Brands
Mumbai to host AniMela 2026, featuring global animation and XR
MUMBAI: Mumbai will host AniMela 2026, an international festival dedicated to animation, visual effects, gaming, comics and extended reality, from February 19 to 22 at Whistling Woods International.
Positioned as a cross-disciplinary platform, the four-day event will bring together creators, studios, students and industry leaders through curated screenings, immersive showcases and industry-led programmes reflecting the convergence of storytelling and technology.
A major draw this year will be screenings of Oscar-nominated animated films, including feature titles Arco and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, alongside shortlisted shorts Forever Green and The Girl Who Cried Pearls.
The festival will also mark the India debut of large-scale immersive experiences Titanic LBVR and Colosseum LBVR, allowing audiences to explore historical moments through extended reality environments.
AniMela artistic director and co-founder Anne Doshi , said the festival celebrates creative risk, experimentation and the drive to tell stories across emerging media formats.
Whistling Woods International vice president and business head, chief technology officer and head of emerging media Chaitanya Chinchlikar, said hosting AniMela aligned with the institute’s focus on nurturing young talent and building creative communities.
The 2026 edition is being guided by an international advisory board drawn from the global animation and immersive media space, including Mickaël Marin of the Annecy Festival and Mifa, Munjal Shroff, Arjun Madhavan, executive producer Ashima Avasthi Chaudhuri, Aneta Ozorek and filmmaker Kiran Rao.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
