In spite of its flaws, I enjoyed reading the book, says Vanita Kohli-Khandekar. Simply for the joy of digging into the life, in pictures and words, of one of the most enduring stars of Indian cinema.

Shah Rukh had outgrown the roles that made him a star -- the menacing, obsessive lover in Darr, the regular guy in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na or the new age boyfriend in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. By the time he entered his 50s, he was struggling to find his feet, explains Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.

There are hundreds of fan clubs -- in Jalgaon, Beed, Chennai, Kolkata, Akola, Yavatmal, Bengaluru, Sitamarhi, New York, Canada, Nigeria etc. Every Indian city/town or a major country has a fan club for the man whose fan base has been estimated at 3.5 billion by Time Magazine.

On January 24, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the Oscar nominees for 2023, it would be a surprise if RRR doesn't make the cut, declares Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.

In the quarter ending June 2022, the growth of Internet subscribers was less than one per cent of all of 2021.

News, as a business, faces its biggest crisis ever, globally. To fight it needs investment in feet-on-the-ground journalism, tech tools like artificial intelligence among other things.

Why will JioCinema live-stream the FIFA World Cup 2022 games for free?

'Streaming will get to 100-200 million subscribers, but the journey is not as rose-tinted.'

'There is so much talk about Netflix and what they should be doing.' 'In two years, SonyLIV has done what Netflix should be doing.'

It means more tickets sold and therefore more revenues and hastens the recovery of the devastated-by-the-pandemic film business.

'This is the best time to do a pan-Indian film.'

'Just the fact that the biggest language at the box office was Telugu and not Hindi is startling.'

Netflix is reminiscent of Star TV in the 1990s: Very Western in its gaze, very expensive, and clueless, notes Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.

'This kind of love from our audience shows that our music is working.'

As of December 2021, Netflix India stood at an estimated 5 million subscribers against 46 million for Disney+Hotstar and 19 million for Amazon Prime Video.

For years it has been evident that fibre and DTH would give tough competition to cable in India where regulatory overload has mutilated an already warped industry structure. OTT added fuel to the fire. From Rs 27,000 crore in 2010, cable's share of subscription revenues is now estimated at Rs 13,000 crore.

Puneet Goenka's ability to stay calm is probably what helped Zee rise from a down-in-the-dumps broadcaster into one of the largest, steadiest and most profitable media companies in India, reports Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.

Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad account for 33% of the total active paid subscriptions.

The chairman of the Essel Group says he has settled 91.2 per cent of the estimated Rs 11,000 crore debt on the group's books.

'This is a blip in the 100-year history of cinema.'