iWorld
Hotstar’s Tamil original starts today
MUMBAI: India’s leading digital streaming platform, Hotstar, has announced its new original series in Tamil, in association with celebrated film director, Balaji Mohan, titled “As I’m Suffering from Kadhal.” It will stream on Hotstar on 16 June, with all 10 episodes releasing simultaneously. Apart from Tamil, the series will also be available in Telugu, with English subtitles available for both languages.
The 10-part series revolves around the lives of three young couples, a young divorced man and his 8-year old daughter. Through its various characters, the show charts the entire arc of optimism one experiences in love, and its transitions from giddy excitement to utter frustration, with large doses of insight and humour.
This is a familiar theme for director Balaji Mohan, whose past work also explores different facets of the theme of love. His last project, Maari, featuring Dhanush and Kaajal Aggarwal was one of the biggest hits of 2015, with fans eagerly awaiting its sequel, Maari 2.
‘Falling in love is the easy part. It’s staying in love that’s tougher. And the endless optimism of human beings to try it over and over again, despite mixed results, is quite fascinating for me. It’s a subject I’ve explored in different ways, and this time, with a series. Urban audiences across the country would resonate with a theme like this, and I wanted this show to be able to reach all of them. Hotstar, with its massive reach, is the ideal medium to do so,’ shares Balaji Mohan.
‘Throughout our conversations with our viewers from the state, especially the younger users, one thing that comes out is that there is huge appetite for stories that are authentic and contemporary. This show is an effort to address that appetite. We believe that we have a unique proposition for our audiences in Tamil Nadu: with shows like this, with a large roster of Tamil movies, with TV shows and with sports coverage in Tamil, we now have a very distinctive offering for our millions of loyal users in the state’, shares Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan.
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.
