UNESCO's Top 15 Cities for Culture & Design

UNESCO is the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and its purpose is to promote peace through education and scientific advancements. This organization has identified the following 15 cities as ones who maintain creativity and culture as part of advancement, while being very easy on the eyes.

1. Montréal, Canada

UNESCO calls Montréal “The City of Designers”, as it is home to some 25,000 designers, as well as the famous Canadian Center for Architecture. The city also boasts many cultural centers, including museums, art galleries, and exhibition centers.

2. Buenos Aires, Argentina

One of South America’s best places for design and architecture lovers, Buenos Aires is home to spectacular sculptures and buildings, mixing the styles of the Renaissance, Goth, and Art Deco. UNESCO points out the government’s active roles in encouraging cultural exhibitions and constructions, as well as conservation of historical sites.

3. Curitiba, Brazil

This Brazilian city goes beyond architectural design, offering residents and tourists the opportunity to visit some of the world’s most stunning gardens.

4. Bilbao, Spain

Bilbao is the home of the Guggenheim Museum, a truly odd-shaped building that is located in the heart of the city. It is also where an amazing wine warehouse from 1909 is located, which was meant to be demolished and was saved at the last moment, then converted into a cultural facility.

5. Turin, Italy

Originally the home of the Roman Senate, Turin is now the home of some of Italy’s automotive giants – Fiat and Alfa Romeo. Additionally, the city has a slew of classic-period European architecture and is home to several innovative design companies.

6. Graz, Austria

Home to a couple of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but that doesn’t mean that this city stops for a moment, with its nearly 5,000 design companies.

7. Berlin, Germany

Once a city divided by a wall, Berlin is now home to over 2,400 design companies. Local companies focus on green technologies and designs, and the city itself promotes a healthy lifestyle of its residents.

8. Helsinki, Finland

If you love architecture, Helsinki should be high on your list of places to visit. The most remarkable part of the city’s character is in its municipality’s willingness to include residents in public design projects, as it did when it consulted with the locals about how to design public transportation seats.

9. Dundee, Scotland

Not a well known Scottish city, unless of course, you’re a designer, Dundee is the United Kingdom’s number one creative city of design. Dundee was the home to many textile companies, as well as shipbuilders, but as time passed, these industries made way to biotech and digital media. Despite its technological growth, the city still works to maintain and rejuvenate its old, traditional parts.

10. Shenzhen, China

The city’s skyline is filled with cutting-edge buildings, celebrating the history of design Shenzhen has. With the recent shift of designers to Shanghai and Hong Kong, Shenzhen has become home for large finance companies instead.

11. Shanghai, China

The biggest design show in Asia is the Shanghai Design Show, which attracts brands and designers from all around the world. The city itself is home to more than 4,000 design agencies, 239 community centers for art and culture, 283 art institutions, 100 museums, and 25 libraries. Combined with the city’s amazing skyline, it becomes obvious why the city was chosen by UNESCO.

12. Kobe, Japan

Kobe’s modern skyline is not the result of sped up development, but of a rebuild following a catastrophic earthquake back in 1995. Despite past misfortune, Kobe is a world-class fashion and art city, second only to Paris.

13. Nagoya, Japan

Modern Nagoya is home for some major auto industries, such as Toyota and Mitsubishi, as well as advanced robotics centers. At the same time, it maintains a slew of local cuisine places, a traditional Japanese theatre, and medieval craftworks.

14. Seoul, South Korea

A hub of technology and innovation, South Korea is home to mega brands such as Samsung and LG. Along with its technological growth the city designated one of its oldest districts into its own “silicone valley”, transforming it while keeping its historical roots.

15. Beijing, China

The home of the 2008 Olympic Games also boasts more than 3,000 years of rich history, incredible architecture, and traditional Chinese neighborhoods (hutongs).

Hype created by Kabali-Latest movie of Superstar Rajnikanth

The recently released  Tamil/Telugu/Hindi movie Kabali of Superstar Rajnikanth has created many records in the film industry even before its release. I give below the hype created by the movie collected from Newspaper reports and websites.

Making of the movie 
Kabali is a 2016 Indian Tamil gangster-drama film written and directed by Pa. Ranjith. The film stars Rajinikanth as the title character, whilst Taiwanese actor Winston Chao, Radhika Apte, Dhansika, Dinesh Ravi, Kalaiyarasan, and John Vijay star in other pivotal roles. Principal photography for the film began on 21 August 2015 in Chennai. While filming mostly occurred in Malaysia, smaller scenes were shot in Bangkok and Hong Kong.

Release of the movie
The film was released on 22 July 2016 in 3200 screens in India, which included 2200 screens in South India.Some 500 screens in US (including 250 each screens for Tamil and Telugu versions) also shows how the industry wants to capitalise on the first day itself, even if the audiences abandon it eventually. It shattered all the records for an Indian film worldwide.

  Fans gathered in a theater in Chennai to watch the first show on the day of release 

Kabali story in brief
Rajinikanth  as  Kabali spends 25 years of his life in jail, when he returns, he is in for a surprise, which is gradually revealed to the audience. Why was he locked up in a Malaysian jail for such a long period of time is shown in the flashback. 

The rest of the film deals with what Rajini does to get back his lost life and how he achieves his prime task, for which he was jailed all these while. How he fights to save his world and help the downtrodden Tamilians in Malaysia forms the crux of Kabali.
For further details of the movie and its story in detail
visit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabali_(film)

Now these are the interesting news about the hype created before and after release of the movie:

Kabali Teaser trailer
Its teaser trailer was released in April 2016 and went viral in Asia and gained 5 million views in less than 24 hours becoming the most viewed teaser in Asia. As on date of this posting , the Kabali teaser garnered nearly 30 million views, making it one of the most watched Indian film teasers. Click the link below to watch the teaser:

KABALI TEASER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mdJV5-eias
Promotion of the movie :
The Malaysian airline, AirAsia became an official partner for Kabali and certain AirAsia planes were painted with a Kabali theme

AirAsia, which is Rajinikanth starrer film Kabali's official airline partner, had also announced a 'Fly like a Superstar' offer to promote the movie.  The Rs 8,000 package included airfare from Bengaluru to Chennai, first show at Satyam theatre, and meals, among others. However, the last moment decision to change the venue from Sathyam theatre to Prasad Studio in Vadapalani, Chennai backfired. The airline is said to have arranged a show at Satyam theatre for 12.30 PM. According to one of the passengers, the people have been shifted to Sathyam cinemas to watch the morning show. 

There are reports that some fans came all the way from London to watch the movie in Chennai theatres.

Like Air Asia many brands like Airtel have associated themselves with the movie, came up with creative merchandise to promote themselves along with the movie.

Muthoot Fincorp, flagship of the 129-year-old diversified Muthoot Pappachan Group,  launched the Lucky Superstar Silver Coin with image of the mega star and kicked off the 'Carry Lucky Superstar With You' campaign. 

Fox star studios which has released  the movie in more than 1,000 screens in the North Indian market has jumped on the promotional bandwagon with a Kabali double-decker bus plying in Mumbai.

Mass booking of tickets and Holidays declared by organisations

There were many organisations who booked tickets for their entire staff members and declared holiday also to enable them to watch the movie.

Every movie release of Rajnikanth is accompanied by this type of hype and frenzied fans make a beeline to catch the first show. At hyperlocal delivery website Oyethere.com founder S.Shriram booked two Inox screens for Kabali for the staff and customers.

Rajini fans in Mumbai distributed special masks to get into the Kabali mood ahead of the film

In a temple in Tamil Nadu, his fans organised a special puja (prayer) where his idol was given a royal bath with milk, and a special abhishekam was organised for the success of the movie.

Corporate offices of Fyndus India Pvt Ltd, and Opus Structural solution based in Chennai and Bengaluru have declared a holiday on July 22, the day Kabali is being released, in order to prevent 'mass sick leave'. 

These companies confirmed that they volunteered to provide free tickets to their employees to save the movie-makers a revenue-loss through online piracy.

According to the Times of India, a senior personal assistant to Tamil Nadu's Minister for Information and Publicity issued a note to Chennai's Abirami Theatre asking them to issue 10 tickets for the film's first showing.

FM stations are pitching in feverishly, offering free tickets for an SMS from a listener. Fans hoping to get lucky don’t mind their dimes spent for an SMS, and the mobile services are ringing in a fortune as the total number of SMSs have crossed over one lakh. “Neruppu Da” seems so appropriate as Kabali fever catches fire wherever it touches.
Box office collections
Ticket prices for the first two or three days went up from Rs 300 to Rs 500 in many places except multiplexes in Chennai city. While corporate and IT firms have made bulk bookings, theatres restricted under a slab of Rs 120 slyly instigate viewers to buy the tickets for Rs 500, for a ‘package’ of popcorn, snacks and soft drinks along with a Kabali ticket.

If the industry reports are to be believed, this Rs 70 crore movie has already ensured a pre-release recovery of Rs 200 crore, from various rights including theatrical rights, branding, satellite and audio, unmatched for any other Tamil films in the past.
If Salman Khan’s Sultan and Aamir Khan’s PK earnings surprised you, the box office collections of Rajinikanth’s Kabali will leave you shocked. According to verified collection data provided by producer Kalaipuli S Dhanu to IndianExpress.com, the Rajinikanth-starrer has earned about Rs 400 crore in four days. While Rs 200 crore is the box office collection, the film earned Rs 200 crore before release with sale of music rights etc.

Dhanu said Kabali has earned Rs 90 crore abroad in the first weekend, out of which Rs 28 crore came from the US itself where the film is among the top 10 films being watched in the country. The producer put Indian collection for the first weekend at around Rs 100 crore.

“I will never forget these days in my life. This release has given me so much happiness. It has broken the collection records of Indian cinema in the last 100 years,” Dhanu said.