MAM
Urban Company and Talented release ‘Dignity of Labour’ series’ third film
Mumbai: Urban Company has been on a mission to bridge the respect gap between India’s white and blue-collar workers over the past year. After Chhota Kaam, and Chhoti Soch, their third film in the series speaks about this subtle yet insidious prejudice, brought to life in conversation between a father and daughter.
Around this time each year, LinkedIn is flooded with chatter about leadership in workplaces- good managers, bad managers, toxic managers, handing out peanuts in the name of increment managers. However, the very same employees who engage in discourse around leadership styles, work-life balance and mental health, often don’t make the best employers, at home.
Urban Company senior brand manager Kartik Ahuja said, “Over the last 10 years, Urban Company has been instrumental in reshaping India’s access to blue-collared services. We have two constituents, our customers and our partners, and in order to create a mutually beneficial platform, a conversation around the dignity of labour isn’t just a communication platform, but a business necessity that ensures consistent year-on-year earnings growth for our partners, safety nets in the form of insurance and medical cover, Over 57,000 Urban Company professionals have benefitted from skill training programs and accreditations, climbing the ladder to upward social mobility. With this work, our intent is to nudge society to see our partners the way we see them – as professionals.”
Through hours of interviewing UC professionals, the creative team at Talented derived insights about the various ways in which the respect gap between blue and white-collar workers has widened. This bank of biases highlighted that the limited glass-cabin’ view of workplaces excludes the very environment that millions of UC professionals work in every day – our homes. Thus the mutual respect, irrespective of the stature or nature of work, that forms the bedrock of dignity, doesn’t permeate these glass borders.
Talented’s Aakash Desai added, “We all wax eloquent about mental health at the workplace and what we expect from our managers within the contours of Corporate India. We have an expansive vocabulary to talk about what makes a “toxic” workplace; and yet we often forget that our homes are the workplaces for UC Professionals and other support staff -that we are their managers. How do our actions at home weigh against our ideas of creating a conducive environment for someone to do their life’s best work? In our third film in the series, we attempt to bridge the respect gap between white and blue-collar workers, to reflect UC customers being allies to UC Pros.”
Superfly founder and director Kopal Naithani said, “The film is a slice-of-life, everyday conversation between a father and a daughter a casual chat that takes an unexpected turn and pushes the father to counter an unspoken prejudice. Our biases against blue-collar workers are seldom verbalised it is complex, rooted in class-based ‘othering’ and passed down generations. Therefore the only way to break these intergenerational cycles of bias, is to pause, recognise and question them.”
MAM
BLS International launches #VisaReady campaign to guide applicants
Initiative targets visa myths, delays and rejections with practical guidance
MUMBAI: Visa woes may soon meet their match because paperwork, it seems, is finally getting a user manual. BLS International has rolled out a new awareness drive, #VisaReadyWithBLSInternational, aimed at simplifying the often confusing visa application process and reducing delays caused by misinformation and incomplete documentation. The campaign, led across social media platforms, zeroes in on a long-standing pain point for travellers: lack of clarity around procedures, timelines and requirements. By offering step-by-step guidance, documentation checklists and clear Dos and Don’ts, the initiative attempts to turn what is typically a stressful process into a more predictable one.
At its core, the campaign also seeks to bust common myths that frequently derail applications issues that often lead to avoidable rejections or last-minute complications. The idea is to equip applicants with practical, actionable insights so they can plan better and submit stronger applications within expected timelines.
The push will not remain limited to digital channels. BLS International plans to extend the initiative across its Visa Application Centres globally, reinforcing awareness at key touchpoints where applicants engage with the process.
BLS International joint managing director Shikhar Aggarwal framed the campaign as more than a communication exercise, emphasising the company’s attempt to embed guidance and preparedness into every stage of the applicant journey.
Operating in over 70 countries and working with more than 46 client governments including embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions, the company has built a sizeable footprint in visa and consular services. With this campaign, it is now leaning into education as much as execution, signalling that in the world of visas, clarity might just be the new currency.
