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Quo Vadis Anupama Chopra, Film Companion?
Mumbai: The film publication biz is rife with rumours – about the stars and directors – normally. Now it is the journos who write about the stars who are being gossiped about. Take the case of Anumpama Chopra – the founder of the evocative Film Companion (FC). The goss has been running riot that Chopra – a former India Today journo who set up the website and the wife of ace director Vidhu Vinod Chopra – is shutting down FC, which by the way has been putting up a healthy financial performance.
Then why bring down the shutters on FC?
Coz, Film Companion is giving way to US entertainment publication The Hollywood Reporter, with Chopra likely to helm the Indian edition, goes the strong canards. Chopra will apparently pocket a healthy trove of cash for exiting FC.
The Hollywood Reporter is part of the Penske Media Corp which also boasts other titles such as Variety, Deadline Hollywood, Rolling Stone, Billboard etc. BollywoodLife is amongst its other flagship Indian titles, boasting more than 20 million unique visitors.
No executive from Penske Media Corp which is owned by Jay Penske was available for comment or confirmation. How, Bollywoodlife.com, the Indian edition of The Hollywood Reporter will find a fit with each other was unclear at the time of writing, but observers believe that the former will continue to focus on the personal lives of actors while the latter will be trade and B2B-focused.
PMC had earlier partnered with Zee TV to set up India.com – in a joint venture.
eNews
PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
