Best of Weekender: Tracing Drunken Monkey and Jasminder Singh's journey so far

In the last week of February, YS Weekender had a mixed bag of stories on entrepreneurship, health and fitness, sustainable living, and entertainment. Here's a compilation of all the top stories that you shouldn't miss from the week that was:

The smoothie life: How Hyderabad-based Drunken Monkey grew into a national brand with 100+ stores

Founded in 2016, smoothie brand Drunken Monkey started its journey with just one store in Hyderabad. Five years later, the brand operated more than 100 stores across 43 Indian states. It offers natural fruit smoothies and smoothie bowls, in over 200 combinations.

"I wanted to make smoothies a cult drink, similar to what Starbucks did to coffee," said Samrat Reddy, Founder and Managing Director of Drunken Monkey, in a conversation with YS Weekender.

Bootstrapped since inception, Samrat's goal with Drunken Monkey is to make smoothies a lifestyle. "If this mission requires raising funds or getting into a partnership, the founder says, “So it be. But I will never lose control of our goal or the brand.” 

Bikes for life: How a mechanic’s son gave up his cushy graphic designing job to pursue motovlogging

Delhi-based Jasminder Singh aka Jaysn is a biker, motovlogger, and entrepreneur. His YouTube channel JS Films boasts of 2.68 million subscribers.

Recently, once the coronavirus lockdown was lifted, Jasminder initiated a one-of-its-kind road trip. Starting from Delhi on December 10, 2020, he travelled on his Suzuki Hayabusa, all the way from Kanyakumari to Udhampur. The 8,500 km long road trip ended on January 8, 2021.  

In a conversation with YS Weekender, Jasminder traces his journey from working in the IT sector to ultimately following his dream.

Sustainable Living: Give your home an eco-friendly makeover

Making your home sustainable with smart and eco-conscious choices requires one to take baby steps. Here’s how you can give your home an eco-friendly makeover.

Contemporary Artist Gurpreet Kaur Tuteja writes, "Following an eco-friendly approach and being more mindful of the choices we make in the era of hyper-consumerism can make a big difference in safeguarding our natural environment and the earth as a whole. "

She further lists ways in which one can give their houses an eco-friendly makeover and make their space and conscious.

Industry players react to ASCI guidelines for influencer advertising

Earlier this week, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) released draft guidelines for influencer advertising on digital platforms. It further stated that the body aims to finalise the guidelines by end of March. Social media influencers are expected to receive new set of guidelines with respect to promotional posts, and they will be required to specify whether the content posted or published by them is an advertisement.

We spoke to industry leaders and social media influencers and asked them how they felt about the new guidelines.

Kunal Kishore Sinha, Co-founder of influencer marketing startup ClanConnect, says, "ASCI's newly issued guidelines for influencer marketing will unlock a wealth of new opportunities for the fast-evolving segment that will result in positive outcomes for the sector in the long run."

YourStory MediaReviews: Zindagi inShort

Zindagi inShort is an anthology film comrpising seven short films. It is produced by Sikhya Entertainment, the production house of Academy Award winner Guneet Monga and Achin Jain.

The seven short films, ranging between 11 and 22 minutes in length, showcase the extraordinary stories of seven ordinary women, belonging to varying age groups and from different walks of life. 

The film is a sincere reminder that after an unprecedented year, it's time to get things done and start living our lives, despite the challenges.

PVR will start recovering from the pandemic from Q2 2021: Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, PVR Ltd.

With movie theatres and cinema halls shut for most parts of the year, the entertainment ndustry had to suffer humongous losses, salary cuts, and job layoffs. However, with movie theatres being allowed to operate in 100 percent capacity, entertainment companies are trying to lure cinemagoers back to the theatres with high quality content.

Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Joint MD of PVR Ltd., in a conversation with YS Weekender, revealed about PVR’s plans to revive from last year’s losses, and PVR Pictures’ (the filmed entertainment arm of PVR Ltd) film slate for theatrical distribution. 

He said, "For us, it is a combination of good films and the requirement that all theatres be open so that consumers feel the confidence to come out. And when new and good films are released, people will come to the cinemas on their own."

Here's all you need to know about Parineeti Chopra starrer The Girl on the Train

Parineeti Chopra starrer The Girl on the Train released on Friday, February 26, on Netflix. It is the Hindi-adaptation of Paula Hawkins' 2015 mystery thriller novel of the same name. Before you watch the film, we have listed all that you need to know about this new release.