iWorld
Sony Pictures Entertainment, SonyLiv & One Digital join hands for ‘Passengers’
MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Entertainment India (SPE) and SonyLiv have teamed up with One Digital Entertainment for SPE’s next release, Passengers.The action thriller starring Hollywood’s Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence is being released in India on 6 January 2017 in 3D in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
“We are absolutely thrilled at having the opportunity to produce a song featuring Raftaar, who is an instant hit and very popular amongst millennials. The song is highly inspired by our sister concern, Sony Pictures Entertainment’sPassengers. Apart from Raftaar, Jubin Nautiyal and Shirley Setia have also lent their voice in this track.
Sony Pictures Networks EVP and SonyLiv head for digital business Uday Sodhi said: “We Liv to Entertain. We are very confident that our audience will enjoy this latest addition and look forward to produce more such songs in the near future.”
Raftaar, whose digital portfolio is handled by One Digital Entertainment, has created a special rap for Passenger’s promotions in India.http://www.sonyliv.com/dplnk?schema=sony://asset/5262307239001
Titled Aadat, the song captures the romance element of the film between the two strangers (Pratt and Lawrence) who discover love as they battle imminent death to save the lives of 5000 sleeping passengers on a sinking space ship. Aadat will be played in theatres across India before the English and Hindi versions of the film.
“Being associated with a studio as big as Sony Pictures Entertainment is not only exciting but also a great pleasure. The concept of promoting a Hollywood film in this manner is very innovative and executing this was equally great. We are confident that Raftaar’s connect with the youth will grab the attention of not only the music and movie fanatics but also reach a wider audience base,” added One Digital Entertainment COO and co-founder Gurpreet Singh Bhasin.
Sung by Jubin Nautiyal and Shirley Setia along with Raftaar, It has been written by Sukumar Dutta and penned by Amit Kumaran.SPE MD Vivek Krishnani said, “Passengers brings Hollywood’s two top stars together for the first time. Both are youth icons and it was therefore natural for us to look at ways to engage with the youth. With Raftaar being a popular name amongst the millennials, we were confident that partnering with him would be an interesting opportunity for us to create exciting content that finds resonance with the masses in India. With the support of SonyLiv’s team and their effort along with One Digital Entertainment we are excited to share Aadat with the audiences”
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.
