Blog Full - Ashok Karania

12 Aug 2014

RIP ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ Robin Williams

Robin Williams left for his heavenly abode on Monday August 11, 2014. Generations of people have inspired by his many roles – but his most memorable role will always be the one in Dead Poets Society. The scene in which his students recite “O Captain! My Captain,” an homage to Walt Whitman’s poem, has become an indelible part of cinematic journey. It’s an onscreen moment where Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles and others stand on top of desks and honor Williams. Together, they honor his intellect and compassion. ‘O Captain, My Captain’ remains a strong cinematic moment!

Another strong expression was – Carpe Diem – Seize The Day !

RIP Robin Williams!

Full Text Of Poem – ‘O Captain! My Captain!’

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

7 Aug 2014

MoMo Session On Technology In Bollywood

Mobile Monday Ahmedabad has organized a session to unveil the technology mantras behind the entertainment Industry.
Mr. Siddhesh Bhobe, CEO of eMee and AVP of Persistent Systems Ltd – a leading player spearheading the role of technology in the entertainment industry, will conduct the interactive talk. The session will highlight how Mobility, Big Data and Social Media have been helping out Indian Movies in reaching INR 500 Crores in revenue. This interactive session will be held on Saturday, 23rd Aug 2014 at CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad between 03:00 PM to 4:30 PM. Like all Mobile Monday sessions, the event is open for all and registration is free at the Mobile Monday website.

The influence of technology is rising in all spheres of business and commerce including the entertainment industry. Through use of Big Data Analytics, Social Media and Mobility, Mr. Siddhesh and his team have created a huge impact in the success of big banner productions including King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Chennai Express’. They were also the brain behind Mr. Perfectionist Amir Khan’s much talked television debut series ‘Satyamev Jayate’. Their most recent project is on the verge of release and is already creating huge impact across the nation – the highly awaited action sequel of the famous director-action superstar Jodi where the lead character plays the role of a lion hearted brave police officer.

Mr. Siddhesh graduated from IIT Mumbai in 1998 and joined Persistent Systems Ltd in Pune and went on to become the President & CEO of eMee – a digital and new technologies arm of Persistent Systems. eMee helps Bollywood and Hollywood production houses with their Social Engagement Analytics, which includes Consulting for End to End Social Media Strategy, measurement and monitoring of social media trends along with User behavior tracking and analysis.

Mobile Monday is an open community platform of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influential individuals fostering brand neutral cooperation and cross-border P2P business opportunities through live networking events to demo products, share ideas and discuss trends from both local and global markets. Mobile Monday Ahmedabad exposes local developers and companies with their global counterparts and discusses new trends, innovation, business strategies and results within the mobile area.

4 Aug 2014

The Future Of Cars by KIDS

The ‘Toyota Dream Car Art Contest’ asks kids to draw their vision of the “dream car of the future” each year. Over 600,000 kids entered this year, and Toyota is releasing one design from each of 90 finalists a day, complete with a short animation whipped up for each design.

Some took creative approaches to solving actual problems. Several of the designs suggested cars that could scoop up and recycle trash off the street as they drove along; one version turned plastic scraps into low-cost bricks for housing, while another created new products in a section of the car. One kid reinvented the school bus, with individual cars that would be programmed to join together at a certain point to reduce traffic.

Very interesting and very smart ideas.

I showed this to my son and he said that he was thinking of a car that could drive in the sea or river and bring fresh water after recycling it. A solution for Project Ganga for Narendra Modi?

30 Jul 2014

How Big Data Is Changing The Entertainment Industry!

Big Data is here – The latest buzzword of the Information Technology Industry !

The world is generating humungous amount of data every second. Rapid advances in technology is making analysis of such data a cake-walk. Big Data is influencing every aspect of our lives and will continue to grow bigger and better. Retailers will push us to buy extra chips and soft drinks from the nearest outlet as we will watch the T20 match with our friends and our favorite teams are playing. They will even recommend our favorite party songs CD and encourage us to donate a dollar to our often visited charity. Preventing diseases, share trading, marketing efforts and lot of other use cases are emerging.

Big Data is changing the sports and the entertainment industry as well. Sports and entertainment industry are driven by fans and their word of mouth. Engagement with audience is the key and Big Data is creating opportunities for driving this engagement and influencing audience sentiments.

IBM worked with a media company and ran its predictive models on the social buzz for the movie Ram Leela. According to the reports, IBM predicted a 73% success for the movie based on right selection of cities. Such rich analysis of social data was conducted for Barfi and Ek Tha Tiger. All these movies had a runaway success at the box office.
Hollywood uses Big Data big time ! The social media buzz can predict the box office success – more importantly based on the trending of the movie, strategies can be formulated to ensure favorable positioning of the movie. All science !

Netflix is the best case study of analyzing user behavior and hitting the jackpot ! Netflix original show The House Of Cards’ was commissioned solely on the basis of the big data results of the preferences of its customers.

Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express, one of the biggest box office grossers on 2013, used Big Data & Analytics solutions to drive social media and digital marketing campaigns. IT Services company Persistent Systems helped Chennai Express team with the right strategic inputs. Chennai Express related tweets generated over 1 billion cumulative impressions and the total number of tweets across all hashtags was over 750 thousand over the 90-day campaign period. Persistent Systems CEO Siddhesh Bhobe said “Shah Rukh Khan and the success of Chennai Express have proved that social media is the channel of the future and that it presents unique opportunities to marketers and brands, at an unbeatable ROI (return on investment)”

Lady Gaga and her team browse through our listening preferences and sequences and optimize the playlist for the maximum impact at live events. Singapore based Big Data Analytics firm Crayon has worked with leading Hindi Film industry producers to understand the kind of music to release to create the right buzz for the movie.

Sports is another area where big data is making big impact. FIFA 2014 champion Germany have been using SAP’s Match Insights software. It has made a big difference to the team. Data was crunched relating to player position ‘touch maps’, passing ability, ball retention and even metrics such as ‘aggressive play’. Even Kolkota Knight Riders, an IPL team, to determine the consistency of the players based on 25 data point per ball. It helped in auction as well as ongoing training.

Big Data can definitely be a boon to the entertainment and sports industry. It can improve the profitability of the movies – always a high risk business. The green-lighting of the story to the cast selection to the timing of release can be determined. It can help to pick the right players for the sporting leagues – allowing talent to win !

Entertainment Industry leaders need to collaborate with the leading big data startups and visionaries to create new uses and deliver new success stories !