MAM
Reliance Retail Ventures announces joint venture with Ed-a-Mamma
Mumbai: Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL) has announced a significant joint venture with Ed-a-Mamma, the sustainable kids and maternity clothing brand founded by Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt. RRVL has secured a 51 per cent majority stake in Ed-a-Mamma and plans to collaborate closely with Bhatt to further expand the brand. This partnership aims to promote sustainable fashion choices for the younger generation.
Launched by Bhatt in 2020, Ed-a-Mamma gained popularity for its range of eco-friendly clothing designed for children aged 2 to 12. The brand’s focus on natural fabrics and nature-inspired themes resonated with both parents and kids. In the past year, Ed-a-Mamma expanded its product line to include maternity wear and a collection for infants and toddlers.
The partnership will see the brand grow into new areas like personal care and baby furniture while retaining its core values of being child-friendly, parent-friendly, and planet-friendly. Also on the anvil is children’s story books and an animated series that will breathe life into the enchanting world of Ed-a-Mamma.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
