iWorld
Planet Marathi OTT brings on Oscar jurist Ujwal Nirgudkar
MUMBAI: Planet Marathi’s OTT platform has been going from strength to strength. After onboarding seasoned entertainment prodigy Amit Bhandari and a considerable investment from Singapore-based Vistas Media Capital, Planet Marathi has roped in Academy Award jurist Ujwal Nirgudkar to serve as an advisor.
Ujwal Nirgudkar is the first Indian to be invited by the Academy to join as a member in the technical category (Members-At-Large) in 2017. He was pivotal in bringing Oscars president John Bailey to India in 2019 and opening the avenues of global recognition for the Indian film industry. Being a dignified industry fellow who has dedicated his life to nurturing the heritage, technology, and art of motion pictures globally, he is an asset to the Planet Marathi team. His role with Planet Marathi would be in an advisory capacity to take Marathi content, talent, and filmmaking art, to global heights. During his career, he has won several accolades his accolades of a number of fellowships and national-International awards for his work in preserving, restoring, and transcribing great works of art.
Nirgudkar said, “I am very happy to join Planet Marathi as an advisor. Marathi language has a rich content in the form of literature, which is still not explored to its full potential. Planet Marathi’s OTT platform has the technology and marketing capabilities to make it possible.”
Planet Marathi CMD Akshay Bardapurkar said, “The way Marathi industry has worked over the years needed a nudge in the right direction. We have immense talent, state of the art filmmaking technology, expertise that can create meaningful and entertaining content, yet we lacked the skill to package our art and pull the audiences to the theatres. Planet Marathi OTT revolutionises the way Marathi films, shows, and digital content is marketed, presented, and consumed. The recent association with Ujwal Nirgudkar is going to give Planet Marathi the right resources, expertise, and fuel to grow. I am glad that not just Marathi or Hindi, but global bigwigs demonstrated their faith in a Marathi platform understanding the value that we bring to the table.”
The recent developments in Planet Marathi OTT’s portfolio have piqued the curiosity of entertainment enthusiasts, industry professionals, filmmakers, investors, and audiences globally. There is an eagerness to experience the Planet Marathi OTT platform and the positive momentum it brings to the Marathi entertainment industry.
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.
