iWorld
Piracy at YouTube under check, claims Raghavan
NEW DELHI: YouTube India head of content operations Satya Raghavan has claimed that it has succeeded in curbing piracy on its platform to a large extent. Veteran actress Shabana Azmi along with the young actor Tannishtha Chatterjee was the cynosure of all eyes as they conducted a session in Producers’ Lab at the ongoing Film Bazaar at IFFI Goa on ‘How to Pitch an Actor’.
Speaking in the Building Communities and Icons section at the Bazaar, Raghavan said “When you upload a film on YouTube, a fingerprint of that film is created. If somebody else is uploading that film, there are a certain proofs by which you come to know about this. YouTube is perhaps the only platform where you can actually know that someone has put up your content but you need to put your content up first, because about 500 hours of content is being uploaded every minute. This is a great system that allows the content owner to understand if their content is being pirated.” He was conducting an engrossing session about the burgeoning digital space and the platform that Youtube has provided filmmakers.
On monetisation of a Youtube channel, he said, “Once you turn on the section called monetisation in your backend control centre, only then will it serve you ads. You also have to think about whether you’re sending the right signals through your content, which is by giving good descriptions, that help to identify the content and helps us match it with viewers on the other side.”
The Bazaar organized by the National Film Development Corporation concludes tomorrow. It is held to coincide with the International Film Festival of India which will conclude on 27 November.
Azmi, who attended the Film Bazaar for the first time since it commenced a decade earlier, was also there to promote her upcoming film Idgah which is a part of the ‘Film Bazaar Recommends’ section. She said, “I learnt there is a formal way in which film business can be conducted. I think it’s important because I’m very interested in the work of first-time filmmakers.”
“I think these tags of a film being ‘women-oriented’ and ‘heroine-oriented’ have to slowly go out at some point, to feel that we are reaching a point of gender equality, and recognising that cinema is essentially a medium of storytelling,” said Chatterjee.
“It’s important to highlight the truths about women today, no matter how ugly they are,” said theatre artist/filmmaker/screenwriter Vani Tripathi Tikoo. “Once we address this, the change is cumulative, and only then will it be accepted widely as a part of our culture and society.”
Producer Kiran Rao, who spent most of her time catching diverse south Asian films in the Viewing Room, said Aamir Khan Productions will attend the next edition of the NFDC Film Bazaar.
“The Film Bazaar has changed the landscape of how films are made and distributed, and really brought the film community together. It’s a fantastic and much-needed annual event. Aamir Khan Productions will hope to look for projects, meet people and find talent here. The Viewing Room is a great resource that Deepti DCunha, programmer of WIP, has created,” Rao said.
The Knowledge Series started with the Investor Pitch of Film Bazaar Recommends (Part I) which screened documentary and film trailers followed by a short presentation by the filmmakers, highlighting the support that they needed to complete their process.
Baradwaj Rangan moderated a discussion with filmmaker Prakash Jha, Chatterjee and Tikoo on “Women Protagonists in Indian Filmscape – Changing Dynamics.”
In the discussion on Unique Distribution Models – Reaching Out With Independent Films moderator by filmmaker Rohan Sippy, panelists included filmmakers Sandeep Mohan, director of Love, Wrinkle-Free and Hola Venky!, and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, who started ‘Cinema Cab’, a movement to screen films across the length and breadth of Kerala, and co-founder and CEO of Reelmonk Vivek Paul.
Rohan Sippy explored the intricacies of the two filmmakers’ approaches, which both thrived on a non-monetary promotional approach and remarked, “It’s very interesting how you have managed to create unique models that work for you and your specific films and audiences. It takes a lot of conviction to follow through on such a vision of involving the audience, and taking the film to them.”
In Storytelling & Narratives in 360 degrees section, Amsterdam Creative Industries Network Coordinator of Interaction and Games Lab Mirjam Vosmeer presented an illuminating presentation on Virtual Reality, and spoke at length about the various aspects of the uncharted territory that are being researched upon.
Filmmaker and animator Gitanjali Rao who moderated the discussion and posed questions from the point of view of a filmmaker.“It is such a different way of telling stories. Besides, the fantasy and pleasure aspect of Virtual Reality, it is the empathy that it can induce in the viewer that really fascinates me,” she confessed. “To be able to involve an audience in such an immersive way has a lot of potential, especially for documentary filmmakers.”
The panel discussion on Queen’s Journey & Filming In the Netherlands moderated by the media specialist and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar included film commissioner, Nederlands Filmfonds, Bas Van der Reem, the producer Thomas Drijver and the producer of Queen Vivek Bajrang Agrawal. The panel discussion on VOD as the key distribution platforms for independent films included founder of The Film Collaborative, Orly Ravid, and Vista India CEO Suri Gopalan.
Before the film bazaar commenced, the Film Facilitation Office had organised a one-day Workshop with Nodal Officers appointed by various State Governments and Central Government Ministries / Departments / Agencies to act as the one-point contact for easing the process of filming in their respective jurisdiction.
The workshop included a case study presentation by Gujarat, which won the National Award for the Most Film Friendly State in 2016. It is envisaged that these discussions would motivate and mobilize the Nodal officers from State and Central Governments towards not only easier and timely facilitation of permissions for shooting films in their State, but also undertaking initiatives for a favorable filming environment.
iWorld
X launches XChat messaging app on iOS with calls and encryption
Standalone app marks shift from “everything app” vision, adds E2E messaging.
MUMBAI: From one big app to many small chats, X seems to be splitting its ambitions. X has rolled out its standalone messaging app, XChat, to iOS users, opening up a new front in its evolving product strategy. The app allows users to connect with existing X contacts through private and group messages, file sharing, as well as audio and video calls. The launch follows a limited beta phase, where the platform tested the product with a smaller user base to refine the experience. Now available publicly, XChat marks a notable pivot from earlier ambitions championed by Elon Musk to turn X into a single “everything app” combining messaging, payments, commerce and more.
Instead, the company under xAI ownership and backed by SpaceX appears to be building a suite of standalone applications, each targeting specific use cases while expanding its broader ecosystem.
At launch, XChat includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, PIN-based access, disappearing messages, and features such as message editing, deletion for all participants, and screenshot blocking. The company has also said the app is free from advertisements and tracking mechanisms, positioning it as a privacy-first alternative in a crowded messaging space.
However, security claims around the platform are likely to face scrutiny. Earlier iterations of XChat drew criticism from experts who argued it fell short of established encrypted platforms like Signal. With the wider rollout, the app is expected to undergo fresh evaluation to assess whether those concerns have been addressed.
Beyond messaging, XChat will also house X’s Communities feature, which is being discontinued on the main platform due to low usage and spam concerns. Migrating these users could provide an early boost to adoption, effectively turning XChat into both a communication and community hub.
The move underscores a broader recalibration at X less about cramming everything into one app, and more about spreading bets across multiple touchpoints, one message at a time.
