MAM
Cosmos-Maya’s Motu Patlu wins ‘Best Animation’ award at 9th Dada Saheb Film Festival
MUMBAI: Cosmos-Maya’s flagship IP Motu Patlu which runs successfully on Nickelodeon has added yet another feather to its cap. After featuring in the Madame Tussauds Museum, the show won the ‘Best Animation – Jury’ award at the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival.
The prodco is working on its new season, which has Motu Patlu traveling to Europe. The new season is being created with never-seen-before animation quality and will set new benchmarks of 3D animation in the country.
The show has come a long way since its idea was conceived back in 2012 by Cosmos-Maya. The last 5 years have seen the show constantly top the ratings charts. BARC data for the week 09 Nov – 15 Nov indicates that the top 5 programs for the week are all Motu Patlu.
Motu Patlu has been doing exceedingly well on WowKidz, Cosmos-Maya’s YouTube platform with more than 33 million subscribers. It has garnered more than 5 billion views despite the fact that it is geo-blocked in India.
Cosmos-Maya’s IP portfolio also has the superhit buddy comedy, ‘Selfie With Bajrangi’, which airs on Disney Hungama.
Suhas Kadav, creator of the show commented on the development, “This award is testament to the genius of Motu Patlu – how one show has managed to change the landscape of the Indian animation industry. In the last seven years, the scale and reach of the show has increased exponentially. The show is now in its 10th season and instead of declining, the viewership is still increasing. As the creator of the show, it gives me immense pleasure to know that a huge number of people watch and admire the show and that Motu Patlu forms an integral part of their daily lives. That in itself is a very rewarding feeling.”
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
