The 10-year-old agency lost the Government’s multi-million-pound digital media account to Sir Martin Sorrell’s GroupM in February, which accounted for some £40m of billings, equalling 40% of the agency’s total turnover. i-level  had been handling this business for a decade.

i-Level’s clients included Orange and Samsung, and was founded in 1999 by Andrew Walmsley and Charlie Dobres. In spring 2008 they sold a 60 per cent stake to ECI, a private equity group, in a £45m ($68m) deal.

Your author, who is also into internet based affiliate marketing, got to know about this today when he received emails from LoveFilm and Comet – two prominent i-level clients – saying that i-level’s going into administration will not affect their earnings in any manner. The following is an extract from the email he received from Orange:

Hi Sarthak,

With the recent announcement about the incumbent agency i-level, Orange has agreed with i-level to transition the account to MEC as of immediate effect.

Orange would like to re-assure affiliates that promotion and payment of the Orange product offering will remain as normal.

The agency has about 140 employees, in disciplines including online display advertising, search marketing, social media and mobile marketing.

Latitude, another UK digital specialist, also went into administration in January after struggling with debts racked up during the boom years of the mid-2000s.

Sources: FT, Mediaweek

The goal scored with Shashi Tharoor’s resignation has been so powerful that it has rebounded upon the scorer himself. The self goal has meant that Modi stands suspended from the league he himself created, and faces a slew of corruption charges.

So much information has been leaked from various ‘sources’ with each passing day that the average cricket viewer’s attention has been forced to move away from the games being played on the field, to those off the field. It is indeed a sad state of affairs that a tournament which gave India immense international recognition, and brought on India’s domestic talent to the forefront, has been so tainted with corruption.

Adding fuel to the fire are the match fixing allegations. If they turn out to be true, there will be immense public anger, and the BCCI can then bank upon the fact that TRPs for any future editions of the IPL will never be the same again.

In spite of the information overload, there are many things we do not know; and though Modi had threatened to reveal the dirt in the game once the tournament concludes, he is yet to open the promised Pandora’s Box.

It is ironical that at the beginning of this year’s tournament, Lalit Modi made the team captains sign the MCC ‘spirit of cricket’ pledge.

The spirit has been murdered.

In a country where the rich and the powerful almost always escape the clutches of the law, will the spirit ever get justice? Even if Lalit Modi is convicted and prosecuted, there are bigger pawns (read politicians) on this chessboard, who may yet again subvert the system to save their skin. And the common man‘s faith in democracy will be further diminished.

Apparently,  Emma Watson has ended her two-year relationship with financier Jay Barrymore.

And if her mates are to be believed, the 19-year-old has been spending time with Spanish musician and fellow student Rafael Cebrian since the split. Do not forget that Emma is currently studying her college at Brown University in the USA. According  to the Daily Mail, the pair became close friends last November while Emma was still in a relationship with Jay, and since the split she has been heavily leaning on Rafael.

Ex-couple Emma and Jay

In related news, Emma Watson will be performing in a student-directed production of Anton Chehkov’s Three Sisters at Brown University, where she is a freshman. The event, which was announced on Facebook, has since been removed.

The play is being produced by the school’s Production Workshop, a non-profit student theater founded in 1960. Watson, with an ensemble cast of 13 other students, will perform six shows from March 11-15.

Unlike her other projects, this one won’t be bringing a sizable payday for Watson: Admission to the play is free.

Pop, Reggae and Bollywood enthralled a packed house at the home ground of Deccan Chargers team (Hyderabad having been replaced due to violent protests there).

Meanwhile the first match of the tournament saw a big upset when a seemingly victorius Deccan Chargers were defeated by Kolkatta Knight Ridersby 11 runs. Batting first, KKR lost two wickets in the first over and two more by the start of the sixth. Chaminda Vaas struck with the first and third balls of the match to remove Manoj Tiwary and Sourav Ganguly. Cheteshwar Pujara and Brad Hodge departed to leave the Knight Riders wobbling on 31 for four after 5.1 overs.

[picappgallerysingle id="4097323"]

However, England batsman Owais Shah and Sri Lanka all-rounder Angelo Mathews united in an unbeaten fifth-wicket stand of 130, the second highest recorded in professional Twenty20 matches, to take Kolkata to an above-par total of 161.

Although Deccan started at a gallop, with Adam Gilchrist and V.V.S. Laxman putting on 61 for the first wicket in less than six overs, they lost their way after both departed and finished the match scratching around for singles and overthrows. Pace bowlers Ishant Sharma and Charl Langeveldt exploited the damp conditions as Kolkata won by 11 runs.

IPL also created history by being the first major sports tournament to be telecast live on YouTube. All matches of IPL 3 will be broadcast with a 5 minute delay on the popular video sharing site. However, all did not go as planned because YouTube was ‘experiencing technical difficulties’ during the first half hour of the match. Hopefully things will be more streamlined as the tournament progresses.

Sadly, IPL fixtures this year have been set in a bad calendar with most of the international teams busy playing one another. Therefore we shall be seeing a lot more retired and not so great players play bat and ball this season. Already the Indian Premier League resembles a retirement destination of Aussie cricketers. Need I say more?

India’s batting legend Sachin Tendulkar smashed a world record 200 not out against South Africa at Gwalior in the second ODI of the three match series.

It is the highest ever score by an individual in a one day international, the previous record being 194 runs by Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe. Tendulkar reached the milestone in the 50th over of India’s innings, as the Proteas tried their best to keep him off strike. The pitch was described as a batting paradise by its curator and turns out he was true to his word; for all but one of India’s batsmen contributed magnificently in India’s massive 401/3.

The crowd at Gwalior’s Roop Singh stadium turned ballistic as the Indian batsmen reigned supreme with a stupendous display of fireworks from their bats. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored 68 off 35 balls hitting 7 fours and 4 sixes.

Earlier Dinesh Kartik and Yusuf Pathan hit 79 and 36 respectively. Only Virender Sehwag failed to contribute, scoring a paltry 9. We can expect a good fightback from the Proteas with excellent batsmen in their line up on this great batting wicket. Hamish Amla in particular is a dangerous player and South Africa do have the potential to chase a 400 plus score. Lets hope for further entertainment!

In an interesting move Bollywood studios Shemaroo Entertainment, Rajshri Films and UltraHindi have tied up with Youtube to provide Standard and HQ streaming movies on the popular video sharing site.

Some of these movies include hits and classics like Sarkar, Andaz Apna Apna, Bawarchi, Amar Akbar Anthony and Hera Pheri.

Every movie is completely streamed in a single video, unlike normal youtube videos which are upto a maximum of 10 minutes.

Here’s the link to the Bollywood films on youtube.

The movies are also embeddable, for example you can watch the nice but underrated bollywood movie Sarkar right here:

After sehwag fell and India were 309/2, a quick tumble of wickets followed. Captain MS Dhoni who was partnering Sehwag after Tendulkar’s departure made 72 off 53 balls. Sureh Raina, Guatam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh fell succesively and cheaply and it looked like India would not be able to cross the 400 barrier until Ravindu Jadeja took on the mantle towards the end of India’s innings and scored a brisk 30 off 17 deliveries, including 2 sixes.

Meanwhile for Lanka; Kulasekara, Welegedara and Fernando took 2 wickets apiece but none of them could check the scoring rate and went for over 6.00 run an over. Tilekratne Dilshan was the mot expensive bowler giving 26 runs in his 2 overs.

Aamir has uploaded three videos on youtube showing his stay and interaction with the locals in Varanasi in a disguised avatar…Aamir appears as a lower middle class gentleman trying to find his mom’s native village. Watch him in the 3 videos below.

Aamir Khan in Varanasi Part 1


Aamir Khan in Varanasi Part 2

Aamir Khan in Varanasi Part 3

Aamir Khan in Varanasi Part 4

Aamir Khan in Varanasi Part 5

As you can see Aamir’s make up is brilliant and his tobacco stained teeth are a class apart. And the way he talks with the locals, like he is one of their own, simply endears him to all.

You can find out more about this contest and the various clues on this website: http://idiotsacademy.zapak.com/arg/index.php

Also read: 3 idiots may end Bollywood’s sour 2009

Update: Aamir has updated his facebook on status saying “Varanasi was most enriching.”

While quiet a few fans found the movie disappointing when it was released in the summer of 2009, a lot of fans still loved it. I have listed below direct links to retailers in US, UK and India from whom you can order the disc(s) online.

United States of America

Buy Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince DVD or BLU RAY from Amazon.com
Buy Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince DVD or BLUE RAY from Half.com

United Kingdom

Buy Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince BLU RAY OR DVD from Amazon.co.uk
Buy Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince BLU RAY or DVD from Play.com

India

Buy Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince BLU RAY or DVD from IndiaPlaza.in

Fans in other countries sorry, I did not get time to research stores from across the world, but the movie should be evailable in the most popular online shopping sites in your places.

Related links
Harry Potter and the Half blood prince was crap – a cynical review of the 6th Potter movie with an interactive discussion below.
Write great Harry Potter stories like J.K. Rowling – A best-selling author reveals the essential secrets to writing fantastic Harry Potter stories

3 idiots poster

Its been a sad year for the Hindi film industry as there have been virtually no blockbuster hits this year. In fact a majority of the films have either flopped or done average business. Of course, the quality of movies is largely to blame for that. Be it ‘Blue’ or ‘De Dhana Dhan‘, it seems the producers and directors are hell bent on insulting our intelligence. I have heard good reviews about ‘Paa’, I hope it really is a good movie and if so should churn out good moolah for ABCL.

Coming back to the point. 3 idiots – a movie directed by Rajkumar Hirani and featuring Aamir Khan, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Kareen Kapoor in the lead roles is making waves in India, and rightly so.

The reasons for the excitement about this film is not too hard to grasp. Firsty, its directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who has a 100% success rate and is known to write strong scripts. Although 3 idiots is loosely based on the novel ‘5 Point Someone‘, the script is very different and has been written by Hirani with two of his associates.

Secondly, its got Aamir Khan aka Mr Perfectionist in it. Aamir is reknowned for being choosy about the scripts of movies he decides to do. And his instincts are nearly always right. Aamir has come a long way from QSQT days. I think his acting really matured from Sarfarosh onwards, and he has tried to improve his near perfect performances with every passing film. The fact that he does only one film a year or less makes the viewers eagerly await his films, and therefore he is the main trumpcard for the producer and the film.

Thirdly, the story looks fresh and realistic as we see from the trailers. College life in Hindi films has never been displayed in a real manner except by Rajkumar Hirani himself when he accurately depicted the going ons in a medical college in Munnabhai MBBS. Karan’s Johar’s college in Kuch Kuch Hota is too much of a good fantasy while the films of the early 90s depicted colleges as romance zones and nothing else. Engineering students will be particularly excited this time to see how their lot has been portrayed in Hirani’s latest.

Most people already know that Aamir Khan has a profile on facebook by the name of Pucca idiot. However he is unable to add any more friends (he already has 5000) so he has created a fan page by the name of Aamir Khan the Pucca Idiot. Join it if you want. Most people though are unaware that the film’s producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra is also on facebook and accepts friend requests from fans. Here’s the link to Mr Vinod Chopra’s facebook profile.

Don’t forget to check out the official 3 idiots teaser trailer.