James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ blends- ‘Cinema’, ‘Technology’ and ‘money power’ to deliver an epic of sorts

Posted in Ideas and Creativity with tags , , , , on November 12, 2009 by rabi

avatar

A whooping budget of “1200 Crore” Rupees, A proprietary technology (developed by Cameron Brother duo) and a sci-fi story which took 4 years in the making (forget another 10 years spent in conceptualizing and realizing the idea)- it has all happened for James Cameron which took him 10 full years to come with next movie after super blockbuster “Titanic”!

But what made Cameron take so long to come up with another movie? Any Oscar winning Director would have tried to show his skills in no time at all. But that’s how real thinkers work in this world- they never compromise with original ideas. Cameron conceptualized “Avatar” way before “Titanic”, but the way and form in which he wanted the film to be made was not technically possible 10 years back. Hence he worked like a real hero- he and his brother (who developed the Robotic Camera which was used in Titanic’s initial scenes) decided to develop this technology on their own. The Result was a proprietary FUSION digital 3-D camera developed by Cameron brothers and Vince Pace (Man behind Ocean Odyssey, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over).

“Avatar” has been made in 3D and uses a blend of live-action photography and new virtual photorealistic production techniques where Cameron blends elements of massive spectacle and intimate character to tell a scientific and emotional story.

Avatar’s selected footage screening already created a buzz which was termed as ‘Avatar day’. It’s amazing that such movies are created in this era by people who are more of researchers than ‘Movie makers’. I’m really excited for this one. Are you?

[Sources: 1, 2]

Movies: Pick Of The Week

Posted in Bollywood, Fultoosh with tags , , , on November 9, 2009 by Ambuj

Two Bollywood movies got released this week from big banners. One is Madhur Bhandarkar’s JAIL, and other is Rajkumar Santoshi’s Love Chemistry “AJAB PREM KI GAJAB KAHAANI”. Both the movies came with loads of promises but eventually Raj Kumar Santoshi Failed to deliver again, while on the other hand Madhur has delivered as expected.

MOVIE REVIEW: AJAB PREM KI GAJAB KAHAANI

AJAB PREM KI GAJAB KAHAANI is about A boy Prem (Ranbir Kapoor) who is a school drop out and runs the local club, who fell in love with JENNY(Katrina Kaif) who is new in town but unable to express his love. Ranbir has delivered again a good performance after his recent release Wake Up Sid. The movie has some really good moments with some great pranks but apart from those few scenes rest of the movie leves no Impact on audience.

I am going 2/5 for this movie and rate this as an AVERAGE MOVIE. This is just a one time watch if you really do not have anything to do.

MOVIE REVIEW: JAIL

On the other hand JAIL delivered the content it promised. Parag Dixit ( Neil Nitin Mukesh) do justice to his role and looks like the best fit for it. Madhur has emphasize on his central character a lot and didn’t moved away from the storyline. Like his previous films FASHION etc. here also he has shown the struggle of a person in the world. Some part of film are really slow especially towards the end. Excess of emotion leaves the film to bore a little but they can be ignored. As an actress Mughdha Godse has nothing much to deal with the character.  A little small in length and a little fast climax could have made this movie a treat to watch this weekend.

I am going 3/5 for JAIL and rate this as an GOOD MOVIE and PICK OF THE WEEK. This could be the  movie you would love to watch this weekend.

BSNL to provide Free talktime for running ads of your choices on Mobile

Posted in Indian Media Samachar, Mobile and Media with tags , on November 5, 2009 by rabi

In first of its kind of move, BSNL is launching an ad service where Users can choose to run ads over their GPRS enabled phones and can earn FREE talk time in return.

bsnl-logo

Users just need to dial 51235 or login to BSNL’s website to choose for the ad categories for which they would like to see ads.

This is very much similar to MGinger and other services, but real killer here is the instant free recharge! Users would be more willing to use this service because of direct benefit.

BSNL has a history of taking good initiatives but then losing on the same in longer run. Let’s see how other competitors replicate this idea.

[Source]

Creative Marketing and innovative service offering: What more is there from DoCoMo?

Posted in Indian Media Samachar with tags , , , on October 19, 2009 by rabi

The viral which generated quite a fuzz has put brand “DoCoMo” right at front on consumer’s mind. In fact, the brand awareness is so strong that you will find people speaking of DoCoMo without even knowing what exactly it is. DoCoMo is a GSM service from Tata’s stable and has applied innovative ideas both in media marketing and it’s service offerings. It currently operates in 8 circles across country and that may be the reason why people are still unaware of the real product. But still, the brand image of DoCoMo raises a lot of expectations in term of its innovative services.

docomo

The first offering which is unique is “pay-per-second” for call charges and “pay-per-text” for sms charges. Even though “pay-per-second” service can’t be termed as a new service (as it was launched way back in 2003 by BPL Mobile), the way it’s marketed by DoCoMo is very impressive. But there are other small and really effective services which are on offer-

  • Very cheap “pre pay” GPRS packs, which provide GPRS services for as low as Rs 15 for 20 MB download limit for 3 days and a Rs 95 pack for 100 MB download for 30 days. Very cheap as compared to my current idea plan (Rs 150 monthly for 30 MB download L).
  • A “Timed SMS” service which can send SMS to recipients at desired date and time.
  • Not charging users for first 30 seconds when they are listening from a list of “ring tones” before actually downloading any. Very good indeed, as initial IVR just takes keypad information to get us to the right track list and shouldn’t be charged, ethically.
  • They are launching various customer experience zones like “Dive In”, where user can compare Mobile handsets from various vendors and choose the right one as per the need. We already have stores like MobileNXT and the MobileStore in India and what experience “Dive in” will offer is something yet to be seen.
  • They have also launched a service “Geo Fencing” which can track people and aware concerned persons if the route of any vehicle carrying the person is diverted. This may be really effective for School children when they are travelling.
  • DoCoMo has really done well to create a good first impression and with all these services coming up, their offering looks promising. Digital advertisement has also been very impressive (2000 facebook fans and twitter followers). Do you think they can stand such media hype in the time to come?

    Happy Dipawali from iDubba to all readers and users!

    Posted in Uncategorized on October 17, 2009 by rabi

    Happy-Diwali-New-Wallpapers

    “2 Minute TOI”- Interesting initiative from Times of India website

    Posted in Indian Media Samachar with tags , on October 6, 2009 by rabi

    TOI2Min

    Read this news on my Guest post here.

    Media updates after 10 years?

    Posted in Trak.in Guest Posts with tags on October 6, 2009 by rabi

    2020

    In this guest post titled “Media Monday 2020″ I forecasted some media related news which would change as a result of innovation in technology and high growing economy.

    Do read it out and let me know your feedback.

    Media makes Gandhiji’s anniversary memorable!

    Posted in Ads and Creativity, Indian Media Samachar with tags , , , on October 2, 2009 by rabi

    So, finally we had at least 3 media friendly reasons to remember Gandhiji’s anniversary this year. In past, we mostly had a Gandhiji movie and some news gossips about Bapu. So what made me write this post ‘TODAY’? It’s simply because this is the first time when I heard about Gandhiji’s anniversary 4-5 times a day through different media-

    Google Doodle:

    gandhi09

    This was BIG. The first thing we usually do every morning is open a browser and hit Google. I was amazed by the Google’s  Doodle this time, featuring Gandiji over the prominent G-Letter and it looked perfect. In fact, I think this was one of the very bests of Google’s doodle! I saw this news spreading like wildfire over Facebook and other blog sites and was one of the best reason for so many internet savvy people to know about him on this day.

    Montblanc’s 11 lakh Pen:

    montblancmahatmagandhi2

    There was this other news 2 days back where Montblanc announced the launch of a luxury pen on Gandhiji’s jayanti. The pen costs whopping 11 lac Rupees and they just have 241 pens (Inspired by his 241 Mile Dandi March). This was a bit controversial as people also said that Gandhiji always led a simple life and such high profile fashion pen doesn’t suit his kind of style. Whatever the reason, we remembered him one way or other :) .

    Shashi Tharur’s comment:

    Later in the day India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor sparked off a debate on whether Gandhiji’s birthday should be a public holiday.  He said “Gandhiji always said that work is worship and hence we should also fulfill our responsibilities on this day!” Controversial enough, this also raged a roar over Facebook, Twitter and Blogs.

    Overall a media friendly day for Gandhiji, he remains India’s most famous icon even on his 140th birthday.

    After “Sach ka Saamna” its “Pati Patni aur woh” in trouble

    Posted in Indian Media Samachar, Indian TV Broadcasting, TV Shows with tags , , on October 2, 2009 by rabi

    rakhi-sawant-elesh-pati-patni-woh

    It seems Channels would go to any extent to woo TV viewers- even if it involves playing with a young child’s mind.

    Recently launched “Pati, Patni aur Woh” which is an adaptation of  “Baby Borrowers” has run into problems with National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The show makes very young children stay with non-biological parents who are not going to be there after the show is over. This may affect a child’s mind.

    Before this “Sach Ka Saamna” was another show which was axed by Govt. due to its psychic nature. Its apparent that producers make these shows before doing an exhaustive testing and analyzing the effects on a person’s life!

    I’m not complaining against any show or producers associated with them. It’s just that we live in a country of different culture and moral values, and broadcasters should respect the same while adapting any show from west!

    Startup Review: Amulyam gives instant mobile recharge while you surf your favorite sites

    Posted in Startup News with tags , on October 1, 2009 by rabi

    amulyam

    Yesterday, I got this guest invitation from one of my friends asking me to join Amulyam.in. I decided to give it a look and it was worth penning down at iDubba’s startup post. Here is what I thought about the website-

    Basically all affiliate marketing websites work on the premise of affiliation between “advertisers / clients” and “publishers / affiliates” who help advertisers getting a better ROI on their marketing budget as against normal SEM. Usually during all this process the main link i.e. the end user is left with no direct benefit. This is where Amulyam got my attention-

    “Amulyam actually pays end user (consumer) instant rewards in terms of quick pre-paid recharge (on all major mobile carriers) and Movie tickets, when they register/buy stuff on any of Amulyam’s affiliated websites”

    As Amulyam’s founder Mr. Viay puts it-

    “joining social networking websites, matrimony sites, buying train or bus or flight tickets, applying for an internet connection, loan, credit card… etc are all the most common things we do on the web. Consumers make money to website owners and online ad networks when they do any of these things on the web. Traditionally, consumers don’t gain anything except the required service or product when they do these common things on the web.

    For the first time in India, Amulyam.in came up with an instant incentive marketing model that gives prepaid mobile recharge and movie tickets for free to it’s users for doing what they already do online – joining websites, matrimony sites, buying flight or train or bus tickets, applying for DTH, internet connection, loan, insurance…etc.”

    Unlike the already available websites in the market which promise to pay 25 paisa for receiving ads on mobile or email and give a cheque when user earnings reach 300 Rs, amulyam gives it’s users free prepaid mobile recharge and movie tickets instantly for all the real things like registrations or buying something that it’s users do on it’s sponsor’s websites.  Mobile recharge is instant and without any hassles, I used my Rs. 50 credit with ease :) .

    Amulyam’s technology accurately identifies the registration or sale that is generated through amulyam on it’s sponsors website and immediately sends an email and SMS to the user informing about the incentive money filled in amulyam wallet which can be used to get prepaid mobile recharge for amounts as low as 10Rs and multiples of 10Rs up to100 Rs.  Currently, prepaid mobile recharge service is available for operators- airtel, reliance, tata indicom, idea, aircel, loop, bsnl, virgin and vodafone. Movie ticket booking service is currently not available and it will be live soon.

    Inviting friends to amulyam gives it’s users 20% commission of what their friends make when they join and complete the fist offer. It helps amulyam users to get more free prepaid mobile recharge or movie tickets even when their friends register on websites, buys train tickets or flight tickets..etc.

    Using amulyam’s the smartest instant incentive model, advertisers get the sales or registrations that they need and users can instantly get benefit in the form of free prepaid mobile recharge or movie tickets.

    Spending few minutes on amulyam before registering or purchasing something from any website looks worth for consumer’s time and effort.

    Kudos to Vijay and his team! Let’s hope they would serve us with amazing service in near future.