Latest news with #ChaitanyaSharma
Mint
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
‘Tiki Taka': A play that scores big on life and sports
In director Adhaar Khurana's rehearsal room, actors take a break as he sketches on a piece of paper, much like a coach, the 'tiki taka"game play associated with the Spanish national football team to help an actor understand the strategy. Khurana wants everyone familiar with this game play, often criticised for being less progressive than other aggressive strategies. He need not have worried as the majority of the cast plays or loves football. Khurana himself is a football fan and his new play Tiki Taka is one that he has been dreaming of for years. Three months back, he penned a concept note and got writers Adhir Bhat and Bobby Nagra on board. The script was delivered just three weeks before the rehearsals began in May. For Mumbai-based Akvarious Productions, which is celebrating its 25th year, this is a first-of-a-kind sports play. Though there isn't any real football action happening on stage, the characters of Abhinav and Chaitanya Sharma, brothers and footballers will be seen throwing the occasional ball around. The play goes beyond the game. Khurana insists it's about life itself, quite like the tiki taka game play. 'It's a possession-based strategy, where a team retains the ball for as much as 70% of the time. It involves very few attacks," explains Khurana, 'though now there are versions wherein you not just retain possession but also move forward," he says. Also read: 'Sitaare Zameen Par' review: More life lessons from Aamir Khan Tiki Taka is one of the many new efforts by Akvarious to mark its milestone year. The team is hosting a series of microfests across the country and premiering new plays such as Smile Please, Excess Estrogen and The Tragedy of Ham MacLear. Sports stories are common in film and OTT platforms but don't always make their way to the stage. While it is difficult to replicate game play on stage, Khurana believes that theatre as a medium fuelled by audience imagination, can be an asset for these stories. Like most sports stories, Tiki Taka begins in the locker room. The India football team captain, Paramjeet Gill, played by Chaitanya Sharma, is set for his last match before retirement. This is a prestigious final in a tournament where the Indian team is a surprise entrant. His brother, Amarjeet Gill (Abhinav Sharma), is a footballer too. He is not on the team but hopes to make the cut soon. Then there's the coach, Farooq Bukhari (Faisal Rashid), a Kashmiri Muslim with a challenging personal and professional life who is out to prove himself and win a custody battle. The list of characters includes Etienne Mascarenhas (Joy Fernandes), a forgotten Goan football hero, now a kitman who can't help living in past glory. There's a TV anchor with funny, sometimes scathing, commentary of the matches. There's Tamannah Kataria (Lisha Bajaj), a physiotherapist holding her own in a man's world. Khurana was keen on introducing a female character, who could inhabit a male-dominated space. Each character has a life on and off the field. There's a lot of politics in both the professional and personal realms. Also read: How 'Panchayat' became a second-screen show: Season 4 review As a fan, Khurana was fussy about getting the details right but knew that the play had to rest on its drama. A strand of the central plot has been inspired from a news event. In March, Kalyan Chaubey, the All India Football Federation president, spoke about integrating Overseas Citizenship of India card holders into the Indian team. In the play, this exercise is shown as close to completion. The fictional federation chief is banking on the team's loss to pass the new regulation. Except, the team has made it to the finals. The events that follow create the drama in the play. There's commentary about testosterone-heavy boys locker rooms, a comeuppance for the sole female character, and about sport and sportsmanship. Khurana doesn't preach, wants the laughs, but above all wants to remind viewers that there is more to Indian sport than cricket. For the last few years, we've seen somewhat of an outpouring of sports documentaries, films and series on OTT platforms, including the runaway success of Apple TV's Ted Lasso. Khurana, though, insists he drew inspiration from none of them. 'I love Ted Lasso; the beauty therein is that you don't see a lot of the game. It's centred around the lives of the people," he says. Tiki Taka, which opened to a full house at Mumbai's AntiSocial on a Tuesday evening is similar in its attempts. It's the men in the locker room, behind the numbered jerseys, and not the ones on the field that took the applause. Tiki Taka is all set to be staged on 27 June in Pune, and will be staged again in July and August. Akvarious Productions is also hosting its third microfest until June 29 at The Box, Pune. Prachi Sibal is a Mumbai-based culture writer.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Nascent Materials emerges from stealth to make LFP batteries better and cheaper
Lithium-ion batteries have dropped in cost by 75% over the past decade, a marvel of research and development that isn't the result of a singular breakthrough but of myriad incremental improvements. Few know that better than Chaitanya Sharma, founder of the stealthy Nascent Materials. Sharma spent a little over two years working at Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada and another two leading iM3NY, a lithium-ion manufacturer in New York. Since leaving iM3NY in November 2023, he's been working on a new way to process cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries — one of those small improvements that promises to continue driving down costs. Nascent's new process could improve energy density of the cathode by up to 12% while costing 30% less to make. 'In my mind, developing a new exotic chemistry is not really the way that I want to go,' Sharma told TechCrunch. 'I want to develop new ways of making material.' Sharma's manufacturing-focused approach has attracted early investment. Nascent recently raised $2.3 million in a seed round led by SOSV, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The New Jersey Innovation Evergreen Fund and UM6P Ventures also participated. The startup's initial focus is on making lithium-ion-phosphate (LFP) and lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate, (LMFP), two cathode materials that have gained favor among automakers and data center operators. Recent improvements have brought LFP energy density closer to higher-end nickel- and cobalt-based chemistries but at much lower costs. But there's still room for improvement. Sharma said that obtaining materials with consistent quality was a challenge at iM3NY, one that contributed to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in January. The problem stems from supply chain inequities. Large players like Tesla's Gigafactory, which it operates in partnership with Panasonic, tend to get more consistent material, Sharma said. 'The small players, which, by the way, spend $100 million to $200 million on their factories as well, they get the outlier material.' 'That really became the reason why I wanted to launch Nascent Materials — because I want to make sure that I provide consistent materials to all customers,' Sharma said. Cathode material tends to come in powders, and while it might look consistent to the naked eye, slight variations in the grains can have an outsized impact on the final result. Sharma said Nascent has developed a process that uses less energy while also promising to create particles that are more consistently sized and shaped. That allows the material to be packed more tightly, improving energy density. The process offers additional supply chain advantages. It can also use lower-purity raw materials, he said, opening up more domestic supplies. While Nascent is focused on LFP and LMFP today, Sharma said the company plans to expand to other chemistries, including nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and lithium-manganese-rich (LMR), a relatively new chemistry that GM will introduce in 2028. That domestic focus addresses a critical industry dependency. Today, the vast majority of cathode material is made in China. 'How can I not rely on China for them?' Sharma said. 'That's really what we are focused on — simplifying the supply chain so we can utilize local raw materials, so that drives the cost down.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
a day ago
- Automotive
- TechCrunch
Nascent Materials emerges from stealth to make LFP batteries better and cheaper
Lithium-ion batteries have dropped in cost by 75% over the past decade, a marvel of research and development that isn't the result of a singular breakthrough but of myriad incremental improvements. Few know that better than Chaitanya Sharma, founder of the stealthy Nascent Materials. Sharma spent a little over two years working at Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada and another two leading iM3NY, a lithium-ion manufacturer in New York. Since leaving iM3NY in November 2023, he's been working on a new way to process cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries — one of those small improvements that promises to continue driving down costs. Nascent's new process could improve energy density of the cathode by up to 12% while costing 30% less to make. 'In my mind, developing a new exotic chemistry is not really the way that I want to go,' Sharma told TechCrunch. 'I want to develop new ways of making material.' Sharma's manufacturing-focused approach has attracted early investment. Nascent recently raised $2.3 million in a seed round led by SOSV, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The New Jersey Innovation Evergreen Fund and UM6P Ventures also participated. The startup's initial focus is on making lithium-ion-phosphate (LFP) and lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate, (LMFP), two cathode materials that have gained favor among automakers and data center operators. Recent improvements have brought LFP energy density closer to higher-end nickel- and cobalt-based chemistries but at much lower costs. But there's still room for improvement. Sharma said that obtaining materials with consistent quality was a challenge at iM3NY, one that contributed to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in January. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW The problem stems from supply chain inequities. Large players like Tesla's Gigafactory, which it operates in partnership with Panasonic, tend to get more consistent material, Sharma said. 'The small players, which, by the way, spend $100 million to $200 million on their factories as well, they get the outlier material.' 'That really became the reason why I wanted to launch Nascent Materials — because I want to make sure that I provide consistent materials to all customers,' Sharma said. Cathode material tends to come in powders, and while it might look consistent to the naked eye, slight variations in the grains can have an outsized impact on the final result. Sharma said Nascent has developed a process that uses less energy while also promising to create particles that are more consistently sized and shaped. That allows the material to be packed more tightly, improving energy density. The process offers additional supply chain advantages. It can also use lower-purity raw materials, he said, opening up more domestic supplies. While Nascent is focused on LFP and LMFP today, Sharma said the company plans to expand to other chemistries, including nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and lithium-manganese-rich (LMR), a relatively new chemistry that GM will introduce in 2028. That domestic focus addresses a critical industry dependency. Today, the vast majority of cathode material is made in China. 'How can I not rely on China for them?' Sharma said. 'That's really what we are focused on — simplifying the supply chain so we can utilize local raw materials, so that drives the cost down.'
