As of now, India has hundreds of TV channels, with a large TV viewing audience. TV advertising revenues have touched Rs 18ooo crore.Indians are high on news. A channel requires a capital expenditure of Rs 50 crore, and operational expenditure of another Rs 100 crore to keep it running.It bleeds for three to four years, and then breaks even. It is later that it starts earning.
Author: Shabbir Chunawalla
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Animals and Ads
Many ads used animals in yester years. With rise of animal rights groups and concern for ethical treatment to animals, India has set up Animal Welfare Board of India ( AWBI ) which prescribes a procedure for filming with live animals. Their permission is necessary to shoot with a live animal. Vodafone ad featuring a pug took Nirvana more than six weeks to secure the permission. SBI’s ad of a hen laying golden eggs was objected to by PETA India ( People for Ethical Treatment to Animals ). Johnson’s commercial for Savlon used a dog, sparrows and cockatoos, and faced problem with the Board. Hutch Essar’s fortune teller bird, a parakeet was withdrawn. Animations films now create animals to avoid such problems, e.g. Alpenliebe candy with Kajol and crocodile has an animated crocodile. Animation, though expensive, gives a lot of creative freedom. The cow used in Orbit White commercial is an animated cow. Film makers sometimes prefer to shoot abroad where there are animation protection rules but the whole thing is time bound. Alternatively, footage from stock libraries can be used. Tata Safari ad with several wild animals popping out eyes when it drove by had stock shots. Pepsi’s cricketers morphed into tigers using stock footage. Stock footage is cheaper as compared to animation or shooting abroad. Some film makers edit out animals totally.
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China Price
China produces things at a price no one around the world can seem to match. Alexandra Harney has written a book The China Price — The True Cost of Competitive Advantage. Chinese products sell at ultra low prices but China pays a high price in terms of human and environmental cost to become the world’s largest manufacturer. Though China has very good labour laws in place, the working conditions in the factories around China continue to be poor. There is no enforcement of laws at the local government level whose offices are evaluated on the basis of their track record in promoting economic growth.Besides, there is a dual factory system — the five-star factory which follows the best practices and the shadow factories which violate every law on the books.These shadow factories allow China to offer Wal-Mart low prices. In China, social benefits are tied to the place of birth which is registered and called hokou. Migration deprives people their legal benefits. As factories do not pay social benefits, they can keep prices low. People in north China work in illegal shadow coal mines.Their health deteriorates over a period of time. There are deaths due to pollution. Coal lies at the heart of China price. More than two-third’s of China’s energy supply comes from coal. Though MNCs conduct audits while dealing with the Chinese factories, these audits are perfunctory. Besides MNCs want goods at developing world prices under developed world conditions. This is simply not possible.Factories provide a façade of compliance while dealing with the MNCs, but keep running sweatshops. Falsification of documents have become an art.
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Voice Overs for Animation Movies
Currently only 5-6 per cent of the total budget is being spent on voice overs in animation films. Mahesh Manjarekar has done his first voice over for Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang. The normal trend in a live action movie is to dub after the shooting is over ensuring lip sync. However, in animation voices come into play right after screenplay is done. In animation both the characters and objects talk and emote. Trained actors and professionals emote better and are increasingly used as voice overs, e.g. Shatughna Sinha was roped in as the narrator for the film Dashavatar. As the actors are matched to the scripts here voices are matched to the story. In Alibaba, John Abraham’s voice has been used. Theatre artistes are also used as voice overs. The late Sadashiv Amrapurkar had given his voice as one of the heads of Ravana in Mahayodha Ram. As voice recording is the first step in animation movie which take a long production time, actors have to wait for years before they see the characters and their performances on screen.
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Cristiaan Georgio, Hair Stylist
Cristiaan’s salon instils in the visitor a sense of trust and safety. He keeps the likes and dislikes of his clients in mind. He makes his client to feel comfortable. A client may not specify certain things. These are highly individualistic– as individual as one’s signature. A great hairstylist is a good listener. A hairstylist also acts as a psychiatrist in whom the client reposes his faith and with whom they share their innermost secrets. There are two types of clients–those who know what they want and those who must be told what suits them best. A great hairstylist gauges the texture of the hair. While colouring the hair, the client’s skin tone must be considered. A haircut must suit the shape of the face. Lifestyle also affects the hairstyle, e.g a sport person wants low maintenance hairstyle and a socialite does not mind high maintenance one. A client must be led to a radical hairstyle gradually so that he/she gets confidence to carry it off. A hairstylist must suppress his ego. There are clients who are not ready to compromise on hair length. Then blunt fringe or layers can be tried. While cutting hair, the client must be told constantly about the process.Cristiaan does not like to go against the basic nature of hair, e.g. he does not like to straighten the curly hair. He adores simple and elegant hair cuts. Except for socialites, he avoids high maintenance hairstyles. He prefers wash-and-go hairstyles. He advises that health of the hair can be improved by regular trim and deep conditioning. He does not favour oiling which attracts grime. He does not favour food products like eggs, curd and beer which are applied on the hair. These atr meant to be eaten. It is good to take a diet of green vegetables, fruits, vitamins and consume lot of water. Henna is outdated, as advanced colours are available. He keeps his client’s preferences in mind, and does not believe in giving the same haircut to everyone.He keeps himself updated by attending workshops and reading books. He keeps using his imagination and doing experimentation.He does not blindly ape fashion hairstyles. Some of his celebrity clients are Hrithik Roshan,Arjun Rampal, the late Jiah Khan and Madonna.
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Women in Film and Television Association of India (WIFTAI)
This association is launched in March, 2012. In India, the career in films and TV begins and ends with wanting to be an actor. This association is formed to change this. It provides the women technicians a strong platform. They must have more women on the sets. The advisory board of the association consists of Kiran Rao, Anupama Chopra, Ashwini Yardi, Sooni Taraporewala and Vandana Malik. It connects the women in India to the global network. It will hold workshops and internships.
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Competition Commission Order Pertaining to Film Distributors Associations
There are film associations in states which bar studios to exploit satellite and home video rights in their respective regions. It constrains the market access of the studio for the unfettered distribution of its films on non-theatrical platforms. The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) allows the release of a non-Kannada movie in 21 thetares in the state. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) considers this anti-competitive. The Indian film distribution market is divided into 14 circuits with each of them having distributors’ or exhibitors’ association.Producers and distributors are required to become a member of these associations every time they want to release a film and follow the prescribed set of rules and regulations laid down by these associations. The CCI order stops these associations from compelling producers/ distributors/ exhibitors to become their members as a pre-condition for exhibition in their territories.It has lifted screen restrictions between regional and non-regional films. The distributor associations are planning to move the SC against the CCI order.
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Gauri Shinde — Ad Film Maker and Feature Film Director
Gauri Shinde, ad film maker, shifted to feature film making with English Vinglish starring Sridevi. She says, ‘ A 30-second commercial gets shot in one day versus five scenes for a feature film in a day.’ There is a belief that a feature film can be a lot more liberating than a commercial can ever. Shinde agrees partially. A Director, Shinde feels, can insist on a 50 to 60 per cent vision in a feature. However, there is less control on promotion and distribution.
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Case Studies — A Hundred Year Old Pedagogic Tool of Business Schools
Harvard Business School used first case study to teach the concepts in 1912. Since then this pedagogic tool has completed 100 plus years of its existence. At HBS 80 percent of class time is spent on case studies. Darden spent 75 percent of time on case studies. Of the 25 top business schools ( Bloomberg) 19 reported they use case studies as the main pedagogy.
A case study leads to discussion of the strategies, methods, procedures and policies to tackle the problem, to resolve the issues on hand.It introduces the concepts to the students. In encourages several different approaches to tackle one common problem. It enriches the participants, as they gain from the insights given by others. It emphasizes the fact that there is no one solution to a problem. Cases increasingly incorporate video and web-based elements. It leads the learner through reflective and analytic participants, as wrocess. There are supporting teaching notes to facilitate the class discussion which are also sold.The key words are written on the board, and the discussion gets a direction.
Developing cases itself is very onerous task. The faculty has to visit the industry concerned. The data is to be collected. The issues are identified. It involves the investment of time and resources. These cases are published. The smaller business schools buy these published cases for use in their class rooms. This generates revenues for the bigger schools. Harvard sells about 4000 cases anually, generating a revenue of $ 194 million in 2014.
Case method’s success depends upon the experience and maturity of the participants, as well as the competence of the faculty
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Gemalto’s Operator-Independent Payment Card
Gemalto is the world’s largest smart card producer. A smart card uses near field communication ( NFC ) which is contactless mobile tecnology. To begin with there was a shift from the magnetic swipe cards to chip-embedded cards called EMV. In NFC the mobile operator pays the role of a trusted service manager ( TSM ). It manages details normally present in a payment card. The latest shift is to use a technology called Host Card Emulation ( HCE ) where card holder’s information is stored remotely on a cloud, and not on a SIM provided by the telecom operator. This is possible by tokenization solutions which enables transactions to be completed without transfering card holder information through network. Previously, these transactions were SIM dependent which carried Visa or Master applet. There were data centres to support this. Now Master and Visa support HCE which has picked up. The previous system was hardware-based and was secure. Both NFC and HCE technologies are likely to co-exist .There are rising opportunities for Gemalto in the finance space outside the mobile world.