'The mad race to get cricket rights has created a bubble' : Venu Nair - WSG South Asia CEO
With the Indian Premier League (IPL) in its catch, the World Sport Group (WSG) is sitting pretty
MUMBAI, July 18, 2013: Ann Mitchai, Thai cultural ambassador and singing sensation is all set to shoot her first international single in Mumbai. The artist will video shoot her album named ?Superstar? on the 19th and 21st of this month. The music album will be a Thai-Indian fusion and will have strong influence of the traditional Thai dramatic ?Likay?.
?When I am on a Likay tour, I tend to do a lot of Thai-Indian fusion as I have a lot of Indian fans back home. This genre of Thai-Indian performance came into prominence and now has presented me with opportunities to be part of the Indian entertainment industry. I am really glad to be associated with this community here in India and hope to perform and visit Mumbai often.? says Ann Mitchai.
Likay or music drama is a traditional performing art of central Thailand. Beautiful costumes in modern as well as traditional fashions of shining silk and satin, the comic actions, and fast storytelling are its unique characteristics. It emphasizes on expressions and has a learning technique that cannot be mastered in a short period of time. The costume is a special ensemble that has intricately done designs although very heavy to wear. The performer needs to possess the quality of patience to gracefully carry through the act. The singer has been practicing this art form since she was 5 years of age and today her name is synonymous with Likay back in Thailand.
Sheryl Verghese, Eddie Avil and Jaspreet Jasz are the songwriters and the music is compiled by Eddie Avil and Chirantan Bhatt. The dance is choreographed by Dhiraj Bakshi. The album will be released in India and Thailand this year.
Mumbai: UTV Indiagames, India?s premier gaming company has created history yet again! It has crossed the 100 million downloads mark on the Nokia Store! UTV Indiagames is the first company in the world to have reached this landmark on the Nokia Store with the total number of downloads being 1,00,016,329. Only three months back, UTV Indiagames had crossed the 50 million downloads mark.
Downloads were recorded from countries right around the world, with the top 10 countries being India, Vietnam, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Thailand, Russian Federation, Mexico, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Cricket, Bollywood, Casual and Action are the top three genres of games downloaded with top 10 games being - Ra. One Genesis, T20 Fever 2011, Aladdin, DLF IPL, Force, Cricket T20 World Championship, D3 Commando, Mowgli in the Jungle Book, Cricket T20 World Championship and Monster Truck Dash.
Today the UTV Indiagames? catalogue offers over 300 games across genres like sports, action, racing, bollywood, cricket etc. Top handsets across all titles are Nokia X2-01, Nokia 2700 Classic, Nokia X2-00, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic and Nokia C3-00.
Speaking on achieving this milestone, Vishal Gondal, CEO, UTV Indiagames, said, "Just three months back we had crossed the 50 million downloads mark. And now three months on its 100 million already! We are delighted that users across the world are enjoying our games. This achievement encourages us to continue to develop world-class games across genres. Nokia though relatively new in the app store market has created a significant mark for itself in the segment and has opened avenues for game development companies worldwide. We hope to continue this amazing partnership with Nokia and create a footprint for Indian gaming industry globally."
Viral Oza, Director-Marketing, Nokia India, said, "The 100 million download mark on the Nokia Store is a huge achievement for UTV Indiagames and demonstrates consumers? appetite for Nokia?s locally relevant content, globally. It is also testimony to the fact that India is has a rich talent pool in the area. As leaders in the industry, Nokia is committed to nurturing a culture of innovation in the mobile app industry and supports developers with tools and insights which can help them develop successful and rewarding applications and games for their consumers. We are delighted with the Indiagames success story and look forward to more such milestones from Indian developers."
For the UTV Indiagames catalogue on the Nokia Store, users can log on to - http://goo.gl/GYQfb
Collecting new designations as they go up the corporate ladder is something that is common to most executives. But, what many don't know is that these executives also harbor a secret passion of gathering collectibles. The most common being stamps and coins to airplane models, books, chess boards, comics, masks, rugs and paintings. Collector's Item refer to what executives like to collect, the places they acquire them from and how they nurture their interest on a regular basis.
We take a peek into Cartoon Network Enterprises India and South Asia director Jiggy George's numerous collections in a variety of items. His plush office cabin is filled with a range of Cartoon Network merchandise of Johny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter and other characters.
Apart from this, Jiggy is an avid collector of comics, coins, stamps, masks and music CDs inlays! "All of these passions have been there from a very early age. I keep collecting and the only constraint is the size of the home," he says.
In his Pune home, the first thing that one notices is the pink wall, which sports atypical masks collected from different corners of the world. Having travelled extensively to South East Asian countries, Jiggy started collecting masks as a souvenir to remind him of all the places he had visited.
"My Pune home has a collection of 35 odd masks that adorn a wall and are reminders of places travelled to. Besides, they are works of art from Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Nepal and even from Kerala and Orissa," he says.
While he makes it a point to pick up masks from every country that he visits, his friends too have now started adding to his collection. "Sri Lanka is one country that I have yet to visit. But recently, one of my friends brought me a mask from there as he knows about my collection," he says.
What's more, Jiggy has a penchant to collect comics too. "I also am huge collector of comics and that explains my love for animation! I have the complete series of M.A.D., TinTin, Asterix, Amar Chitra Katha and Calvin & Hobbes. I also have many Justice League comics and a few Dilberts, Gary Larsons and Baby Blues Books. All in all, they tot up to some 500 odd books," he reveals proudly.
He also has a coin and stamp collection, some of which were given to him by father. But Jiggy says that these two collections have been stacked away in albums for a long time now. "I haven't added to the collection lately. As far as stamps are concerned, I own special collection of around 3000 stamps of India and Africa. I have about 100 odd coins including some rare ones that I hope will work for me as my retirement pension. These, I have been collecting as a child and even used to exchange them with like minded school friends," he says.
An unusual passion Jiggy has is that of collecting CD inlays. "Music is my other love. An anachronism in the days of digital music, but I love inlays! I see it as an art and love to read the lyrics, the credit list and any additional information that is on it. To the extent that I have also bought books on inlays and found them very interesting. I have a collection of 2000 odd CD's, which is an eclectic mix of rock, jazz and world music," he says.
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