Film Production
AVM Productions and Spirit Nipuna form JV
BANGALORE: AVM Productions and Spirit Media (subsidiary of Suresh Productions and Rama Naidu Studios) have announced a Joint Venture (JV) to create an advanced state-of-the-art film processing, Digital Intermediate (DI) and Visual Effects facility in Chennai.
The new JV will kick off with 50 world-class visual effects professionals and technicians, and will double its numbers by the end of the year 2006. The team would operate out of AVM Studios, which has state-of-the-art infrastructure and will also install top-of-the-line equipment for Visual Effects, DI and Film Processing, informs an official release.
This JV would also bring in first-of-its-kind the “Kodak-kit chemistry negative processing technology” imported from New Zealand. For the first time in the country, film makers would benefit from the high quality Kodak film and negative processing experience.
“We are delighted to form a JV with the Spirit-Nipuna team, which will bring immense value to the film making industry. Our joint experience with 50,000 man years in film making will surely boost the technical composition to Digital standards.. This partnership will definitely set new standards film making,” says AVM Productions managing partner MS Guhan.
“The combined of AVM and Spirit Nipuna corporate expertise will provide film makers and entertainment companies with a well balanced studio facility equipped with a rare mix of the latest imaging technologies, artists, visual effects (VFX) supervisors, and technicians to provide story-driven visual enhancement.” says Suresh Productions MD Suresh Babu.
“The Spirit-Nipuna success in Hyderabad and now the partnership with AVM Productions will bring in significant opportunities in the domestic and global visual effects segment. The joint team would work on forthcoming films being produced by AVM as well as other producers in Chennai.” says Spirit Media MD Rana Daggubati.
“We’re proud to be associated with AVM Productions, and are very excited to work on challenging projects. This partnership brings in significant opportunities with the major boom in the global digital effects industry,” says Nipuna COO Deepak Mangla.
Spirit-Nipuna has successfully completed their first Tamil project AVM’s ‘Tirupati’ an Ajith starrer, which has been released today. Spirit-Nipuna bagged this project against stiff competition from existing post production facilities in India, the release adds.
Film Production
Disney to cut 1,000 jobs under new chief executive
The entertainment giant’s freshly installed boss inherits a restructuring already in motion, with marketing and corporate roles bearing the brunt
CALIFORNIA: Walt Disney is preparing to slash up to 1,000 jobs in the coming weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, as the entertainment giant’s freshly installed chief executive moves swiftly to trim fat and tighten the ship.
The cuts, less than 1 per cent of Disney’s global workforce of 231,000, will fall hardest on marketing and corporate roles. The planning, notably, began before D’Amaro formally took the top job in March, suggesting the new boss inherited a restructuring already in motion rather than one of his own making.
Driving the push is Asad Ayaz, Disney’s newly appointed chief marketing officer, who in January assumed command of a unified, company-wide marketing operation spanning film, television and streaming. His consolidation drive has been given a suitably cinematic internal name: Project Imagine.
The move is modest by Disney’s recent standards. Between 2023 and 2025, under former chief executive Bob Iger, the company eliminated roughly 8,000 positions across several brutal rounds of cuts, saving $7.5 billion, comfortably exceeding its own targets. As recently as June 2025, several hundred more jobs were axed across Disney Entertainment, hitting film and television marketing, publicity, casting, development and corporate finance.
Disney’s structural headaches are well-documented: shrinking streaming margins, a weakened box office, and fierce competition from Amazon and YouTube gnawing at its flanks. The company is merging its Disney+ and Hulu teams into a single app, has brought in consultants from Bain & Co to guide its broader cost strategy, and is betting heavily on digital growth.
The wider entertainment industry offers little comfort. Sony Pictures, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all taken the knife to their workforces in recent years, and further cuts loom if Paramount’s acquisition of Warner goes through.
For D’Amaro, the message is clear: there will be no honeymoon period. The magic kingdom still has some cost-cutting spells left to cast.
