PepsiCo, which has been hit in recent times by dwindling sales and several senior level exits, has given a fresh twist to the communication of its made-in-India snack-food brand Kurkure. The new tagline says, &ldquo;Seedha toh sadha hota hai, isliye Kurkure kehta hai try tedha yaar,&rdquo; reiterating the brand&rsquo;s fun positioning. The message is simple: when daily routine becomes predictable, and therefore boring, it is time to try something tedha.

More twists and turns

Business Standard

She has a way with people and her screen presence is amazing. Twelve years into showbiz, and Brand Kareena shows no signs of ageing. In fact, her value has only soared through the years.

The advertisers' darling

The market for English movie channels is booming. Over the past few years, the total number of English movie channels has doubled from five to ten. Now, Indians are spending more time watching English films. Ajay Trigunayat, CEO, English entertainment channels, Times Television Network, uses TAM Media Research data to illustrate this.

It's rush hour for English movies on small screen

When he went to Phoenix, Arizona, at the end of March to attend Adidas&rsquo;s annual business plan meeting, Subhinder Singh Prem had no inkling of what was in store for him. The German company&rsquo;s India MD was armed with a plan to combat the slowdown in business. On the evening of March 25, Prem, who is 44, was summoned by his boss, Adidas Chief Sales Officer (multi-channel markets) Roland Auschel.

Speedy Singh

Let&rsquo;s face it, when Mallya embarked on his epic journey of conspicuous consumption, he was something of a role model and a pioneer.

Masking vodkas in orange juice

David Ogilvy hated the word &ldquo;creativity&rdquo;, which, he pointed out, wasn&rsquo;t even there in the dictionary until a few years ago. The earliest work on how to be more creative was done in the 1930s and 1940s by advertising men James Webb Young and Alex Osborne, but interest in the subject really started in the late 1950s when the Americans suddenly realised that they had fallen behind the Russians in the space race.

Instant creativity

A colleague the other day said he finds the mix of politics and economics very interesting &mdash; social interventions, developmental initiatives et cetera. No less interesting is the mix of business and politics. This world is murky and hence seldom gets written about, though we manage to get a glimpse now and then. Vinod Mehta&rsquo;s Lucknow Boy: A Memoir (Penguin, 2011) gives us some insights into the worlds of two businessmen: Vijaypat Singhania and Lalit Mohan Thapar.

Two paper tigers

The journey across Haryana&rsquo;s Industrial Growth Centre in Bawal is a lonely one, with nothing but scores of service ancillaries and factories in sight for miles. It is, therefore, a shock to find a winery &mdash; one that carries the distinction of being the first in North India &mdash; in its midst. Spread across two acres, the white building with its manicured front lawn is reminiscent of a European manor house.

Wine from Haryana? 

Best work moment: 
Teaching specially-abled children how to make breads and cookies in Munnar as part of a special outreach workshop organised by Vivanta, Taj President
Books on your bedside: 
The complete Cookbook &mdash;Robuchon
Massage or workout to de-stress: 
Workout
Designs that have caught your eye recently: 
The Apple iPad
Your IT tools: 
Blackberry and computer
Favourite spirit:
White spirits when I cook
Favourite champagne: &middot; 
Dom Perignon White Gold
Your sleeping

My Life My Style: Ananda Solomon

Bam&rdquo; into second, another &ldquo;bam&rdquo; into third followed by a very quick &ldquo;bam&rdquo; into fourth, the speedo needle arcing northwards of 160 kmph. The revs were climbing fast &mdash; 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, 7,700... and then the stewardess&rsquo; voice crackled, &ldquo;Sir, veg or non-veg?&rdquo; I woke up, completely startled, my brows drenched in sweat and my right arm stretched out as if it was yearning to have yet another go at the paddle.

Ffantastic

My first choice is Satyajit Ray&rsquo;s Aparajito (The Unvanquished), the second in his film trilogy based on a Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay novel. My selection is purely subjective and emotional &mdash; historically, it should have fallen on Pather Panchali (The Song of the Road).

Director's special

She is a multiple National Award winner but there&rsquo;s something about her award-winning habit that Revathy, 46, doesn&rsquo;t like. &ldquo;I seem to win it every 10 years. I hope I win the next one sooner than that,&rdquo; says the actor-turned-director jokingly. She won her first National Award in 1992 for best supporting actress in Thevar Magan, a Tamil movie starring Kamal Haasan. Ten years later, she won the best director for her film Mitr&mdash;My Friend.

The movie messenger

The Rapide is possibly the best looking four-door you can buy. It comes with a potent 6-litre V12 powerplant placed in the front, sending power to the rear wheels through a six-speed transmission. Unlike some family cruisers which try to hide what's lurking under the engine bay, the Rapide flaunts its V12 engine by way of its scintillating exhaust note. You know something special is headed your way when you can hear it from a mile away! The Rapide bears a strong resemblance to the rest of the Aston Martin line-up, so much so that you can't tell one model from the other unless you look at the badge at the back. That's not a bad thing, because this car is definitely lust-worthy.

Fast fours

Star India, last week, aired its most expensive television show. Anchored by actor Aamir Khan, Satyamev Jayate, slotted in the Sunday morning band at 11 am and telecast in six regional languages, is, surprisingly, hardly what television channels spend giant pots of money on. At the heart of the show is a social cause &mdash; there is no promise of money or stardom, no uncovering of talent and no faking life with a set of strangers. And yet, the debut had millions of Indians glued to their television sets. If the show sustains its initial traction, at the very least, it will force Indian television networks to rethink their chat show formats and distribution, and invest a bit more in well-researched programming.

A spoilt viewer

I am considering buying a petrol sedan within a budget of Rs 8 lakh, ex-showroom. My usage is around 650 to 700 km per month, with my daily commute being 14 km at an average speed of 40 kmph. I make weekend trips of around 600 km once in two months. Keeping this in mind I have decided on a petrol car and within this framework am considering the Hyundai Verna 1.6 base version and the Honda City. I am concerned about the Verna&rsquo;s stability at high speeds and driving dynamics.

All sedan done

London&rsquo;s Olympic venues must impress as well as serve, but Londoners don&rsquo;t want to be left &mdash; like Beijing after 2008 &mdash; with enormous, costly facilities that are hardly ever used.

No more white elephants

The Bangalore Club is one of the premiere clubs in India, on par with the likes of the Delhi Gymkhana Club and the Bombay Gymkhana, all of which were established by the British nearly 150 years ago. The members of these establishments are convivial but conventional &mdash; very much &ldquo;old school tie&rdquo;, the type who will drink to your health with Scotch or (these days) a single malt.

Ten try out at the Club

&ldquo;He moves on the stage like a semi-divine being. Believe me, there are still some beautiful things left in this poor old world.

Scorsese's Indian muse

The sponsor of the title match, Andrei Filatov, CEO of the N-Trans group, went to college with challenger, Boris Gelfand. Like many Russians, Filatov plays at near-professional levels. He&rsquo;s made previous headlines financing restorations to the grave of Alexander Alekhine in Paris and also by supporting smaller chess events and school chess programmes. Apart from that, he&rsquo;s funded maintenance of World War II era military graveyards in the Baltic republics.

Chess (#1000)

Blockbuster art auctions in New York this week have raised the ceiling on art prices for contemporary art and pop art, even in a downturn.

$44.8 m, going twice

As in the passenger vehicle industry, motorcycle enthusiasts seem to have notched up a scale, with more buyers ready to pay for sportier, more powerful and more premium products.

Discerning Indians want more than just a ride

- Find Specials News, Features, Analysis and more at Business Standard. Full coverage of Goafest 2014

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