Themes of Indian films have undergone a serious transformation over the past decade. More and more films are being made to bring out the reality about an issue or to express an opinion, sometimes too bold, about it. Many believe that the films are the best torchbearers of ‘Right to speech’. But what needs to be checked is whether these films cross ‘the line’. The Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) makes sure they don’t. The recent controversy related to Anurag Kashyap’s forthcoming film ‘Udta Punjab’ a drug theme drama have questioned the professionalism of the CBFC. The film was subjected to 89 cuts with respect to the theme and swear words. But what puzzles is the fact that whenever a film is made based on a true issue and carries the name of a state or a community not only becomes a specimen for censor operation but is dragged into media limelight. Films like ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, ‘Zila Ghaziabad’, and ‘Aligarh’ have all faced this problem. The real question to be asked here is whether these films are censorable that the message that they tend to give gets blemished. The recent development that I have mentioned is the media war between Anuragh Kashyap co-producer of the film and the so called dictatorial like domination of the board CBFC. Name of the head of censor board. The cuts and the Korean comment made by the producer, allegations against CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani, BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal angle to this censoring in light of the upcoming Punjab state elections have made this a hot topic to be discussed the next few days. The entire film fraternity is backing the director of The Gangs of Wasseypur fame and are questioning the fact that why is there a need for such a harsh action on a film that is trying to bring some light into a social issue. This makes the film to be watched in a way that it was not meant to be watched. I think the CBFC have been too strict. This is no exaggeration.  Over the years such events have been occurring. Film viewers who have watched both the censored and uncensored film have said that censoring parts are critically relevant and editing them have made the plot weaker and does not bring out the message accurately.

This blog is written by Salman Shiras, Sem II, MBA FA

The Snapchat story created by the now-infamous comedian and AIB co-founder Tanmay Bhat has created quite a buzz in the county and received considerable news coverage for the past few days. Tanmay Bhat has been known in the past for making sick jokes on different public personalities. Another interesting aspect is that Sachin Tendulkhar and Lata Mangeshkar who were at the receiving end of the jokes have not even reacted or even expressed their opinion. This who has been hurt and why is this heart-burn? What surprised me the most is the irrational reaction that the video has received? What’s in the video that would make a normal Indian agitated that he is ready to kill or give death threats to Tanmay Bhat? The comedian made a video thinking it was funny but the outcome was not funny enough. So what? If you don’t like a video, you have more than 2.89 billion choices in Youtube. The buzz around this video will fade away after all ‘it doesn’t pose any threat to our national security’ as quoted by Arnab Goswami when he held a debate on this issue in The Newshour. Yeah, then there is the question of freedom of speech and expression but I think the constitution of India clearly states that this freedom should not be used to hurt someone verbally or in any other manner. Humor is about striking a balance between cold, hard truth and varying doses of imagination or exaggeration.But many believe that in this video the balance was not met and that’s why many find it not funny.

Written by Salman Shiras, student of Sem II, MBA-FA 2015-17.

In 2004, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg along with some of his peers launched Facebook, which they would not have thought that will revolutionize the landscape of social media. Facebook, arguably the most successful social networking website, has a wide user base of around 2 billion and is currently valued at USD 256.42 billion. But is this high valuation of Facebook justified?  Let us take a closer look. Facebook has grown its revenue at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.1% over the past 3 years with ROI (Return on invested capital) at 18.9%. Main driver of its revenue stream are advertisement on social media space. Facebook targets specific segment and demographics on the basis of information posted by people. High growth in marketing budget of advertisers with specific targeting capabilities led to growth in average revenue per user (ARPU). Feed based ads with less cluttered platform facilitate high user engagement which is expected to grow further in future years. With the introduction of its mobile app, Facebook is able to increase the stickiness of the users in mobile space. Facebook also sells virtual goods and games in the mobile space by charging a transaction fee on each virtual good purchased. However shifting of consumers from desktop usage to mobile usage is affecting the revenue stream negatively or positively?. Social platforms viz. Instagram and WhatsApp, which were acquired by Facebook, are also driving its revenue growth. Instagram contributes more than 300 million active users and WhatsApp 800 million plus monthly active users to Facebook user base. These mobile platforms can be monetized through subscription fees, online payments, advertising, etc. Valuation of these two platforms together contributes $50 billion to the valuation of Facebook and is expected to contribute greater meaningful revenues in future. Facebook, which has established its network in most of the developed countries, has still a long a way to go when it comes to penetration in the developing markets. This is due to lower user base and lower average revenue per user which provides immense opportunities for growth in terms of revenue and user base. With a huge potential to grow in emerging markets, targeted ad marketing and leveraging mobile space, Facebook is validating its valuation.

This blog is written by Neha Jain, Student MBA FA 2015-2017 Batch

Data source: Trefis Coverage Report