iWorld
Zeel embraces technology solutions to create fresh content amidst lockdown
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has embraced and optimally utilised technology solutions amidst lockdown, in order to create and offer fresh content for its consumers.
The company has leveraged technology and implemented various solutions across its key functions, swiftly and collaboratively, creating the bedrock for creative innovation in the content offering. The teams have enabled innovations through remote production of content over mobile and professional cameras by using video and audio production technologies to support broadcast, digital and social platforms.
On the television front, it is ready with an array of new shows in multiple languages across its regions. To begin with, Zeel is all set to bring together the entire music industry across ten states with celebrities, music stalwarts, best of SRGMP singers and judges to deliver the SRGMP 25year – Silver Jubilee Concert for a Golden cause. This 25-hour Live Music Marathon, ‘Ek Desh Ek Raag’ will raise funds for India ‘COVID Response Fund’ by GiveIndia. As a first of its kind TV + Digital Musical initiative, the show is all set for a 25 hour Digital Live-athon on 23 May and the Mega Finale TV Concert on 24 May on Zee TV and our other leading channels. The popular SRGMP title song is being rendered in 10 languages with the contribution of musical stalwarts like Pandit Jasraj, Ronu Majumdar, Selva Ganesh, Himesh Reshammiya, Shaan, Udit Narayan and more.
Keeping the consumer need at the fore, we will bring exciting new offerings across non-fiction with Zee Kannada launching ‘Lockdown Diaries’ and ‘Coffee with Anu’, where the former is a fun filled game-chat show with its own artists. Zee Marathi is geared up to launch three non-fiction shows, titled as Vedh Bhavishyacha – a spiritual chat show, Gharchya Ghari Home Minister – a virtual format of the popular show Home Minister and Gharat Basle Saare – a first-of-its-kind standup comedy puppet show by Ramdas Pandhye.
Zee Marathi is also set to offer four new fiction shows shot locally in Maharashtra under the new social distancing guidelines. Zee Sarthak has been airing ‘Lockdown Challenge’, a unique non-fiction show, showcasing lives of their leading celebrities during the lockdown. Zee Sarthak is also ready with a two-hour original movie, titled as ‘Mu Tame Lockdown’ to be launched this June 2020. Both, the pieces of content have been shot at the homes of the respective celebrities using mobile phones.
Zee Bangla has launched three shows Priyo Tarakar Andarmanal, Abol Tabol – a comedy show and Lockdown Diaries inspired by true human stories. Completely shot on mobile, Lockdown Stories is a tribute to the human spirit of fighting through short stories that aim to portray the human bonding, family strength and positivity this time has allowed us to re-establish. Airing for 6 days, the stories are inspired by real life and includes frontline health workers, young couples, a kid trying to explore his imagination and middle-class inhabitants in a city landscape represented by renowned artists like Gaurav, Debolina, Arunodoy, Tanima Sen and more. With each story, Zee Bangla and its artists intend to take a pledge to be more respectful, more patient, more empathetic and more humane.
&TV, spearheaded innovation through two special initiatives and brought alive the festive spirit with an interactive episode on Hanuman Jayanti, enabling viewers to sing along Hanuman Chalisa on TV. Ek Desh Ek Awaaz, was a yet another special initiative undertaken on Ambedkar Jayanti.
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
