 Today on NFT Stars, I have with me Jogesh Lulla of Cornerstone. He's the COO and they've launched recently an eSports division. They handle a lot of sportsperson and celebrities, notably of course Virat Kohli. But to start off with, tell us about your plans for NFTs, the entire NFT thing which you have planned. Wow, so NFT, that's a very broad question so I'm going to try and answer it in as many pieces as I can. So we are looking at, when you say NFT at the moment, I don't want to focus so much on NFTs per se but more the Web3 space because that's what we're looking at on a more broader spectrum. While NFTs have been the big buzzword recently, it is something that has started picking up in India and now you have seen the likes of your fan craze and the others also coming in trying to follow the top shots model from the US. This is something that we are looking at right now and to be honest with you, we're looking to simply license the rights of our players to be able to endorse these platforms at the moment. However, in our long-term vision, we are very clear that whatever we do in the Web3 space per se be it NFTs, be it gaming, be it the metaverse, there has to be a long-term vision and utility value for every NFT that's dropped. Now, in the current situation, you're looking at video clips of the ICC rights which is what fan craze has got that you may be able to utilize, will have some utility rights or not. But for us, while we are cornerstone and you did mention a lot about sport, we also have a joint venture with Dharma Productions. So if I could go in and look at potentially creating NFTs of movies as well with some of Dharma's movies for instance, making that NFT, the utility value sort of being a membership to a exclusive Dharma club where you could then go in and get access to premieres, to meet and greets with some of the celebrities, maybe even a chance to be in the movie. That would be something that would see more value to someone as opposed to just a collectible. That would be just one part of the NFT vision. The other one would be maybe even potentially now looking at the real long-term is creating Aftar, let's say a Virat Kohli. That Aftar itself makes you part of a Virat Kohli club which can then be integrated into a metaverse where you can interact with others as this Aftar. That same Aftar can then go into a game, maybe into a game like Free Fire and you play as a Virat Kohli. Then you go to the next level where Virat has his own clothing line. So something we're talking about right now is creating variables in the metaverse for ROM. So these will be all NFTs you would purchase. So you purchase the NFT, you can make your Aftar wear the NFT. Obviously this is still a ways away. So until that actually happens, let's give a physical piece of the actual clothing to the user as well. So all of these will be limited edition pieces creating a little more value and a little more excitement around it. Of course, the collectible piece is very valuable at the moment, especially with artists because you are collecting digital art and that is also growing. But for us, we're looking at the long-term vision. This is just the start, a lot more to come in this space, I would say. Okay, I mean that's the Free Fire thing which you mentioned is quite interesting. My neighbor who's in class then he would be quite interested because he's very obsessed with these games. Moving on to the whole esports world, to a person who's very new to this entire sphere, how would you sort of define or explain esports within 30 seconds to anybody? Competitive gaming. It's like any other sport. You compete with others to actually play and win at whatever sport you're playing. Esports is the same thing. You're competing on a video game in this case. Free Fire, BGMI, FIFA, whatever else it may be. That's essentially it and it requires a lot of skill. So I know your next question is probably going to be like, but your parents are like, don't sit on the couch and play video games all day. But when it comes down to it, think about what someone in the IT industry does. You're sitting on the desk all day for 8 hours a day, but the gamers, they play for 8 hours a day. That's their job. They do it for a living. Very important, after you do that, just like if you were in an IT job, get out there, get some exercise, make sure you're moving around and doing the other things that are important for your health as well. So long story short, I guess that's my 2 minute version of it in 30 seconds. Fair enough, fair enough. And see, you began cornerstone with regards to handling these different people, their social media profiles, etc. So how did you decide to get into the esports angle? Esports has been growing very rapidly around the globe. For us in India, I think it's the lockdown that actually made esports very large. I should say gaming very large in the country and people started noticing more of what's happening. Globally, however, it is a very big sport. I mean, you get scholarships to universities through esports as well in America. China has recognized esports athletes as real athletes. And it's a space that we have been monitoring for a while. It's been very small in India, but it suddenly started growing very rapidly. So that's why we decided now was the time to jump in and quite frankly for us. Like I said, esports athletes are athletes just like a cricketer as an athlete. So we already do everything that's required for an athlete, be it in cricket, be it in football, badminton, whatever it may be. We just have to take the same, I should say, the best practices from these into the esports space and then help them in however we can in their careers. Be it the athlete, be it the teams, be it creating IPs, whatever else it comes down to, it's actually just replicating our experience in one sphere on one space and moving it over to another. And it seemed like a no brainer for us as we're already doing it. Okay, and lastly, are there any particular challenges with video game streamers or creators or players are facing at the moment? Yeah, so if you actually step back for a moment, while I did say it was competitive gameplay, at the end of the day, a sport will sell when it has enough of an audience. That's where the money is eventually come in when you have your broadcast. Now, when it comes to esports, be it the streamers or casters, whatever else it may be, end of the day, they're creating content. They need to create exciting content and that is what is actually selling. Yes, there are people who are amazing at gameplay and you do want to watch them play to understand how they do certain things, but that is a very niche market. For this sport or the industry to grow, it's all eventually going to come down to content. And if you monitor what's happened in the US, it started at where we are today, where streaming platforms came into the country. There's professional esports happening, a lot of tournaments being held. But today if you look at what's happening there, it's all content creation. It's entertainment. And that's where we're going to end up in another three or four years. So that's why Amazon acquired Twitch. You look at Twitch today, I think 85% of the content on there is just entertainment. 15% is actual gameplay. And because of this, the streamers and content creators have to be... have a very difficult task because not only are they playing the game, but they have to learn how to entertain people. Now, if I'm a streamer and I'm sitting there, I've got a... Right now I'm a gamer, let's say I'm a gamer who's got a hard-core following in Valorant. Tomorrow I go out and do something else in, let's say, BGMI because that's the next big thing that's happening. It's a very tough task for me to first of all hang on to my Valorant following because those guys are there just to see that. While I'm acquiring more BGMI, I might be losing some Valorant talent. And how do I make this content still exciting enough to get people who don't care about gaming as much but they want to see the entertainment? So it's always a very tough task. It's like anything to do in content, how do you create the right content for people which I think is extremely difficult for them to do. And to be totally honest with you, one of the reasons we also got into this space is none of them have good management to be able to actually sell their content. You could be there streaming all the time, but how do you monetize this? Doing this as a job, it's your profession, you need to monetize it. So that was one gap we found and that's where we are trying to come in get the non-indemic brands interested in these people. So if you look at KFC, we've done a few deals with them. They are looking at e-sports as a space. Normally it would always be your intels and your mousepad and all the other endemic brands. But our focus over the last six months has been educating non-indemic brands on how to get into this space and help the teams and the players with monetization. Right. I mean, what you said about the following of the people and creating an audience and entertaining, I think as of right now these content creators and comedians like Harry Minati and Tanmay Mbatha are doing a very good job because they've got a big following. But I get what you're saying about the others. Regarding the others, of course, the whole entertainment angle is something we still have to learn. Thank you, Jogesh, for talking to us and all the best for the future. And take care. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time.