iWorld
Hungama Play bets big on regional language content
KOLKATA: Hungama Digital Media’s VoD platform Hungama Play has unveiled plans to release more than 20 original shows in six Indian languages over the next 12 months.
These languages include Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and Bhojpuri, which together contribute to over 80 per cent of the consumption on the platform. Hungama Play’s first Telugu original show, Game, releases this week. The show will receive a multilingual showcase and will be available in Tamil and Kannada as well.
In addition to their availability on Hungama Play, all original web series will benefit from Hungama’s wide distribution network. Most shows will be available to stream through Hungama Play on MX Player, Airtel Xstream, Vi Movies and TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Tata Sky Binge, Tata Sky Binge+, DishSMRT Stick, D2H Stream, DishSMRT Hub, Siti Playtop, ISPs like Meghbela Broadband, Alliance Broadband, ACT Fibernet and Netplus, and smart TVs like TCL, OnePlus TV, LG, Sony Bravia, CVTE, Toshiba and CloudWalker. Additionally, Hungama’s association with Xiaomi will enable consumers to watch the shows via Hungama Play on Mi TV.
Hungama Digital Media founder & CEO Neeraj Roy said, “The multilingual and multi-genre approach that we have followed for building our content library has helped us increase consumption on our platform by over 3X in the last two years, with the six key languages serving as the primary drivers for this growth. We are committed to strengthening our original programming further by delivering local, relevant and entertaining narratives, now across several languages. We are certain that our programming coupled with our distribution network will help us increase our user-base by 2X over the next year.”
Releasing on 21 April 2021, Game is a crime drama in Telugu (also available in Tamil and Kannada) that weaves in elements of mystery and thrill, and follows six different people, each involved in a murder conspiracy. Their quest for the truth sets into motion a plan that throws their lives into chaos. The show stars popular actors from the Telugu entertainment industry – Noel Sean, Srikanth Iyyangar, Kona Sasitha, Vinay Varma and Abhinav Manikanta – in key roles. It is produced by Gangapatnam Sridhar and directed by Ganga Sanampudi.
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.
