MAM
Ad creatives react to Star Plus’ 3D innovation
MUMBAI: Star India is coming up with its one of the most expensive show – Mahabharat – and it is surely spending a lot of moolah in promoting it.
When you have a mega property, you probably have to think mega-plus while trying to communicate its scale to your consumer. That‘s something many a company follows. And that‘s the tack even Star India took today to announce the launch of its epic Mahabharat which is slated to air on its Hindi GEC Star Plus from tonight.
A four page false cover ad adorned today’s Bombay Times (an advertorial, entertainment, promotional supplement of The Times of India). It featured the epic show‘s characters (Arjun, Draupadi and Duryodhan) of Mahabharat. And to top it all, it was all in 3D! Yes, you read it right.
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KV Sridhar and Viral Pandya feel that the 3D effect was unnecessary
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In fact, the network is leaving no stone unturned to create enough and more buzz related to it. From 3D innovations on OOH platforms across cities to promos on 25 other channels apart from the Star network, the channel wants to make sure that people don’t miss out on its blockbuster epic.
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The show is estimated to have a budget of Rs 100 crore and out of this, 20 per cent has been allotted to marketing.
The innovations which have been conceptualised by Contract Advertising, however seem to have failed to dazzle other creative heads. Leo Burnett NCD KV Sridhar feels that there is nothing new in the so-called innovation. “It’s an old concept and will only attract small children’s attention especially today when 3D is a common phenomenon,” he says while emphasising on the fact that innovations today have moved up a notch with augmented reality.
He’s not alone. Even Out of the Box CCO Viral Pandya feels that there was no need for a 3D effect when the message would have been effective enough in 2D which Star did with the Mumbai morninger Mid-Day and The Hindustan Times Café did. “If one looks at the Volkswagen Talking newspaper (again TOI and The Hindu) innovation which appeared three years back, this is just plain blah! There is no idea in it expect for showing that one has enough money to spend.”
The two innovations most can’t get over are the ones created for the German automaker (Volkswagen) which got everyone talking. As per reports, the Das Auto company spent close to Rs 6 crore on that exercise. The other one (2011) was the integrated 3D campaign for Audi A8 L.
However, there are a few who feel that the innovation did encourage them to pick up and try on the 3D glasses. “It did manage to create a little bit of noise,” says Lowe Lintas & Partners NCD Arun Iyer who adds, “It surely would have cost them a bomb!”
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Whereas Arun Iyer and KS Chakravarthy say that it did manage to create a little bit of noise
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Draftfcb Ulka NCD K S Chakravarthy (Chax) too believes that Star‘s innovation – something which no other channel has attempted before – is bound to have had an impact. “It‘s not as if 3D hasn’t been done before but the scale at which at which it has been done by Star could have worked in getting it noticed,” he says.
One just hopes that for Star‘s (it has been pushing the pedal on marketing and has been showing chutzpah just like Levers or P&G or Coke ) sake that 3D translates into TVT.
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IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
