MAM
Star Sports clicks with its ICC Championship promos
MUMBAI: How do you better what you did the previous time? That was the question on top of the Star India creative communications’ team’s minds when they were conceiving the new promotional campaign for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The 2015 Mauka Mauka campaign was a runaway hit, spawning thousands of me-too pieces of video clips from users, viralising the idea like a raging bushfire.
From the brainstorming at the Star Sports network emerged the #championskaWorldCupcamapaign which has seen a clutch of promos including the ‘World Cup wali feeling’,‘Har Koi Dekhega’ and ‘Matrabhasha’ being launched which have been airing across its channels and on digital platforms. And the campaign which has been on for the past two months has got sufficient traction on its YouTube outlets.
But the latest challenge was how to build further hype around the 4 June Group B match between India and Pakistan at Edbagston in Birmingham in good old Blighty which it will be airing live.
“The ICC Champions Trophy is the biggest cricket tournament of the year and, with an India-Pakistan match, every cricket fan will tune-in no matter which side they cheer for. The passion, pride and enthusiasm that an India-Pakistan match draws from fans is unmatched around the world,” says a Star Sports spokesperson.
And that feeling has been encompassed into the one-liner #SabseBadaMoh which has been spun off into a promo. It is a take on the allure, the magnetism and the huge-audience pulling draw that an Indo-Pak conflict between the cherry and the willow on the field has. Every time the two nations go into battle, more than a billion hearts on both sides of the border beat faster, praying that one will best the other.
The #SabseBadaMoh promo been playing out on the Star India network and on various digital platforms promoting the clash.
The results have been impressive, say company officials, with more than 30 million users being reached, and viewing of the film crossing 7.5 million times across YouTube and Facebook. The average viewing time on the google owned streaming service: 66 seconds. Shares and engagements on Facebook have also been noteworthy standing at 45,000 and 160,000 respectively. Finally, relevant content around the “MOH” narrative has worked extremely well in delivering more than 1.3 million engagements on Cinema graphs, Graphics relating to trending topics, Carousel ads.
And while that is celebration time for the Star Sports creative comms team, what is the film about. Let’s take a look:
It basically showcases how a fan can willingly abandon any materialistic possessions and desires to attain moksh but cannot give up a chance to watch the cricketing action between India and Pakistan.
Set in scenic Ladakh, the film opens with a monk reading a story in a newspaper about a young businessman giving up his worldly possessions. Soon after, he sees the same man, dressed in a suit, stepping off a helicopter and walking towards the monastery. The film cuts to the man in various facets of his life, parting with his treasured belongings. Even after achieving all the success in the world, something is amiss in his life and he embarks on a quest to attain moksh.
At the monastery, the man is on the threshold of embracing the life of a monk starting with shaving-off his head, when a gust of wind flips a newspaper with the headline – India vs Pakistan clash at the ICC Champions Trophy on 4 June. Next we see that,the man races out of the monastery, to catch the most-awaited match of the year between India and Pakistan.
Ending on an emphatic note, the film states – “Yeh moh kabhi nahi chhutega.”
Industry observers point out that the core message of the promo is tapping into what young India is feeling today. Says one of them: “India is going through a massive reinvention exercise today. Many young Indian people are torn between idealism and living in reality – self realization vs materialism. This has further emerged in the Modi era where anyone can get rich quickly courtesy his government’s policies. So the #sabsebadamoh promo has clearly tapped into this sentiment of spiritualism vs living in the world in a rather lighter vein. Hence, it should continue to appeal to the youth.”
Apple rarely announces minor updates with much fanfare, and iOS 26.4 is no exception. No dramatic redesigns, no flashy keynote moments. What it delivers instead is a focused set of improvements that sharpen the experience you already have. If that sounds underwhelming, spend a week with it. You will change your mind.
Apple Music Learns to Listen Better
The biggest shift in this update lives inside Apple Music. Apple has brought AI-powered playlist generation to the app, and it works on mood rather than genre. Type something like “rainy evening at home” or “running late on a Monday,” and it builds a playlist that actually fits. This is not algorithmic guesswork dressed up in new clothing. It genuinely reads the intent behind vague descriptions and responds well.
Alongside this, a new concerts feature scans your listening history and surfaces live events happening near you. It is a smart bridge between your digital music habits and real-world experiences. Apple is quietly making the case that a music app should do more than just play songs.
Shazam also gets a meaningful upgrade. It can now identify songs without an internet connection. This might sound like a minor convenience, but anyone who has tried to Shazam something at a crowded venue with patchy signal will tell you it is anything but minor. The feature works locally on-device, which also means it is faster.
CarPlay Gets Smarter Controls
CarPlay has been updated with deeper integration for intelligent voice assistants. The goal is to reduce how often drivers need to look at a screen or tap anything at all. You speak, things happen. It is a clear step toward making the driving experience safer without stripping away functionality. The integration feels natural rather than bolted on, which is a harder thing to achieve than it sounds.
The Fixes You Feel Every Day
This is where iOS 26.4 earns its keep. Keyboard responsiveness has been improved, and the difference is noticeable immediately. Typing feels more accurate and less combative. Accessibility features have been refined across the board, with better contrast options and adjusted spacing that makes the interface easier to read without forcing you into larger text sizes.
The Health app has also been updated. It now surfaces more actionable insights from your daily data rather than just displaying numbers. If your sleep patterns have shifted or your activity levels have changed, the app now contextualises that clearly instead of leaving you to interpret raw figures on your own.
These are the kinds of changes that do not photograph well for a press release. They also happen to be the ones that make your phone feel genuinely better to use.
A Few Other Additions
New emojis have been added in this update. They will find their way into your conversations faster than you expect. Family Sharing has also been updated, with more granular control over shared payments and subscriptions. If you share an Apple account with family members, this puts clearer limits on who can spend what, which has been a long-requested fix.
What This Update Actually Represents
iOS 26.4 is Apple doing what it does best when it is not trying to make headlines. Every addition here serves a clear purpose. The AI music features are genuinely useful. The CarPlay improvements address a real safety concern. The small UI fixes accumulate into a noticeably smoother daily experience.
There is no bloat. Nothing feels experimental or half-finished. That discipline is harder to maintain than it looks, especially as operating systems grow more complex with each passing year.
If you have been holding off on updating, this is the one worth installing.
