News Broadcasting
Bollywood gets technology savvy with ‘Chal Hutt’
MUMBAI: Technology today has made possible for the first time in hindi cinema an item number in a live-action, animation combined format. Shaadi Ka Laddoo, a feature film directed by Raj Kaushal, starring Mandira Bedi, Sanjay Suri & Aashish Chaudhary offers this unique proposition in the item song called “Chal Hutt.”
The song features actress Negar Khan and animated characters similar to the Who Framed Roger Rabbit technique. MTV and Nickelodeon have already started airing the promos of the movie and the song.
“Although the technique is not new in the west, its being used for the 1st time in an Indian feature film” remarks 2nz Animation director Kireet Khurana, the company responsible for conceiving and creating the the animated characters and blending it with Negar Khan.
The film also has some interesting animated transitions interspersed in between some of the scenes, which lends the film a unique storytelling motif. Shaadi Ka Laddoo is scheduled to release tentatively on the 15th April this year.
2nz Animation is one of the foremost animation and special effects companies in India, which was formed in 1996. 2nz Animation has also just completed the execution of another live-action animation song for feature film Detective Nani, directed by Romilla Mukherjee, due for release this summer.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
