MAM
VidUnit rolls out candid new talk show with Rashami Desai
MUMBAI: VidUnit has stepped into the long-form arena with a move that blends star power, storytelling and serious digital ambition. The influencer-first platform has unveiled its first original series, fronted by television favourite Rashami Desai, as it expands from short-burst creator content to full-fledged digital IPs.
The new show, Rashami Ke Dil Se Dil Tak, brings an unscripted and unfiltered flavour to YouTube, leaning into heartfelt conversations and the kind of emotional honesty the internet rarely gets without gloss. Rashami welcomes celebrity couples into an intimate setup where they talk about love, work, health, family and the unsaid bits of life behind the cameras.
It marks Rashami’s first major outing in digital-first long-format storytelling. The show blends warmth with whimsy, switching between tender exchanges and playful compatibility challenges that keep the mood light while uncovering the messy, magic-filled layers of modern relationships.
The opening slate features some of television’s most adored couples including Dipika Kakar Ibrahim and Shoaib Ibrahim, Gauahar Khan and Zaid Darbar, Surbhi Chandna and Karan Sharma, Claudia Ciesla and Arjun Goel, and Neha Bhasin and Sameer Uddin.
Rashami said the concept is deeply personal to her and that VidUnit felt like the right home because the platform understands the pulse of digital audiences. She added that she wanted a space where stories could be shared without judgement or filters and thanked founder Sourabh Kumar and his team for backing her vision.
Sourabh Kumar described the project as the start of VidUnit’s broader plan to build high-impact digital properties rooted in authentic storytelling. He said signing Rashami as its exclusive YouTube talent gives the platform a powerful connection with the Hindi-speaking market and added that the company is building a wider slate of IPs across genres and formats as part of its next growth chapter.
Rashami Ke Dil Se Dil Tak will stream on YouTube soon, promising viewers a front-row seat to candid conversations and the chemistry that keeps these relationships humming.
MAM
Smytten appoints Shishir Varma as CEO of Pulseai Research
Rebranded AI platform scales with 150 plus clients and 30 million users.
MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with what consumers say, Smytten is betting on what they actually do. The company has appointed Shishir Varma as chief executive officer of Pulseai Research, signalling a sharper push into AI-led, behaviour-driven consumer insights. The move comes as Smytten rebrands its insights vertical from Smytten PulseAI to Pulseai Research, marking a shift away from traditional, project-based research towards a more continuous, intelligence-led model.
Varma brings over 30 years of global experience across APAC markets, including India, China and Japan. Most recently managing director, Insights at Kantar Japan, he has built and scaled consumer insight businesses across geographies, including playing a key role in establishing Millward Brown in India. His mandate now: turn Pulseai into a category-defining platform in a space still dominated by surveys and static reports.
The pitch is straightforward but ambitious. Instead of relying on claimed responses, Pulseai Research taps into observed behaviour leveraging Smytten’s ecosystem of 30 million users built over a decade of product discovery, trials and purchases. The idea is to close the long-standing gap between what consumers claim and how they actually behave.
The numbers suggest early traction. In under 18 months, the platform has onboarded over 150 enterprise clients across sectors, pointing to growing demand for faster, more reliable alternatives to legacy research models.
Under the hood, the platform blends behavioural data with AI and large language model-led analysis to deliver real-time sentiment tracking, scalable qualitative insights, faster quantitative studies and always-on brand intelligence. In practical terms, that means compressing research timelines from weeks to days without sacrificing depth.
The ambition extends beyond FMCG. Pulseai Research is positioning itself as a cross-category intelligence layer, spanning auto, education, gadgets and emerging consumer segments anywhere behaviour-rich data can sharpen decision-making.
For Smytten, the leadership hire is less about optics and more about direction. With Varma at the helm, the company is leaning into a simple but powerful premise: in the age of AI, insight isn’t just about asking better questions, it’s about watching more closely.
