iWorld
Holi at home? Stream these five Bollywood favourites on Tata Play Binge
Park the pichkaris and press play this festive week
NATIONAL: Bura na maano, Holi hai! Laughter rings out, plates of gujiya do the rounds and the streets brace for their annual drenching. This year brings a slight celestial twist: with the 3 March lunar eclipse in play, many regions will light the Holika pyre then and break out the colours on 4 March, though local calendars may vary. Either way, if the streets feel too crowded, Tata Play Binge has lined up a clutch of films where Holi is more than backdrop; it is turning point, metaphor and mood-setter.
Here are five festive staples to stream:
Sholay (1975)
No Holi playlist is complete without Holi Ke Din Dil Khil Jaate Hain. Ramesh Sippy’s classic stages the festival in Ramgarh before the mood is brutally interrupted. Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra’s Jai and Veeru, enlisted by Sanjeev Kumar’s Thakur Baldev Singh to stop Amjad Khan’s Gabbar Singh, deliver a scene that swings from jubilation to dread in minutes. It is Bollywood spectacle at full volume.
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)
If Holi had a millennial soundtrack, it would be Balam Pichkari. Ayan Mukerji’s coming-of-age romance lets Ranbir Kapoor’s Bunny and Deepika Padukone’s Naina drop their guards in a swirl of colour and confession. Kalki Koechlin and Aditya Roy Kapur add to the ensemble in a film where flirtation matures into something more fragile.
Raanjhanaa (2013)
In the bylanes of Banaras, Holi turns intense. Dhanush’s Kundan is hopelessly devoted to Sonam Kapoor’s Zoya in a story that fuses unrequited love with political churn. The colours here feel heavy, a festival reframed as emotional upheaval.
Kati Patang (1971)
Aaj Na Chhodenge Bas Humjoli keeps this Rajesh Khanna–Asha Parekh drama evergreen. Beneath the song lies a tale of reinvention and quiet longing, as a woman assumes a new identity to escape her past. The Holi sequence glows with romance, even as the plot simmers with secrets.
Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)
Youthful and unabashed, this small-town romance pairs Varun Dhawan’s blustering Badri with Alia Bhatt’s self-assured Vaidehi. Holi becomes a flirtatious battlefield before the film pivots to questions of ambition and equality. It is bright, brash and keenly contemporary.
(Note: The cover image is AI-generated and meant for representational purposes only.)
iWorld
Netflix cuts jobs in product division amid restructuring
Layoffs hit creative studio unit as leadership and strategy shifts unfold.
MUMBAI: The streaming wars may be fought on screen, but the latest plot twist is unfolding behind the scenes. Netflix has reportedly begun laying off several dozen employees from its product division as part of an internal reorganisation, according to a report by Variety. The cuts are believed to have primarily affected the company’s creative studio unit, which works on marketing assets such as in app trailers, promotional visuals and live experience content for the streaming platform.
The company has not disclosed the exact number of employees impacted.
According to the report, the layoffs were not tied to employee performance. Instead, the restructuring eliminated certain roles while other employees were reassigned to different teams within the organisation.
The roles affected are understood to include designers, producers and creative specialists responsible for marketing and brand experience initiatives.
The job cuts come as Netflix adjusts its leadership structure and reshapes its product and creative teams. Last month, Elizabeth Stone was promoted from chief technology officer to chief product and technology officer, giving her oversight of product, engineering and data operations across the company.
Earlier, in December 2025, Netflix also appointed Martin Rose as head of creative for global brand and partnerships, a move seen as part of a broader restructuring of the company’s brand and product functions.
Despite the layoffs, Netflix remains one of the largest employers in the streaming sector. The company is estimated to employ around 16,000 people globally, with roughly 70 percent of its workforce based in the United States and Canada. In 2023, the company reported approximately 13,000 employees, indicating that its headcount had grown significantly before the latest restructuring.
The workforce changes arrive at a time when Netflix is navigating a shifting financial and strategic landscape in the global entertainment industry.
The streaming giant recently secured $2.8 billion in additional cash after receiving a breakup fee from Paramount Skydance following its withdrawal from a deal involving Warner Bros. Discovery.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Netflix co chief executive Ted Sarandos explained that the company had evaluated multiple scenarios during the negotiations but chose not to match the competing offer once it learned that a higher bid had been submitted.
Netflix had capped its offer at $27.75 per share and ultimately stepped back rather than pursue Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition deal, which included a personal guarantee.
Sarandos also cautioned that the financing structure behind the Paramount Skydance transaction could have ripple effects across the entertainment industry.
According to him, the debt heavy deal could trigger significant cost cutting, with David Ellison, chief executive of Paramount Skydance, expected to eliminate about $16 billion in costs and potentially cut thousands of jobs as part of the integration process.
For Netflix, the current restructuring appears to be part of a broader attempt to streamline operations while continuing to invest in product, technology and global content even as the streaming industry enters a new phase of consolidation and financial discipline.
