iWorld
Riding on the reach and success of Side Hero, Eros Now set to bring Season 2 of the comedy series
MUMBAI: Eros Now, the cutting-edge digital over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platform owned by Eros International Plc (NYSE: EROS) (“Eros”), a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment, recently released their first original series Side Hero directed by Rohan Sippy on September 24th. The eight-episode series received an overwhelming response from audiences prompting the OTT platform to announce the second season of Side Hero.
Enjoying tremendous popularity with a rating of 8.6 on IMDB as well as the number one position on Top Hindi Movies and Shows section within a week of its release on IMDB over other recently released movies during the same period such as Sui Dhaaga, the self-deprecatory comedy based on the life of actor Kunaal Roy Kapur stood firm ground against competition. The trailer of the series itself, clocked more than 10 million online views within a period of a week, making it one of the most watched trailers of any Indian Original Series. Most of its assets prior to the series’ launch on Eros Now including the poster and trailer, saw the highest level of engagement as well as trended on social media.
Interestingly, Side Hero lent to a greater contribution of viewership from larger screens with twice the amount viewership from premium subscription users as compared to basic users. The build up to the series tracked very well with viewers in 75 countries across the world sampling Side Hero episodes in the first week of launch itself. Further elaborating on the consumption pattern, Eros Now revealed the series enjoys 85% viewership in the age bracket of 18-24 (male & female) lending to an endemic viewership growth in the core target audience for the show.
Recently, Eros Now was awarded the ‘Best Web-Series’ for Side Hero along with Kunaal Roy Kapur bagging the award for Best Actor at the Streaming Awards hosted by Digital Hash in October 2018, adding another feather to the success of Side Hero series.
Talking about the success of the series, Ridhima Lulla, Chief Content Officer, Eros Group said, "It's overwhelming and humbling to receive such positive reactions to our very first original. This heartening response has encouraged us to consider following up the series with Season 2 as the show seems to have found its own fan base. With series like Side Hero, we want to continue bringing interesting programming that the youth haven’t sampled before and we hope audiences remain appreciative of our content offering.”
Director Rohan Sippy added, “We had a lot of fun creating Side Hero and partnering with Eros Now. Looking forward to unleashing Season 2 and take it to the next level, amplifying the crazy quotient. Fresh ideas have started brewing already”.
Lead actor Kunaal Roy Kapur said, “I’m really thrilled with the response we have received for ‘Side Hero’ and excited that Eros Now has decided that we need another season of crazy stories from the belly of Bollywood. Can’t wait to start”.
Side Hero Season 2 will reprise the same cast and will be directed by Rohan Sippy. Season 2 is slated for release in 2019. The series stars Kunaal Roy Kapur, Gauhar Khan, Arjun Kanungo and Gopal Dutt. All episodes are streaming and available for binge viewing for INR 49 and INR 99 per month on Eros Now.
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.
