Brands
Callebaut partners with Chef Arvind for the second consecutive year in India
Mumbai: Callebaut, renowned for its authentic Belgian chocolates with a 100-year legacy, is thrilled to announce its continued collaboration with acclaimed chef Arvind Prasad as their brand ambassador in India for the second consecutive year. This partnership holds significant importance for Callebaut as it aims to fortify its connections with partners and showcase the diverse applications of its products.
Over the past year, Chef Arvind has represented the brand across several platforms. Some key highlights of last year are representing Callebaut at prominent events like India’s largest trade show, Aahar in Delhi, engaging with the chef community and influencers in the food industry, and participating in the CIBUS Parma trade show in Italy representing India.
Chef Arvind shared, reflecting on his collaboration with Callebaut, “In my culinary journey, I’ve worked with numerous renowned chocolate brands, but it’s with Callebaut that I’ve found a truly reliable partner. What excites me most about Callebaut chocolates is its workability, versatility, and unique Belgian Chocolate taste, enabling me to craft my best creations.”
For Diwali this year, Chef Arvind has conceptualized an exciting entremet, ‘Diya,’ an egg-free creation that pairs the richness of dark chocolate with saffron and a blend of nuts. He noted, “For this creation, I really wanted to create an indulgent dessert, pairing Belgian Chocolate with ingredients synonymous with Indian festivities, in this case, a blend of pistachios, almonds, and cashews, which are used extensively for Diwali gifting.”
Discussing the brand’s growth and the ongoing partnership with Chef Arvind, Barry Callebaut India MD Dhruva Sanyal the company that produces the Callebaut brand, stated, “Our focus is on expanding our reach among the chef’s community and promoting the Finest Belgian Chocolate across India. The collaboration with Chef Arvind has been incredibly fruitful, drawing attention to our Callebaut brand and integrating its products into well-known hospitality brands across India. We eagerly anticipate Chef Arvind’s extensive pastry expertise and reputation to elevate Callebaut’s brand awareness and market share.”
This year, Chef Arvind is scheduled to conduct several masterclasses, with the first interaction scheduled at the Bakery Biz in Mumbai on 29 November 2023. He will also continue creating, sharing, and inspiring his best creations via Callebaut’s digital platforms and be involved in Callebaut’s pan-India competition, which is aimed at providing an opportunity for the chef community to showcase their talent and compete for the title of ‘Callebaut Patissier of the Year.’
Brands
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.
