iWorld
Facebook started FDI avalanche in India during pandemic: Mukesh Ambani
KOLKATA: At the beginning of the Covid2019 pandemic, Jio attracted its largest global investor – Facebook, which announced a $5.7 billion investment in the telco. At the inaugural Facebook Fuel for India 2020 event, Reliance Industries chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani said that the social media giant had set the ball rolling for overall foreign investment in India. Since then, record FDI has flown into the country.
During a virtual session with Facebook founder, chairman & CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Ambani mentioned that Jio and Facebook have become value creation platforms for consumers as well as small businesses.
He went on to explain that while Jio brings digital connectivity, WhatsApp now with WhatsApp Pay brings digital interactivity, and the ability to move to close transactions. On the other hand, Jio Mart offers unmatched online and offline retail opportunity, which gives the small shops dotting India’s villages and small towns a chance to digitise and be at par with everyone else in the world.
“To my mind, more wealth creation means more employment and more business. And together with our platforms and the tools that we will provide to small businesses and to individual consumers, I believe will drive India to a $5 trillion economy and will make a much more equal India, with more equal wealth growth at the bottom of the pyramid,” Ambani added.
Zuckerberg also agreed that the vision of helping small businesses lies at the core of the partnership. Facebook supports more than 50 million WhatsApp Business App users globally every month and more than 15 million of these are in India, he shared. With communities around the world now in lockdown, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who need digital tools that they can rely on to find and communicate with customers and grow their businesses. He added that this is something that the Facebook-Jio partnership can really help with.
“We are looking forward to your (Facebook’s) involvement and innovation in India, creating benefits for hundreds of millions of people and then taking this innovation to the rest of the world. I hope that the rest of the world learns from Indian policy, and what Facebook is able to achieve in India. And we as Indians will be very proud, if Facebook says we did it first in India, and then took it to 100 countries. And I look forward to working with you on that,” Ambani reiterated.
iWorld
Subedaar puts Indian original cinema on the global map with record-breaking Prime Video debut
MUMBAI: Prime Video has a runaway hit on its hands. Subedaar, the gritty action drama starring Anil Kapoor, has stormed to become the most-watched Indian original movie on the platform in its opening weekend, cracking the Top 10 across 31 countries and landing in 91 per cent of India’s pin codes within days of its March 5 premiere.
The film, a visceral, emotionally-charged story of a retired soldier, Subedaar Arjun Maurya, wrestling with civilian life amid crime and corruption, has struck a nerve. Directed by Suresh Triveni and co-starring Radhikka Madan, Mona Singh, Saurabh Shukla, Aditya Rawal, Faisal Malik, and Khushboo Sundar, the film is already being hailed as a showcase for what Indian original storytelling can achieve on the world stage.
“Subedaar’s success is a reflection of the growing scale and global resonance of Indian storytelling,” said Nikhil Madhok, director and head of originals at Prime Video India. “The film’s emotional narrative, its rooted portrayal of a soldier confronting his toughest battles beyond the battlefield, has struck a chord. Anil Kapoor delivers an acting masterclass, while Suresh Triveni’s solid direction and great performances from the ensemble cast have resulted in love and appreciation from customers across the world.”
Kapoor, 62, has been here before, but rarely at this altitude. Written by Triveni and Prajwal Chandrashekar, with dialogues by Triveni, Saurabh Dwivedi, and Chandrashekar, the film is a production by Opening Image Films in association with Anil Kapoor Film & Communication Network (AKFCN), produced by Vikram Malhotra, Kapoor, and Triveni.
Subedaar streams exclusively on Prime Video in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu across India, and in over 240 countries and territories worldwide.
For Prime Video, the numbers tell the real story: one weekend, one film, a global footprint, and a very loud signal that Indian original cinema is no longer just travelling well. It’s arriving.
