India?s deeply seeded joint family culture has always been an integral part of its people?s lifestyle - be it cooking a feast like meal that everyone can share, shopping as a bunch for the entire family, or traveling. At the cost of overly generalising, one can say that Indians love to travel as a group. However, recently there has been a paradigm shift in the travel space as more and more Indians are opening up to the concept of solo traveling. India has generated quite a number of solo backpackers, gender no bar, who take on the world like a curious child does.

We Travel Solo, one of India?s solo travellers community is proof of this new trend in India. In order to foster the community, the platform also organises special interest tours to quench the thirst of a perfect solo trip.  We Travel Solo recently conducted a survey with India?s top 100 solo travellers to understand their personal accounts of solo travel.

1. As per the survey, when asked, ?When and where to was their first solo trip??, 31 per cent solo travellers answered foreign locations like Europe and East Asia as their first solo trip destination, 29 per cent said Himachal as their first solo trip expedition while 27 per cent had coastal beaches of South India as their first place to explore as a solo traveler. The remaining 13 per cent chose to visit Rajasthan, MP, AP and North eastern cities.

2. It is also interesting to note that 25 per cent attributed it to self-discovery and travel for recreational purposes or lack of company as their reason for solo travel, while 35 per cent said it was a simple getaway, a sabbatical from the mundane job or simply to feed the curiosity. Those who travel solo to meet like minded people form 21 per cent of the total.

3. When it comes to hot spots for solo traveling destinations, travellers showed preference for Northern, Southern and Western India within the subcontinent. For South-East and Eastern Asia, Indian neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh are chosen as preferred locations and Europe, US and western Asian countries for international travel. Some travellers confine themselves to exploring the remote pockets of India and country life as well.

4. Thirty two per cent solo travellers said that they felt feeling lonely, homesickness, alienated from co-travellers and the localities, whereas 17 per cent female solo travellers felt insecure due to eve-teasing, ogling and suspicious behaviour. While only 21 per cent solo travellers felt budget pinch as their challenge to solo traveling.

Other challenges included following culture codes, dealing with unpleasant eventualities, finding vegan food items and overcoming boredom et al. In times like these, solo travellers advise budding ones to be highly circumspect by carrying the required safety gears such as pepper sprays, avoiding strange solitary lanes, conducting a thorough research about the destination and planning well, carrying phones, portable chargers and GPS to track locations and maintain communication with family back home and the handiest tip by far is to keep one?s equilibrium in inopportune times!

When asked about places they?d like to be stranded in, about 17 per cent travellers preferred mountains (Himalayan ranges) followed by 10 per cent of them longing to be marooned on an island like Jeju Island and Golapogas island. Among other places of interest, were the countryside to revel in the bucolic beauty of the enthralling landscapes, countries like North Korea, Buenos Aires, Italy and intriguingly enough, haunted places!

WeTravelSolo endeavours to popularise a concept that?s still taking baby steps in a land where independence is at a premium given the vicissitudes of the changing times and hence, aims to know from its populace what it feels about solo expeditions.

This episode of Talking Point takes you in the world of Basket Ball with the Managing Director of NBA India Yannick Colaco.  Colaco's passion for the sport as a fan comes only close to his approach to it as a business man. In this candid chat with our host Papri Das, he talks about NBA?s ambitious plans to place Basket ball as the number two sport in India, prospects of a Basket ball league in India, and why India Super League has been a boon to basketball.

By Papri Das

Touted as India?s only travelling film festival, the 6th Jagran Film Festival is celebrating its last leg in Mumbai till 4 October. With Fun Cinemas as its screening partner, the festival?s theme this year is Happiness.

Each year the festival travels across the country through big and small cities with an objective of bringing cinematic appreciation beyond the metros to the tier II and other smaller towns.

?We promote and motivate small town professionals to participate in the creative process of filmmaking thereby opening doors for them, creating plethora of opportunities in small towns when there the talent is immense but exposure is nil,? says Manoj Shrivastava, one of the organisers.

What's more, JFF will attempt to up its ante next year by extending the festival to more cities as well as by showcasing a wider variety of films. ?Going forward, the festival will extend its franchise and cover more cities. A greater variety of cinema will be shown as the audience appetites have increased. One important aspect of the festival is to educate and inspire the youth to be a part of the world of cinema and the myriad opportunities it provides. Taking this forward, we?ve tied up with Whistling Woods for Master Classes and with APSA on script writing,? adds Jagran Prakashan senior general manager Vinod Srivastava.

After establishing themselves firmly in the annual cultural calendar of the various cities, Jagran Film Festival has raised its bar time and again. The expectation for the festival has risen considerably, and so has the standard of selection, as per the judges.

?Our special sections like Indian Showcase, a competitive section for feature films will be judged by a jury headed by Malayalam film director Hariharan. Similarly, Jagran Shorts, an international competition for short films, will be judged by notable filmmaker, Shaji N Karun. Other categories include Cinema of the Sellers for advertising films,? adds Shrivastava.

Going by one of the judges and popular filmmaker Pooja Bhatt?s words, the criteria for selecting winning films for JFF is quite simple. ?Award films that speak from the heart to one's heart as opposed to those that only dazzle in terms of scale and supposed popularity,? she opines.

?What makes JFF unique for me is that it?s inclusive. They have taken it to people and genuine movie buffs across the country and not restricted it to elite moviegoers and opinion makers in cities like Mumbai and Delhi,? says Bhatt, who travelled with the festival to Ranchi this year.

Recounting one of the highlights of the festival, Bhatt shares, ?I had the privilege of travelling to Ranchi thanks to the Jagran festival. I must say watching Jism, 14 years after it released, in a packed hall where more than 70 per cent of the crowd were women, was quite an education for me.?

As was reported by Indiantelevision.com earlier, the opening of the seven-day festival in Mumbai brought together films under various  competitive categories. The festival also paid tribute to the films of the golden era in the ?Retrospective? section. In its quest to showcase the best of international cinema, this edition presented a collection of 10 Best International Short films under a special section ?Top Shorts.?

This year?s new category featured films on the 'Happiness' theme, where films like The Pursuit of Happiness, Little Jerusalem, Life Is Beautiful, Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, Ikiru, 3 Idiots, Anand, Bawarchi, Guide and Mera Naam Joker were screened.

By Papri Das

Essentially a script writing competition of original, one-act plays in four languages - Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English - eNatya Sanhita?s specialty lies in the fact that the winning scripts are available online for everyone to read.

With all the buzz about Digital India and how it is going to spark a demand for creatives in media, it is not surprising that even performing artistes are now moving to the digital platform.

A joint effort by Astitva and Mumbai Theatre Guide, eNatya Sanhita was conceived two years back to increase theatre?s digit presence. eNatya Sodh (http://www.enatyachaupal.com) and eNatya Chaupal (https://www.youtube.com/user/eperformers) are their other digital initiatives.

?Theatre is still not present very much in digital format. In the past two years we have been trying to get various theatre related activities to the Internet,? informs Ravi Mishra, the founder of the theater Astitiva. ?There are various one-act playwriting competitions, which are being held. However, post the competition, the scripts don?t get any exposure. There is a huge demand for good scripts across the country. Hence we decided on launching this competition and having the winning scripts available as e-books, which theatre groups can refer to and perform,? he added.

The criteria for selecting the scripts are concept, audience appeal, language and presentation amongst others.

Ravi Mishra and Bhavik Shah

eNatya Sanhita doesn't just stay online but has offline meets and interactions as well. ?This year we are in talks with various places to arrange reading of the winning scripts. Recently, we also did an online play reading of a new play by one of our last year?s winner,? Mishra pointed out.

Their inaugural year brought them overwhelming response, as per Mumbai Theatre Guide co-founder Bhavik Shah. ?This is the second year of eNatya Sanhita. The response in the first year was overwhelming. We had 80+ entries from across the country and few entries from overseas participants as well. The winner gets his work published in an eBook and cash prizes,? Shah added in parting.

By Tarachand Wanvari

BENGALURU: In an attempt to bring the world of brand communications in India to a measurable matrix, Blue Lotus Communications released its Most Attractive Brands 2015 Report (MAB 2015) in Bengaluru  recently.  MAB 2015, the second in its series, is the result of comprehensive primary research conducted on the proprietary 36-traits of Attractiveness   Quotient of TRA (formerly known as Trust Research Advisory) says TRA CEO N Chandramouli.  MAB 2015 was preceded this year by TRAs? ?Brand Trust Report 2015? (the fifth in its series) in March 2015. Dr Subhash Chandra?s Zee has ranked no 1 in the media TV category in Blue Lotus Communications? Most Attractive Brands 2015 Report (MAB 2015), which was released recently. 
  
?This year?s study involved 15,000 hours of fieldwork covering 2312 consumer-influencers across 16 cities in India and generated 5 million data-points and 17,000 unique brands from which the top 1000 brands have been listed in this year?s report. The result is a 180 page, hardbound report is available for Rs 14,000,? adds Chandramouli.
 
Of the 180 pages, the first 69 pages have four chapters ? India?s most attractive brands; Brand attractions across categories; Unveiling the chemistry; and Laws of attraction; The last two sections Category-wise India?s most attractive brands; and All India Rank ? India?s most attractive brands listing of the top 1000 brands cover the rest of the pages. MAB 2015 is interspaced with ?Attractalk? pages in which industry experts speak about what makes their brands attractive, as well as quotes from players in the advertising ecosystem.
 
Overall, Samsung Mobiles from the personal gadgets category heads the 1000 MAB club, followed by fellow Korean brand LG and then the Japanese brand Sony. The Tata brand is the fourth and the first Indian brand in the list with a MAB 2015 rank of 4. The next Indian brand with a MAB 2015 rank of 9 is Bajaj followed by Godrej, which has a MAB 2015 rank of 10.

The F&B category has 161 brands among the top 1000 brands in MAB 2015. Old competitors: Parle G (rank 2 in MAB?s F&B category) with a MAB 2015 rank of is ahead of Britannia (rank 5 in MAB?s F&B category) with and MAB 2015 rank of 55. Pepsi with a MAB 2015 rank of 13 is ranked first in MAB?s F&B category, while old foe Coca Cola (MAB 2015 rank 48) is placed third within the category. Even more interesting is the FMCG industry with 144 plus players from it finding a place among the top 1000 brands. How the brands of top players such as HUL, P&G, Colgate are placed by TRA are truly eye openers.
 
The report makes it possible to understand where brands stand from the TRA perspective. Overall the business intelligence that MAB 2015 provides, makes an interesting read and a must have tool, especially for the media and entertainment companies or, for that matter, anyone related to the marketing ecosystem.