen to discuss with the BBC: unemployment, the divorce practice of “instant triple talaq”, terrorism, LGBT, the high number of Muslims in India’s prisons and the uniform civil code (the proposal to replace the family laws exercised by religious communities with a common set of laws governing all India’s citizens).

    Mirza Baig said: “In this series, for the first time, we have placed India’s Muslim youth at the very centre of our narrative. Talking to them, we wanted to bring to the fore their views, needs and worries.
    From a barber’s shop to a tea stall is about them – and as we roll out this content, we hope that, along with BBC Urdu’s audience in Pakistan, Urdu-speakers in India will join the conversation via the BBC Urdu social media channels to continue and expand the debates we started in India’s Muslim communities.”

    Indian experts join the discussion in the BBC Urdu series. Dr Tanweer Fazal of the Department of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, comments on unemployment among the country’s Muslims. Renowned scholar, Prof Tahir Mehmood examines the issues surrounding the application of the uniform civil code. Prof Vija Raghawan of Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai looks at the reasons for large numbers of Muslims in India’s jails. Dr Shaista Yusuf and Prof Sabiha Zubair in Bangalore explain the challenges presented by the continued practice, in some Sunni Muslim communities, of instant divorce known as “triple talaq”.

    From a barber’s shop to a tea stall (Nai Ki Dukan Se Chai Ki Dukan Tak) will feature as part of the BBC Urdu programme, Sairbeen, on TV and radio every Monday starting from 14 November. The series’ text, audio and video content will also roll out on the website bbcurdu.com. The issues will be discussed with social-media audience via Facebook Lives on BBC Urdu Facebook.

    The TV programme, Sairbeen, is broadcast live from London by Aaj News TV channel in Pakistan and streamed on bbcurdu.com at 19.30 PST (14.30 GMT) Monday to Friday. Each edition of Sairbeen is repeated on Aaj News at 11.00 on the following day and is available on bbcurdu.com on demand. The programme is also available via the BBC Urdu channel on YouTube. The radio programme, Sairbeen, is broadcast on shortwave at 20.00 PST (15.00 GMT) every day and is available via bbcurdu.com.

  • From a barber’s shop to a tea stall: BBC Urdu looks at the lives of India’s young Muslims

    From a barber’s shop to a tea stall: BBC Urdu looks at the lives of India’s young Muslims

    MUMBAI: India’s young Muslims, their views, hopes and concerns, are the subject of the new series of BBC Urdu, a part of BBC World Service — From a barber’s shop to a tea stall (Nai Ki Dukan Se Chai Ki Dukan Tak) going live on TV, radio and online on Monday 14 November.

    The six-part TV and radio series and special content for the website bbcurdu.com is produced and presented by Mirza AB Baig. As he visits New Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, Mirza Baig talks to Muslim youths who, due to high unemployment, are used to socialising in barber shops and tea stalls in their communities.

    Each episode focuses on issues that young men and women were keen to discuss with the BBC: unemployment, the divorce practice of “instant triple talaq”, terrorism, LGBT, the high number of Muslims in India’s prisons and the uniform civil code (the proposal to replace the family laws exercised by religious communities with a common set of laws governing all India’s citizens).

    Mirza Baig said: “In this series, for the first time, we have placed India’s Muslim youth at the very centre of our narrative. Talking to them, we wanted to bring to the fore their views, needs and worries.
    From a barber’s shop to a tea stall is about them – and as we roll out this content, we hope that, along with BBC Urdu’s audience in Pakistan, Urdu-speakers in India will join the conversation via the BBC Urdu social media channels to continue and expand the debates we started in India’s Muslim communities.”

    Indian experts join the discussion in the BBC Urdu series. Dr Tanweer Fazal of the Department of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, comments on unemployment among the country’s Muslims. Renowned scholar, Prof Tahir Mehmood examines the issues surrounding the application of the uniform civil code. Prof Vija Raghawan of Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai looks at the reasons for large numbers of Muslims in India’s jails. Dr Shaista Yusuf and Prof Sabiha Zubair in Bangalore explain the challenges presented by the continued practice, in some Sunni Muslim communities, of instant divorce known as “triple talaq”.

    From a barber’s shop to a tea stall (Nai Ki Dukan Se Chai Ki Dukan Tak) will feature as part of the BBC Urdu programme, Sairbeen, on TV and radio every Monday starting from 14 November. The series’ text, audio and video content will also roll out on the website bbcurdu.com. The issues will be discussed with social-media audience via Facebook Lives on BBC Urdu Facebook.

    The TV programme, Sairbeen, is broadcast live from London by Aaj News TV channel in Pakistan and streamed on bbcurdu.com at 19.30 PST (14.30 GMT) Monday to Friday. Each edition of Sairbeen is repeated on Aaj News at 11.00 on the following day and is available on bbcurdu.com on demand. The programme is also available via the BBC Urdu channel on YouTube. The radio programme, Sairbeen, is broadcast on shortwave at 20.00 PST (15.00 GMT) every day and is available via bbcurdu.com.

  • ‘Feel Yourself’ for Breast Cancer awareness by Ufaan.org

    ‘Feel Yourself’ for Breast Cancer awareness by Ufaan.org

    MUMBAI: “There are various subjects in our society that needs to be talked about to normalize them” says Ufaan.org founder Vikram Tyagi. The digital production house and YouTube channel Ufaan.org has been in news for a while with prominent online portals sharing their content for social change videos. Recently, it has rolled out a short film for breast cancer awareness, called Feel Yourself. The film promotes awareness about regular self checkups for breast cancer, as these could be the first alarm call to save from a potential health hazard.

    public://ufaan.png

    The film has garnered many eyeballs within a short span of release and has been shared by ,many prominent portals. “My mother has been through the disease and she first got to know about the disease through self-checkup. Through this video, we are attempting to convey a message simply that, it is better to be aware than regret later.” added Tyagi

    Ufaan.org is entirely dedicated to social causes videos. It has produced content around various serious issues like Nikah halala, according to which a divorced Muslim woman is forced to marry another man and have sex with him, before she can remarry her first husband. Male equality with a campaign called #screwequality. One of Uffan’s pioneer work was every mother’s worst nightmare, the film that spoke about child molestation and touched many hearts. The channel has focused on several similar matters.

    public://ufaan 2.png

    Brands like UrbanClap has joined hands with ufaan. Recently, UrbanClap offered free photoshoots for LGBT couples, ufaan produced a beautiful LGBT campaign around the offer, which was well received. Ufaan has also produced many videos for digital platforms like ScoopWhoop among others. Also, ufaan has been associated with Oxfan to conduct a social experiment on male-female equality.

    The channel claims that awareness videos play a vital role in awakening youth towards things that should be changed and online content is the best medium to get people talking about such issues. “By creating such content on media, we want people to open up to taboos that society has created. Such videos are liberating the society” claims Tyagi.

    public://ufaan 3.png

    According to the sources, the in house production of short films can cost between Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 70,000. The actual cost could however vary and depends mainly upon production requirements. The channel’s promotion strategy is that its prime focus is content. “We try to make simple content that people can relate to and it can get viral.” said Tyagi. ufaan also asserted that it does not involve in paid online promotion as that does not help videos reach the right audience. It focuses on viral elements and enhance the potential of the video.

    The major revenue model  is brand collaborations and production hiring. The channel claims that it is not focused on monetary gains at the moment but is emphasizing on brand building. “Our aim is to be referred for our genre of content” said Tyagi.

    public://ufaan4.png

    Feel Yourself is an in-house production for ufaan. The film is produced by Vikram Tyagi, directed by Surya and shot by Arjun Kukreti. It has been shot in Delhi. The channel plans to come up with some big brands tie-ups in a couple of months. However names could not revealed due to contract closure.

  • ‘Feel Yourself’ for Breast Cancer awareness by Ufaan.org

    ‘Feel Yourself’ for Breast Cancer awareness by Ufaan.org

    MUMBAI: “There are various subjects in our society that needs to be talked about to normalize them” says Ufaan.org founder Vikram Tyagi. The digital production house and YouTube channel Ufaan.org has been in news for a while with prominent online portals sharing their content for social change videos. Recently, it has rolled out a short film for breast cancer awareness, called Feel Yourself. The film promotes awareness about regular self checkups for breast cancer, as these could be the first alarm call to save from a potential health hazard.

    public://ufaan.png

    The film has garnered many eyeballs within a short span of release and has been shared by ,many prominent portals. “My mother has been through the disease and she first got to know about the disease through self-checkup. Through this video, we are attempting to convey a message simply that, it is better to be aware than regret later.” added Tyagi

    Ufaan.org is entirely dedicated to social causes videos. It has produced content around various serious issues like Nikah halala, according to which a divorced Muslim woman is forced to marry another man and have sex with him, before she can remarry her first husband. Male equality with a campaign called #screwequality. One of Uffan’s pioneer work was every mother’s worst nightmare, the film that spoke about child molestation and touched many hearts. The channel has focused on several similar matters.

    public://ufaan 2.png

    Brands like UrbanClap has joined hands with ufaan. Recently, UrbanClap offered free photoshoots for LGBT couples, ufaan produced a beautiful LGBT campaign around the offer, which was well received. Ufaan has also produced many videos for digital platforms like ScoopWhoop among others. Also, ufaan has been associated with Oxfan to conduct a social experiment on male-female equality.

    The channel claims that awareness videos play a vital role in awakening youth towards things that should be changed and online content is the best medium to get people talking about such issues. “By creating such content on media, we want people to open up to taboos that society has created. Such videos are liberating the society” claims Tyagi.

    public://ufaan 3.png

    According to the sources, the in house production of short films can cost between Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 70,000. The actual cost could however vary and depends mainly upon production requirements. The channel’s promotion strategy is that its prime focus is content. “We try to make simple content that people can relate to and it can get viral.” said Tyagi. ufaan also asserted that it does not involve in paid online promotion as that does not help videos reach the right audience. It focuses on viral elements and enhance the potential of the video.

    The major revenue model  is brand collaborations and production hiring. The channel claims that it is not focused on monetary gains at the moment but is emphasizing on brand building. “Our aim is to be referred for our genre of content” said Tyagi.

    public://ufaan4.png

    Feel Yourself is an in-house production for ufaan. The film is produced by Vikram Tyagi, directed by Surya and shot by Arjun Kukreti. It has been shot in Delhi. The channel plans to come up with some big brands tie-ups in a couple of months. However names could not revealed due to contract closure.

  • Do you know ‘All About Section 377’?

    Do you know ‘All About Section 377’?

    MUMBAI: With a number of campaigns fighting for the rights of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community and the continuous squabble to decriminalize section 377 of the IPC, The Creative Gypsy and Weirdoze are all geared up to launch their revolutionary web series All About Section 377. AAS 377 will launch on the YouTube channel on 27 March 2016.

    The series aims at breaking the perceptions of the LGBT community in society. The team has also sent a two hour cut out of the series to various web series festivals.

    The very draconian and archaic Section 377 from chapter XVI of the Indian Penal Code dating back to 1860 introduced during the British rule of India, criminalises sexual activities ‘against the order of nature’, including homosexual acts, as past orders of some of the courts indicate.

    Highlighting the joys and sorrows of the much neglected and side-lined community by most of people, the 8 episode series of 18 minutes each presents a light-hearted look at a male gay couple’s life as seen through the eyes of a straight homophobic man.

    Directed by Amit Khanna, the series is about Suresh who comes to Mumbai from Delhi to pursue a career in acting and modelling. His worst nightmare comes alive when he realizes that his cousin Rohit with whom he is supposed to live with is gay and also has a live-in boyfriend Sid in the same apartment. Thus begins the journey of a homophobic man who lives with a gay couple and how his perception changes over a period of time.

    “From episode 6, the story changes completely and whoever is against the community will have no other go except to accept the fact. My expectation from this web series is that people must understand that they can’t bind love by gender, by society or by social status. I want our society to be more open-minded,” says Amit Khanna.

    The Creative Gypsy’s Khera reveals that since the series did not have any sponsors on-board, they had to launch a new channel for it. “Whoever was ready to take the series was not ready to pay us the amount we have put in producing this series. They wanted to own all the rights of the series, and a few of them didn’t even want our name in it. We have all worked hard for this series. OTT is definitely an emerging platform, but the waters are being tested as yet. We are passionate about having our series up everywhere”, she further adds.

    AAS 377 features an enthusiastic cast of 6 that includes Gulshan Nain aka Suresh, Ankit Bhatia playing Sid and Mustafa Shaik enacting the character of Chotu. The series also shows two girls Fiza Aziz and Surabhi Raut. Amit Khanna makes his debut in the series playing the role of Rohit. Celebrities like Niranjan Iyengar, Iris Maity and Suzanna Mukherjee will also be seen in cameos.

    There are plans to launch a second series. “The second series depends on the success of this one. Till now, we have got a good response from the screening. We aim to give our viewers a strong message through the content on our channel. We have not compromised on anything and have poured our hearts in it”, concedes Khera.

    Here is the trailer of the web-series: