iWorld
Bharat Gupta of Jagran news media receives the DMA Trailblazer Award 2023
Mumbai: Jagran New Media CEO Bharat Gupta was honoured with the DMA Trailblazer Award 2023 in Mumbai on 11 October. He received this award in the “Women” category under “Individual Excellence” for his impactful vision and leadership in shaping HerZindagi’s incredible journey to make it the women’s website in just five years and touching the hearts of over 20 million people monthly.
On this recognition, Jagran New Media CEO Bharat Gupta said “I am truly honoured to receive this award and grateful for my team’s continued efforts towards using content and technology to build equitable and progressive societies, by fostering an environment of purpose, experience, and community. Five years ago, with the objective of launching a women-only website, we launched HerZindagi.com, to carve a niche for our women audiences.
Our sustained commitment to keeping purpose over profit resulted in the rapid growth of the website’s user base by an astounding 32 per cent over the past two years. The overall strategy is solely driven by impacting & engaging the audiences by fostering a community for women that educates, empowers, inspires and gives them a platform to be heard, seen, & recognized.”
The DMA Trailblazer Awards 2023 by DMA Asia celebrates visionaries and ideas that go beyond what societies deem possible, and at the same time push the boundaries of people to think big and work towards a better future. This year’s theme was “Purpose over Profit” which recognized corporations & individuals championing the greater good, awarding the beacons inspiring a new world.
Bharat’s recognition goes beyond industry acknowledgement as it represents a tangible difference in society that HerZindagi makes daily.
iWorld
Studio9 enters OTT with Jazz City, a high-stakes espionage drama
Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh Liberation War, the ten-episode Sony LIV series marks a bold first move for TV9 Network’s premium production arm
CALCUTTA: A Park Street jazz club. A reluctant spy. Calcutta, 1971.
Studio9, the premium content arm of TV9 Network, has arrived on India’s mainstream OTT stage with exactly the kind of prestige drama it has been promising, and Jazz City, now streaming on Sony LIV, is a bold opening statement.
The ten-episode historical espionage series follows Jimmy Roy, played by Bangladeshi star Arifin Shuvoo, the owner of a Park Street jazz club who is pulled from comfortable detachment into the dangerous underground of the resistance movement. When Indian intelligence officer Sinha, played by Shantanu Ghatak, conscripts him into the world of spycraft, Calcutta’s most glamorous nightspot becomes a covert nerve centre for spies, revolutionaries, war journalists and refugees.
The series was created, written and directed by Soumik Sen, whose previous credits include the acclaimed OTT series Jubilee and the feature film Gulaab Gang. It is produced by Studio9 in partnership with StudioNext, with creative producer Arpita Chatterjee helming the complex multi-location shoot spanning West Pakistan, East Pakistan and Calcutta. Cinematographer Pratik Parmar’s recreation of 1970s Park Street is complemented by an original soundtrack composed by Arka Mukherjee, Diptarka Bose and Soumik Sen, blending jazz with Rabindra Sangeet to evoke the cultural tensions of the era. The ensemble cast includes Sauraseni Maitra, Sayandeep Sengupta, Shreya Bhattacharya, Shataf Figar, Tanika Basu, Aniruddha Gupta, Amit Saha and Alexandra Taylor.
The reviews since its March 18 launch have been warm. IWMBuzz praised the show for conjuring an atmospheric noir world in which the jazz club becomes “an ambiguous sanctuary, simultaneously a refuge and a crucible of danger”, while singling out Shuvoo’s ability to blend charisma with world-weariness. NewsBytesApp called it “moody, politically charged, and artistic”, adding that Shuvoo’s performance makes it an engaging watch and that Park Street itself gradually becomes a crucial character.
Sen is unapologetic about his ambitions. “Jazz City is my love letter to Bengal’s untold post-Independence saga,” he said. “Delivering this under tight timelines without a single compromise on creative excellence has been thrilling. It’s proof that bold Bengali storytelling can command global stages. Studio9’s backing has unleashed our most ambitious work yet.”
Chatterjee echoed the mood. “Jazz City on Sony LIV marks Studio9’s entry into prestige OTT content,” she said. “It is our statement of intent: world-class narratives rooted in cultural truth, executed with precision. Our recent Asian Television Award for Fan and Fanatics showed what we are capable of. Jazz City is another testament to our growing capabilities.”
That award, a best documentary programme win at the 30th Asian Television Awards in Singapore, gave Studio9 a timely credential ahead of this debut. The production house is also in post-production on Duologue with Barun Das, Season 4, featuring Sourav Ganguly, Vijay Amritraj, Lothar Matthäus, Bianca Balti and Aamir Khan, set to premiere on Jio Hotstar.
Bengali-language storytelling has long punched below its weight on national and global platforms. With Jazz City, Studio9 is making the case that it need not.
