MAM
Pan Masala ads featuring celebrities violate ASCI’s code
MUMBAI: Continuing with the mission to address misleading, vulgar, hazardous and unfair advertisements, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) is set to investigate advertisements by ‘Pan Masala’ brands featuring celebrities as they violate ASCI’s code of self-regulation in advertising content.
This comes in the wake of the recent appeal by the Health Department of Delhi Government, to not have celebrities appear in such products’ ads.
ASCI secretary general Shweta Purandare said, “At this juncture, we would like to educate the consumers and the advertisers that while products like Pan Masala and Supari are not banned for sale or from advertising by law, the ASCI code does not permit the use of celebrities in advertisements of products, which by law require health warning on its pack or cannot be purchased or used by minors. Complaints against such advertisements have been received by ASCI and are being looked into. ASCI will approach the concerned advertisers to take necessary corrective action post decision by our Consumer Complaints Council.”
According to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) Rules and Regulation, statutory warnings like ‘Chewing of Pan Masala / Supari is injurious to health’ are mandatory to be printed on the pack as well as for the advertisements. It has been observed that a large number of Pan Masala brands are in potential contravention of the advertising codes under ASCI’s Chapter III (to safeguard against the indiscriminate use of advertising in situations or of the promotion of products, which are regarded as hazardous or harmful to society or to individuals, particularly minors, to a degree or of a type, which is unacceptable to society at large). More specifically, Clause 2 (e) under Chapter III states: advertisements should not feature personalities from the field of sports, music and cinema for products which, by law, either require a health warning in their advertising or cannot be purchased by minors.
Digital
Galleri5 launches India’s first AI cinema OS at India AI Summit
Collective Artists Network unveils end-to-end production platform powering Mahabharat series and Hanuman teaser.
MUMBAI: India’s cinema just got an AI operating system upgrade because why settle for tools when you can have a full production command centre? Collective Artists Network and Galleri5 today unveiled Galleri5 AI Studio at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, billing it as the country’s first cinema-native production technology platform. Launched on 20 February 2026, the system acts as an end-to-end orchestration layer for film and television, integrating generative AI, LoRA-driven character architecture, controlled shot pipelines, 3D/VFX tools, lip-sync, upscaling, quality control, and delivery, all tuned for theatrical and broadcast standards.
Unlike piecemeal AI tools, Galleri5 controls the entire stack from script and world-building to final master output. Filmmakers retain creative authorship, continuity, and IP security while slashing timelines from years to months.
The platform is already in live use at scale. Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh, an AI-powered series produced under Collective’s Historyverse banner, is airing on Star Plus and streaming on JioHotstar, ranking among the top-watched shows in its slot. Meanwhile, Chiranjeevi Hanuman – The Eternal (produced by Star Studios 18) dropped its teaser on IMAX screens, leveraging Galleri5’s infrastructure for the visuals.
Collective Artists Network founder and group CEO Vijay Subramaniam said, “For India to lead in the next era of storytelling, we have to think beyond tools and start building systems. This is about putting durable production infrastructure in place so creators can dream bigger, producers can execute faster, and our stories can travel further.”
Galleri5 partner at Collective and CEO Rahul Regulapati added, “Cinema requires precision, repeatability, and control. Off-the-shelf AI doesn’t solve that. Orchestration does. We built an operating system where technology bends to filmmaking, not the other way around.”
Under Historyverse, Collective Studios is developing a slate including Hanuman, Krishna, Shiva, and Shivaji blending advanced AI systems with traditional craft. The summit session featured directors from Hanuman, Krishna, and Shiva alongside Collective leaders, diving into real-world case studies: what delivers on screen, what glitches, and how production economics are shifting.
At a summit packed with global tech brass and policymakers, Galleri5 stakes a bold claim, cinema’s future belongs to integrated systems, not isolated gadgets and India is building one right now. Whether you’re a filmmaker eyeing faster workflows or just curious about AI remaking epics, this OS could be the script-flip the industry didn’t see coming.
