Brands
Manforce and Ashley Rebello turn fashion into HIV awareness spotlight
MUMBAI: Fashion took on a fresh purpose at the Jio World Convention Centre as Manforce Condoms joined hands with designer Ashley Rebello for a World Aids Day showcase that blended style, culture and social good. The idea was simple yet striking: use fashion to spark candid conversations on HIV prevention and safe sex.
Rebello sent bold, latex-inspired creations down the runway, playing with symbolism around protection, empowerment and ownership of one’s choices. The unconventional materials stood in for a larger message, encouraging audiences to rethink stigma and approach sexual wellness with comfort rather than caution.
Star appeal added extra shine. Malaika Arora and Sunny Leone attended the event, amplifying the call to normalise discussions around safer intimacy and to keep HIV awareness in the national spotlight.
Strengthening the effort beyond the catwalk, Manforce announced a contribution of Rs 11 lakh to Saathii, a national non-profit working across 36 states and union territories to support marginalised communities with stigma-free healthcare and social services. The brand said the donation reflects its commitment to India’s goal of ending Aids by 2030.
Mankind Pharma chairman and managing director Rajeev Juneja said the initiative grew from an understanding that young consumers respond better to messages that balance safety with appeal. He noted that flavoured condoms and the launch of Epic, the brand’s thinnest non-flavoured variant, were earlier steps in that direction. Taking the message through fashion, he said, makes responsible choices feel relevant rather than remote.
Designer Ashley Rebello added that fashion has long been a universal language and this collaboration allowed creativity to champion a cause. Turning latex into couture was his way of transforming protection into a conversation starter.
Sunny Leone, who has been associated with the brand for years, said she was proud to support an initiative that encourages people to feel confident discussing safe sex and HIV prevention. She added that fashion makes the message modern, relatable and far more likely to travel.
With the showcase, Manforce reinforced its continuing efforts to promote safe sex and support wider HIV prevention initiatives, keeping public health at the heart of its advocacy.
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.
