iWorld
Disney+ Hotstar announces ‘Home Dancer’ online dance competition
MUMBAI: Premium streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar has announced a first-of-its-kind online dance competition: Home Dancer. As people across India remain confined to their homes, Disney+ Hotstar is gearing up to offer a unique opportunity for dance lovers to showcase their moves from the comfort of their homes. Within the first week of the show’s announcement, Disney+ Hotstar has received thousands of submissions, far surpassing what an on-ground show would achieve in terms of entries, encompassing participants across age groups and regions. While most submissions have come from the younger generation (below 30 years), there has also been a great response from people in the age groups of 30 years and above. The show has not only received several entries from metros but also from smaller cities and towns such as Banswara, Jhunjhunu, Bhilwara, showing that India is full of budding talent. Disney+Hotstar will air the pilot episode of Home Dancer on 25th May.
The show will feature an exciting celebrity line-up and selected performances from the best entertainers in India. Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez will launch Home Dancer, which will be hosted by popular television actor Karan Wahi.
Acclaimed choreographers, Chandni Srivastava and Chetan Salunke of Dance+ fame, will be the judges of the show.
Home Dancer, which will air bi-weekly, is the first online competition of its kind in India that allows viewers to vote for their favorite entries. Spanning a period of five weeks, there will be a cash prize of INR 4 lakhs up for grabs every week.
Disney+ Hotstar spokesperson said, “We are thrilled to announce the launch of Home Dancer as part of our endeavor to offer interactive and innovative ways to connect with our viewers while we continue to stay at home. We are glad to receive participation from metros and non-metros while tapping into a diverse set of audiences and cultures”
To be able to participate in the campaign, interested viewers can login to the Disney+ Hotstar app, select the theme of the week and choose any one of the 10 pre-loaded tracks to submit their respective 60-90-second dance videos on the microsite. The first week’s theme is #LockdownDanceUp. After receiving the entry submissions, the judges will shortlist the top 10 entries. Every week two episodes will be released on Disney+ Hotstar wherein the shortlisted performances will be featured in an episode, following which voting lines will be open for two days. Thereafter, in the follow-up episode, the contestant with the maximum number of votes will be announced the winner of Home Dancer for the week.
Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez shared, “I’m extremely happy that Disney+ Hotstar has launched Home Dancer, to connect with their audiences as we continue to stay quarantined. What appealed to me is that it caters to both – dance lovers as it gives their talent the stage it deserves and viewers, who are always eager to watch fresh content.”
Actor and host Karan Wahi said, “I’m thrilled to host Home Dancer. I urge all viewers to put their best foot forward and participate in the show while others can lend their support by voting for their favourites”
Chandni Srivastava said, “The lockdown has encouraged brands to think out of the box and I am truly excited to be associated with such a unique show format. As a judge, I can’t wait to witness the talent and love for dance that people have in our country. I’m looking forward to new learnings and a fun-filled experience.”
Home Dancer will be an exciting and a super fun addition to Disney+ Hotstar’s offering of high-quality free content, which includes daily catch-up TV shows in 8 Indian languages, a vast library of blockbuster movies and LIVE and on-demand news in 8 languages from the country’s leading news channels. It also features comprehensive sports clips covering major sporting events, such as the IPL, BCCI cricket series, Premier League, ISL and PKL, with all the exciting action from the day available as match highlights, key individual performances and match analysis.
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
