iWorld
Hotstar Specials: ‘Roar of the Lion’ trailer promises to be an ultimate comeback story
MUMBAI: Hotstar Specials is delighted to present its first show “Roar of the Lion”, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni who speaks about the darkest phase of his career, when he was accused of the worst crime in cricket and Chennai lost its beloved team.
The teaser left us wanting to know more about Dhoni’s ‘Zidd’ while the trailer sheds light on the emotions that played a big part in making Captain Cool what he is today. Demonstrating a side of him not commonly seen, the trailer includes the soon to be iconic line uttered by M.S. Dhoni: “The biggest crime I can commit is not murder, its actually match fixing.”
Roar of the Lion’ is a story of how a bunch of men in yellow jerseys wrote one of India’s greatest comeback stories under the leadership of M.S.Dhoni. The series follows the human emotions of not only the members of Team CSK, but also of their beloved fans, during the days that led to the CSK ban and the 2 years that followed.
Shot across multiple locations including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Australia, this is a finite story of 6 episodes of 30 minutes each. Shot across locations in India from Chepauk Stadium in Chennai to Dhoni’s hometown of Ranchi, the story weaves in a narrative never seen before for been created by master storyteller Kabir Khan, making his debut in the digital space, written by Kausar Munir, and is a co-production between Dhoni Entertainment Pvt Ltd and Banijay Asia.
While the trailer leaves a lot to be seen it brings to the screen some of the voices who have for the first time shared their opinion about the ban including the CSK management, the people behind CSK.
Hotstar Specials presents “Roar of the Lion” will be streaming from 20th March onwards with all the episodes available for fans to watch.
Hotstar Specials, the new label launched by India’s biggest OTT player – Hotstar- will bring big, bold, authentic stories created by some of the biggest storytellers. Featuring some of the most unconventional stories, every show on Hotstar Specials will be available to crores of consumers across India in 7 languages i.e. Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
