iWorld
Lall speak about Jio Cinema’s Murder in Mahim
Mumbai: Jigsaw Pictures founder Rajnish Lall is pleased as punch. The former advertising professional-turned TVC and series producer’s latest production Murder in Mahim was launched on Jio Cinema on 10 May. The series has been getting good traction with most viewers binge watching all the episodes or at least four episodes at one go.
The production got the green light from Tipping Point and Voot in early 2022, and took almost two years to be completed. It’s based on journalist Jerry Pinto’s book of the same name which tracked the investigation into a bunch of gay murders in the Mumbai suburb of Mahim in the last decade just before approval for same sex relationships got the green signal from the government.
“I was attracted to it because I have an emotional attachment with Mahim. OTT has pulled off lots of thrillers and it’s a genre I love,” said Lall. “Murder in Mahim was especially interesting because of the drama and the relationships between characters. Also because of the social message it was providing about the LGBT which is still prejudiced against.”
Tipping Point – a Viacom and Jio owned studio – acquired the rights and Jigsaw came on as a producer. Along the way, it was collectively decided that Raj Acharya would be able to handle the script better than the director that was initially thought of.
“We had brushed up the script,” said Lall. “Our decision to bring in Raj proved right as he did magic with it and improved on the final product.”
The production schedule was pushed forward from April to June 2022 after the approval came through from the studio.
“That proved challenging as we had to shoot during the monsoons. And most of our filming was outdoors., which is why we had to do a lot of improvements through post and VFX,” explained Lall. “The budget increased, however, the studio compensated us for it.”
However, he is quick to appreciate the deftness of the director’s vision and approach. As well as Mark Benjamin, Anjali Bhushan and Mohan Bangera from Tipping Point and Manjit Sachdev from Voot.
“We worked well as a team. And we had a sorted director who brought out the best in two superb actors Ashutosh and Vijay Raaz as well as the rest of the supporting cast and the script. Our casting too was on the button and we shot for approximately 70 days,” revealed Lall.
According to him, what has worked well in Murder in Mahim, is the realism that the show wanted to convey. “We have not beautified or galmourised it; it is gritty as it can be,” said Lall. “The music has also been appreciated. We have a pretty decent show as everything fell into place.”
iWorld
Meta introduces new AI tools to boost discovery-to-purchase journey
From shoppable Reels to generative video, platforms get smarter at turning attention into sales.
MUMBAI: Meta is turning “scroll and stop” into “scroll, stop, and shop” and it’s using AI to make the whole journey feel almost effortless. The company has announced several new tools and enhancements designed to help brands guide people from discovery to purchase more effectively, while delivering more relevant and personalised experiences across its platforms.
Creators can now add product links more broadly on Instagram Reels, turning their content into shoppable moments. Businesses in 22 countries, including India, will soon be able to share their product catalogues with creators, opening up a new sales channel for brands and fresh monetisation opportunities for creators.
The Creator Marketplace has also been upgraded with enhanced target audience filtering, integrated with Ads Manager. This helps businesses quickly find creators who are a strong match for their goals. Campaigns using Partnership Ads deliver, on average, 19 per cent lower CPAs, 13 per cent higher click-through rates, and 71 per cent higher median brand lift.
Meta is expanding Reels Trending Ads inventory with new content categories including TV & Movies, Travel, Business, Finance & Investments. According to Meta’s analysis of 59 studies, Reels Trending Ads delivered an incremental 6.6 percentage point Ad Recall lift compared to control groups.
AI-Powered Shopping Enhancements
- Product Set Optimisation is now in testing, allowing retail media networks to promote specific products with detailed reporting. Early results show 17 per cent lower median seller cost per purchase.
- Product Showcase is being expanded so marketers can upload one image or video and let Meta’s AI automatically add relevant products as a carousel when it improves performance.
Meta is expanding its generative AI capabilities with:
- UGC-style videos featuring avatars and voiceovers
- Easier voiceover translation and text overlay translation in a single streamlined flow
- New tools to automatically turn product catalogues into dynamic video ads for Reels
Early testing of the Advantage+ creative video generation tool showed a 10 per cent increase in CTR and 8 per cent increase in CVR on average. Campaigns using catalog product video saw 20 per cent more conversions per dollar, while Reels placements with catalog product video delivered 33 per cent higher incremental conversions.
Industry voices welcomed the updates. Vikas Chawla of Social Beat called Partnership Ads a “flywheel” for authentic content that converts. Niti Kumar of Spark Foundry and Sadhvi Dhawan of Blink Digital highlighted the power of Reels Trending Ads for cultural relevance and guaranteed share of voice. Ramasish Bhowmik of Adbuffs noted that Meta’s GenAI tools are giving teams a clear competitive edge.
In a world where attention is fleeting but shopping intent can spark in seconds, Meta is betting that smarter AI will help brands turn discovery into decisions faster than ever. The message is clear: the future of advertising isn’t just about reaching people, it’s about reaching them at exactly the right moment, with exactly the right product.
