Multimedia

In conversation with Meenakshi Shedde at TIFF 2023, Jayant Somalkar and Shefali Bhushan detail 'Sthal'

Jayant Somalkar and Shefali Bhushan are better known for their hit web series 'Guilty Minds'. But right now, their feature film, 'Sthal (A Match)', has received a rousing response at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. In conversation with film journalist and critic Meenakshi Shedde on the sidelines of TIFF 2023, the director-producer duo talks about the personal and socio-economic roots of the story, the challenges of making the film and the fascinating cast.

'Horrible premiere, fab audience response': Dear Jassi's Tarsem Singh to Meenakshi Shedde

Film journalist and critic Meenakshi Shedde speaks with director Tarsem Singh about his return with Dear Jassi, what she describes as a film that 'really hits you in the gut, while having a beautiful, gentle, warmly welcoming side to it'. It's a departure from Singh's earlier work, and he speaks here about how he approached it

Waited 13 yrs, but reaction was worth it — Kiran Rao speaks to Meenakshi Shedde on 'Laapataa Ladies'

After a long hiatus, Kiran Rao is back in the director's chair with comedic film 'Laapataa Ladies', a story about newlywed brides who get mixed up in a train. The film got a standing ovation at its Toronto International Film Festival premiere. On the sidelines, Rao speaks with film journalist and critic Meenakshi Shedde, about how she turned a powerful social commentary into a massy, entertaining, memorable film

'An unheard of year for Indian films at the TIFF 2023' ' Curtain raiser by Meenakshi Shedde

In an unprecedented record, 14 films at the Toronto International Film Festival are from South Asia, including six from India and six from diaspora. This signals the 'rude and boisterous health of Indian cinema', says Meenakshi Shedde, film critic and senior programme advisor, Toronto International Film Festival. From a mainstream masala film like 'Thank You for Coming', with Bhumi Pednekar and Anil Kapoor, to a powerful social commentary seeped in comedy in Kiran Rao's 'Laapataa Ladies', here's what to expect at the prestigious film festival

One thing today in tech — Apple highlights net zero efforts launching iPhone 15 and Watch 9

Apple is releasing a new iPhone simultaneously in India and the US for the first time. Yes, the USB-C port happened with the new iPhone. Apple didn't disappoint with the many incrementally faster, better features with innovations that combine hardware tech and software ingenuity, as it launched the iPhone 15 series of smartphones and the Apple Watch 9 series yesterday. The Apple Watch 9 series is the first product from the company that is 100 percent carbon neutral

One thing today in tech — The next wave of global capability centres in India

Global capability centres, as they are now marketed, are offshore centres in India providing work for large multinational parent corporations, mostly in the US, Britain and Western Europe, but also from countries like Japan and Australia. The world's best-known companies across sectors have such centres in India — from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to Mercedes Benz to Salesforce and Atlassian. There are close to 1600 GCCs in India, employing about 1.66 million people and accounting for $46 billion in business, according to the consultancy Zinnov

Inside our family business issue—Gujarat special

Every year, we come up with a special issue highlighting the contribution of family businesses to India's economic and cultural growth. This year the focus is on Gujarat—a state that has given us big names such as Ambani, Adani, Lalbhais of Arvind, Modis of Cadilla Pharmaceuticals, Engineers of Astral, and many others. In this podcast, Naandika Tripathi and Naini Thaker talk about their experience anchoring the issue and writing the stories about the impact of these family businesses.

Freshworks Investor Day — One takeaway that reflects enterprise customer push

Freshworks organised its first investor day last week and provided some granular data on how it's doing and where it's headed. One noteworthy takeaway was that Freshservice, the company's IT service management and related operations product, has emerged as its most powerful growth engine—increasing in the "low 40s" percent annually, which is more than twice as fast as the company's overall growth in recent quarters. CEO Girish Mathrubootham, who also envisions all his products to be increasingly AI-infused, expects to capture multiple adjacent opportunities

One thing today in tech — Indian SaaS leader Zoho crosses 100 million users worldwide

Indian SaaS bellwether Zoho, which hit $1 billion in revenues last year, has touched 100 million users around the world, the company said in a press release. In recent years, Zoho has led the Indian SaaS sector's push to go after larger customers in the midmarket and upmarket segments. Today, Zoho offers over 55 software products to 700,000 businesses in 150 countries. It is also among only a handful of Indian cloud software companies that are profitable. Its customers in India include the Tata Group and IIFL

One thing today in tech — Edtech funding in India, especially early-stage, fell sharply in 2023

Total funding into the Indian edtech space plunged 48 percent to $971 million in 2023 between January 1 and August 7, when private markets intelligence provider Tracxn compiled data for a new report on the sector. Edtech startups had raised $1.87 billion in the same period in 2022. Early-stage investments worth $75.7 million were recorded in 2023 YTD, an 88 percent drop from $618 million raised in the same period last year and an 82 percent drop compared with $414 million raised in the same period in 2021

One thing today in tech — 5 takeaways on Indian SaaS companies from an early-stage VC investor