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Journey from being a Pawn to Queen: Huma Qureshi fights misogyny, contempt and corruption in Subhash Kapoor’s Maharani, only on SonyLIV
A famous saying goes ‘The king may rule the kingdom, but it’s the queen who moves the board.’
From four walls of her rural home where her life revolves around being a dutiful wife, raising kids, milking cows, making cow dung cakes, and handling kitchen politics, Rani Bharti is hurled into the turbulent world of politics in a state that constantly grapples with corruption. Huma Qureshi as Rani Bharti makes an unlikely entry into such a world of the ‘kings’, set out to prove her worth as th0e ‘queen’. Created by Subhash Kapoor, SonyLIV’s latest offering “Maharani” is a highly anticipated political drama set to go live on 28th May 2021.
A twist of fate changes the ordinary life of Rani Bharti – she is overnight sworn in as the Chief Minister of the state. She is inexperienced yet tactical, docile yet defiant, shy yet strong, and hesitant but receptive. Sooner than she realises, she finds herself swimming in a sea rife with corrupt, immoral, manipulative, and power-hungry people. ‘Maharani’, at its heart, is much less a story of triumph, and more a searing look into the systemic oppression of women in society despite their indomitable spirit to turn every battle – personal or professional — around.
Will she be able to fight the innate patriarchy and yet be able to rally her troops to bring about change? Will she manage to unveil herself from under the ‘purdah’ of domesticity and draw open the curtains of politics? Watch the story unfold as Rani Bharti rises to show the world that she’s not just the queen of her own house!
‘Maharani’ is produced by Naren Kumar & Dimple Kharbanda, created by Subhash Kapoor with screenplay by Nandan Singh and is directed by Karan Sharma. The show boasts of a stellar cast Huma Qureshi it also stars, Sohum Shah, Amit Sial, Vineet Kumar, Pramod Pathak, Kani Kusruti, Inaamulhaq, Sushil Pandey, Atul Tiwari, Aashiq Hussain, Kannan Arunachalam, and Harish Khanna, in pivotal roles.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
