iWorld
Nitin Kothari joins OMTV as chief technical officer
Mumbai: Sanatan storytelling platform OMTV has appointed Nitin Kothari as CTO. He will head the technology part and will aim to make OMTV a media tech company by introducing AR/VR for live darshan shows.
He has been working in the technology space for over 30 years, with extensive experience in design, development, and implementation of complex business software solutions. His expertise lies in business analysis in the finance, manufacturing, and accounting domains. He is an all-rounder, from tech-entrepreneur to product leader and an accomplished tech architect across the complete product suite – mobile, web, and back-end systems. Passionate about design thinking and user interface (UI), he has built and managed web and mobile-based products across various domains for organisations in India, the UK and the US.
He said, “My constant endeavour is to apply business sense in developing applications where the effort would lead to large impacts on business processes and results. I am happy to be part of this organisation which is doing some good stuff and putting technology into this genre, which is considered to be very old school. I get more excited when I am thrown a challenge to execute something new on the platform. I hope with tech availability I will be able to match the vision of the founders.”
OMTV founder and MD Nitin Jai Shukla said, “Over the period of Nitin’s professional expertise, he has proven skills in managing teams to work in sync with the corporate set parameters and motivating them to achieve business and individual goals. In his professional career, he has exhibited excellence in developing, piloting, and implementing new business processes. Nitin has a sound ability to identify risks / issues that could affect the project and put in place the required effective solutions. A thorough professional with a proactive attitude, energetic, self-motivated, and capable of thinking and generating new design solutions and ideas. With a soft demeanour, he is very assertive. A team is only happy when we work with like-minded people, and their passion for technology only helps us to experiment and come up with new ideas. I’m happy to have a person who is like-minded and his passion for technology will help us to make the user experience extraordinary.”
OMTV aims to compete with platforms from the OTT industry. For that, they want to infuse a lot of technology into the whole ecosystem. Spirituality is seen as something very primitive and we need to be tech ready. OMTV has recently closed a pre-seed funding round and is now raising its seed funding to become a revenue-making company. OMTV is also planning to introduce AI in the UGC (user generated content) space and a lot of tech features on the app.
iWorld
Anirudh Ravichander and Universal Music India join forces to take South India’s sound to the world
The composer behind 13 billion streams launches Albuquerque Records with UMI as its exclusive global partner
MUMBAI: Universal Music India has struck an exclusive partnership with Albuquerque Records, the freshly minted independent label of singer-composer Anirudh Ravichander, in a deal that bets big on South India’s booming pop and hip-hop scene going global.
The arrangement, announced on 17 March, will see Universal Music India handle future pop and hip-hop releases by Anirudh himself, as well as artists signed to the new label. A first release is already in the pipeline for April, featuring Anirudh.
The numbers behind the man are hard to ignore. Debuting in 2012 with the viral sensation “Why This Kolaveri Di”, Anirudh has since clocked over 13 billion audio streams across more than 770 tracks, cementing his position as the No.1 South Indian artist on Spotify by total streams. His fingerprints are all over some of the Tamil film industry’s biggest musical moments, from Hukum and Vaathi Coming to Arabic Kuthu and the A23 Theme.
But Albuquerque Records is a different beast. Built for the non-film space, it is designed to nurture independent talent and champion the next wave of Indian pop voices. “Universal Music India’s leadership in pop and hip-hop made them the natural partner,” said Anirudh. “I’m excited to take independent voices to audiences around the world.”
Universal Music India’s chairman and CEO Devraj Sanyal was equally effusive. “Anirudh represents the future of Indian music, bold, original, and with enormous potential,” he said. “Identifying transformative talent is our superpower, and this partnership reflects that belief.”
Sanujeet Bhujabal, managing director of Universal Music India, framed the deal as more than a distribution play. “Albuquerque Records represents Anirudh’s bold artistic vision in the world of pop and hip-hop,” he said. “True to his legacy of innovation, this partnership is set to establish yet another landmark creative space, this time for the emerging world of iPop and beyond.”
For Universal Music India, the deal deepens a long-running push into South India’s four key language markets: Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. The label already has regional imprints, film partnerships with Maddock Films and Excel Entertainment, and a growing non-film roster. Landing Anirudh, arguably the south’s most bankable music brand, is a statement of intent. South Indian music has the streams. Now it is coming for the world.
