iWorld
ZEE5 unveils their december – binge holidays calendar
MUMBAI: ZEE5 has witnessed exponential growth in the last year with more than 75+ Originals premiering on the platform across languages and genres. The platform has also successfully acquired blockbuster films, launched India’s first and only fiction gamification ZEE5 Super Family (ZSF), announced big tie-ups with production houses, telcos, Smart TV brands and over and above this enhanced the UI to ensure better user experience.
The platform premiered some reverberating original stories which earned audience appreciation and multiple awards this season. Adding to this mix, they are now raising the bar higher with shows like The Chargesheet: Innocent or Guilty, Rangbaaz Phirse, Ragini MMS Returns Season 2, Karoline Kamakshi (Telugu Series) and the direct to digital premiere of the film Line of Descent to name a few
The December Calendar launch was a glitzy event with the starcast of various shows being present.
The evening started with ZEE5 Programming Head Aparna Acharekar, , India addressing the guests and announcing that the platform has initiated a welfare fund for the army as a gesture to salute our heroes. She then personally called upon stage a special guest, Lt. Colonel Sundeep Sen who was part of the NSG Commandos who were called upon to take charge of the situation during the 26/11 attack.
Also, present was producer Abhimanyu Singh, Contiloe Pictures and actors Arjan Bajwa & Arjun Bijlani who are part of the upcoming ZEE5 series The Siege: 26/11 slated to release, early next year.
The evening then moved to the unveiling of the calendar AV in the presence of the eclectic cast Jimmy Sheirgill, Sharad Kelkar, Sushant Singh, Neeraj Kabi, Arunoday Singh, Shiv Panditt, Tridha Choudhury, Varun Sood, Divya Agarwal, Giorgia Adriani amongst others.
Also, present was CEO Sunburn, Karan Singh and Indian music producer and DJ, Anish Sood and from the Sunburn Festival which is taking place in Goa on 27 December’19 and will be live streamed exclusively on ZEE5.
With all the shows and this stellar line-up, ZEE5 has an action packed December planned for viewers to end the year with full of entertainment. Attached below are show details for a quick glance.
Show Details as follows:
· Line of Descent: Starring Abhay Deol, Ronit Roy, Prem Chopra, Neeraj Kabi, Ali Haji and Brendan Fraser the film, is set against the backdrop of Delhi, the story revolves around an Indian mafia family at war with itself following the death of the patriarch. The film will premiere in India, on 4th December exclusively on ZEE5.
Trailer link: https://www.zee5.com/videos/details/line-of-descent-trailer/0-0-99308
Karoline Kamakshi : Starring Meena, Georgia, Angelina and Anto, the series revolves around Karoline, a badass French detective, and Kamakshi, a traditional Tamil brahmin girl and how they are required to work together with a common motive of catching the infamous drug lord, Furkin. The series heavily laced with humour is all set to release on 5th December exclusively on ZEE5
Trailer Link: https://www.zee5.com/zee5originals/details/karoline-kamakshi/0-6-2167
Ragini MMS Returns Season 2: Starring Divya Agarwal, Varun Sood, Navneet Kaur, Thea Dsuuza, Aarti Khetarpal and Mohit Duseja is a new spine-chilling erotic tale. The story revolves around Ragini who goes for an all girls’ trip and how things go horribly wrong when they check into a haunted hotel.
The Chargesheet – Innocent or Guilty : Starring Arunoday Singh, Tridha Choudhury, Shiv Panditt, Hrishita Bhatt, Ashwini Kalsekar, Kishori Shahane, Shakti Anand and Sikandar Kher, the show is unravels the story of a badminton player who was shot dead in broad daylight.
Trailer Link: https://www.zee5.com/zee5originals/details/the-chargesheet-innocent-or-guilty/0-6-2208
Rangbaaz Phirse : Starring Jimmy Sheirgill, Gul Panag, Sushant Singh and Spruha Joshi in lead roles the series highlights the story of a young guy who falls through the cracks because of politics and is robbed of his youth which subsequently ruins his life. It is about misguided manipulative youth. The nine-episode series highlights how an individual is not born as a criminal but becomes one because of the circumstances around him. #NotBornACriminal
Trailer Link: https://www.zee5.com/zee5originals/details/rangbaaz/0-6-1138/rangbaaz-phirse-trailer/0-1-293898
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.
