IMAX and Miraj Cinemas are Reviving the Iconic IMAX Wadala Theatre in Mumbai; Relaunching it with ‘IMAX with Laser’ System

Miraj Cinemas and the IMAX Corporation this week announced a new partnership that would bring three new ‘IMAX with Laser’ theatres in India.

This deal marks the first-ever collaboration between the two companies and IMAX’s largest expansion in India in five years. Miraj Cinemas will add three new IMAX systems to key locations across India, including one in Mumbai – set to open in 2024 – one in Jaipur, and a third location to be determined at a later date.

As part of this deal, Miraj Cinemas are reviving IMAX Wadala, the first IMAX screen to launch in India, back in 2003.

IMAX Wadala had long been my favorite place to watch English action films, but over time I simply stopped going there. The theatre has seen a lot of neglect in its last years, probably due to its geographic location. It changed ownership multiple times, going into the hands of Anil Ambani-owned BIG Cinemas in late 2000s. BIG Cinemas was acquired by Carnival Cinemas in 2014, which took over its operations and tried to keep it running. However, the screen, the IMAX projectors, and the speakers were ill-maintained and affected the overall movie experience. The theatre ultimately ceased operations in 2023.

I’m excited to see what Miraj Cinemas does with it. I’m yet to watch a film in a theatre equipped with IMAX with Laser system, so I’m definitely looking forward to this launch.

April 12, 2024 ✚ Permalink

boAt Investigating Suspected Customer Data Breach

Jagmeet Singh, reporting for TechCrunch:

India’s largest audio and wearables brand boAt is investigating a possible data breach after hackers advertised a cache of alleged customer data online.

A sample of alleged customer data was uploaded on a known cybercrime forum, which includes full names, phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses and order numbers. A portion of the data that TechCrunch reviewed appears genuine based on checks against exposed phone numbers.

The hacker said the breach happened in March, which led to the compromise of the data of more than 7.5 million customers.

7.5 million is a high number, but considering how much data privacy is valued in India, I don’t see this making the news beyond this week.

April 12, 2024 ✚ Permalink

Pegatron may sell India iPhone plant to Tata

Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra, reporting for Reuters:

Pegatron, opens new tab is in advanced talks to hand over control of its only iPhone manufacturing facility in India to the Tata Group, said two sources with direct knowledge, marking the Taiwanese firm’s latest scale back of its Apple, opens new tab partnership.
Under the deal, which has received the backing of Apple, Tata plans to hold at least a 65% stake in a joint venture that will operate the Pegatron plant near Chennai city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, with the Taiwanese firm providing technical support and holding the rest, one of the sources said.

Tata already operates an iPhone assembly plant in the neighbouring southern state of Karnataka, which it took over from Taiwan’s Wistron (3231.TW), opens new tab last year, and is also building another in Hosur in Tamil Nadu, where Pegatron is likely to emerge as its joint venture partner.

April 8, 2024 ✚ Permalink

A Review of BSG Stay, Turtle Beach, Morjim Hotel in Goa

This past week, I went on a small, long-pending, post-Diwali vacation to Goa. It was splendid, and gave me a much-needed break from the routines. We spent our time in North Goa, in Morjim. Although the trip was fantastic, we had a terrible time at the hotel stay we had chosen, which was ‘BSG Stay, Turtle Beach, Morjim‘. While it’s a good-looking hotel in the pictures, the ground reality is vastly different. A whole lot of things went wrong in our experience and I wanted to post a review about it on Google. Unfortunately, Google won’t publish the review I wrote for this listing, so I’m posting it here instead. Hopefully it’ll help someone in case they are considering booking a stay at the BSG Stay Hotel at Morjim, Goa.

BSG Stay, Morjim (Goa) – A Detailed Review

Terrible place and piss poor service.

This place has decent quality rooms, but a lot of stuff is broken or not working and it goes unfixed for days due to the hotel’s bad service. Hot water system? Not working. Jet spray? Not working. Toilet seat? Broken. This is going to be a long and detailed review, so bear with me till the end as I cover some important points that you shouldn’t miss.

(more…)

November 22, 2023 ✚ Permalink

Tata to make iPhones in India

Manish Singh, writing for TechCrunch:

Tata Group will start making iPhones in India for the local and global markets, India’s Deputy IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday, after the Taiwanese firm Wistron entered a deal with the salt-to-tech conglomerate.

Tata Group has acquired Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Pvt for $125 million, the Taiwanese firm said in a stock exchange filing. Wistron said it finalized the deal after strategic considerations in response to the reshaping of the firm’s global manufacturing strategy.

October 27, 2023 ✚ Permalink

IFFI 2022 jury head calls The Kashmir Files ‘propaganda, vulgar movie’

All of us were disturbed and shocked by the 15th film, The Kashmir Files. That felt like a propaganda, vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival.

Yikes!

November 29, 2022 ✚ Permalink

Apple reports "all-time revenue record" from India

Apple reported their quarterly results for Q4’22 yesterday and the folks at Six Colors have published their transcript of the call that Tim Cook and Luca Maestri have with analysts.

During the call, Apple mentioned that the company saw double-digit grown in India and iPhone growth was “impressive”.

iPhone Revenue grew 10% year over year to a September quarter record of 42.6 billion despite significant foreign exchange headwinds. We set September quarter records in the vast majority of markets we track, and our performance was particularly impressive in several large emerging markets with India setting a new all-time revenue record and Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Mexico more than doubling year over year. Thanks to our strong iPhone lineup, we set a quarterly record for upgraders and grew switchers double digits. This level of sales performance, along with unmatched customer loyalty, drove the active installed base of iPhones to a new all time high across all geographic segments.

(Emphasis mine.)

No surprises here. The iPhone continues to get more expensive in India, yet more people continue to buy it every year.

October 28, 2022 ✚ Permalink

Uber is testing EV cabs in Delhi NCR

Jagmeet Singh, writing for TechCrunch:

Uber has started offering electric vehicles to customers in certain parts of the Delhi-NCR region and says it will be expanding its efforts over the coming months. The electric cabs are currently only available for pre-scheduled trips.

The company did not share how many EV cabs were operational on its platform in India, but insisted that it is working with multiple fleet partners, OEMs and charging infra providers “to gradually build the EV business in a sustainable manner.”

With fuel prices soaring in the country, Uber’s contractual drivers have already been raising their displeasure at making less than what the company had promised them. I just hope that the company doesn’t shaft them like they did with the ICE vehicles.

October 21, 2022 ✚ Permalink