iWorld
Studio9 enters OTT with Jazz City, a high-stakes espionage drama
Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh Liberation War, the ten-episode Sony LIV series marks a bold first move for TV9 Network’s premium production arm
CALCUTTA: A Park Street jazz club. A reluctant spy. Calcutta, 1971.
Studio9, the premium content arm of TV9 Network, has arrived on India’s mainstream OTT stage with exactly the kind of prestige drama it has been promising, and Jazz City, now streaming on Sony LIV, is a bold opening statement.
The ten-episode historical espionage series follows Jimmy Roy, played by Bangladeshi star Arifin Shuvoo, the owner of a Park Street jazz club who is pulled from comfortable detachment into the dangerous underground of the resistance movement. When Indian intelligence officer Sinha, played by Shantanu Ghatak, conscripts him into the world of spycraft, Calcutta’s most glamorous nightspot becomes a covert nerve centre for spies, revolutionaries, war journalists and refugees.
The series was created, written and directed by Soumik Sen, whose previous credits include the acclaimed OTT series Jubilee and the feature film Gulaab Gang. It is produced by Studio9 in partnership with StudioNext, with creative producer Arpita Chatterjee helming the complex multi-location shoot spanning West Pakistan, East Pakistan and Calcutta. Cinematographer Pratik Parmar’s recreation of 1970s Park Street is complemented by an original soundtrack composed by Arka Mukherjee, Diptarka Bose and Soumik Sen, blending jazz with Rabindra Sangeet to evoke the cultural tensions of the era. The ensemble cast includes Sauraseni Maitra, Sayandeep Sengupta, Shreya Bhattacharya, Shataf Figar, Tanika Basu, Aniruddha Gupta, Amit Saha and Alexandra Taylor.
The reviews since its March 18 launch have been warm. IWMBuzz praised the show for conjuring an atmospheric noir world in which the jazz club becomes “an ambiguous sanctuary, simultaneously a refuge and a crucible of danger”, while singling out Shuvoo’s ability to blend charisma with world-weariness. NewsBytesApp called it “moody, politically charged, and artistic”, adding that Shuvoo’s performance makes it an engaging watch and that Park Street itself gradually becomes a crucial character.
Sen is unapologetic about his ambitions. “Jazz City is my love letter to Bengal’s untold post-Independence saga,” he said. “Delivering this under tight timelines without a single compromise on creative excellence has been thrilling. It’s proof that bold Bengali storytelling can command global stages. Studio9’s backing has unleashed our most ambitious work yet.”
Chatterjee echoed the mood. “Jazz City on Sony LIV marks Studio9’s entry into prestige OTT content,” she said. “It is our statement of intent: world-class narratives rooted in cultural truth, executed with precision. Our recent Asian Television Award for Fan and Fanatics showed what we are capable of. Jazz City is another testament to our growing capabilities.”
That award, a best documentary programme win at the 30th Asian Television Awards in Singapore, gave Studio9 a timely credential ahead of this debut. The production house is also in post-production on Duologue with Barun Das, Season 4, featuring Sourav Ganguly, Vijay Amritraj, Lothar Matthäus, Bianca Balti and Aamir Khan, set to premiere on Jio Hotstar.
Bengali-language storytelling has long punched below its weight on national and global platforms. With Jazz City, Studio9 is making the case that it need not.
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.
