iWorld
ShemarooMe Forays into the marathi category with exclusive content offerings
MUMBAI: After receiving a great response across India for its OTT platform ShemarooMe, which was launched recently, Shemaroo Entertainment Limited, India’s leading content powerhouse, has announced the launch of its Marathi category. The Marathi category will host content ranging from plays, movies to original web-series. ShemarooMe app currently hosts video content across Bollywood, Gujarati, Devotion, Punjabi and Kids category for the Indian audience across all age groups. This will be the 6th content offering by ShemarooMe for its consumers. To the consumers delight, the Marathi category will be exclusively available on Vodafone PLAY and Idea Movies & TV App for a period of 30 days.
The OTT app ShemarooMe has a wide array of content for diverse set of audience and the newest Marathi category will be a feather to its cap. The Marathi category will see a wide selection of Marathi films, theatre plays, original web-series and many more. Marathi movies like Lagna Mubarak, Bhay along with some award-winning movies like Shubham Karoti Kalyanam, Baboo and Baaja will be a part of the newly launched Marathi category. For kids’ entertainment, ShemarooMe has some famous Marathi Animated movies like Bal Ganesh, Hanuman Returns, Ghatotkacha and many more.
Commenting on the latest addition of Marathi category to ShemarooMe app, Hiren Gada, CEO, Shemaroo Entertainment Limited, said, “The Marathi audience base is huge in India and we have selected the right content which can keep the audience of all age groups entertained. The Marathi category will only give a boost to our current content offerings which we offer for the audience pan India. Along with the Marathi category we are also launching our first Marathi original web-series which has a stellar star cast.”
Talking about the partnership, Avneesh Khosla, Operations Director – Marketing, Vodafone Idea Limited said, “We are excited to partner with Shemaroo Entertainment to provide our customers access to the best quality Marathi content on the Vodafone Play and Idea Movies. We strongly believe that regional content is key towards driving a stronger connect with our consumers. We have been working towards strengthening our content offering and this partnership is a step further towards enriching our content portfolio.”
As a differentiated content offering, ShemarooMe is launching a new original Marathi web-series titled ‘Manaatlya Manaat’ under the Marathi category, featuring famous Marathi celebrities Sonalee Kulkarni & Siddharth Chandekar.
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.
