MAM
Juggernaut Productions ties up with Umesh Shukla’s Merry Go Round Studios
Mumbai: IN10 Media’s Juggernaut Productions has collaborated with Umesh Shukla and Ashish Wagh’s Merry Go Round Studios to co-produce content for OTT platforms.
Umesh Shukla, known for the critically and commercially successful films Oh My God with Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor-starrer 102 Not Out and his rich theatrical background, has mastered the art of illustrating simple human stories with compelling emotions.
After producing successful series like Shoorveer, Code M S1 & 2, The Married Woman, Avrodh, and others, Juggernaut Productions aims to expand its development and content slate via such partnerships. The production house will co-develop content that is rich in human stories, employing Umesh’s expertise in storytelling.
On the collaboration, Juggernaut Productions (OTT) CEO Samar Khan said, “Juggernaut Productions is happy to co-create content with Merry Go Round and work with a talented filmmaker like Umesh Shukla. He portrays human emotions with excellence and ease. This partnership will further expand our horizon of storytelling with varied themes that resonate with audiences across the country.”
Merry Go Round Studios co-founder Umesh Shukla added, “Juggernaut Productions has created a niche for itself with some ground-breaking shows in the past couple of years. We are excited to partner with them, as our energies are in sync. We both want to capture the audience’s pulse and give them innovative and disruptive shows.”
The two will co-develop a series revolving around an acclaimed Gujarati play, Ek Room Rasodu (One Room Kitchen), directed by Umesh Shukla. The play, based on a true story and written by Jayesh Mehta, is full of laughter and the irony of life and has been running successfully for over 100 shows across cities like Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, and others.
MAM
‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
