Mumbai, Aug. 30 -- Good morning!

Of all the kinds of stories we write as journalists, profiles are my favourite. Profiling a founder or a business leader is harder than it looks. If you are on good terms with the person, you often run the risk of writing a hagiography-leaving out their mistakes, failures, or unsavoury bits of their personality. On the flip side, when profiling a controversial figure, you can be tempted to focus overly on their negatives.

But what if the subject of your profile declines to meet you altogether?

This was the challenge with which I started writing my recent Long Story about Ullu, the now-banned streaming service that became synonymous with softcore entertainment. Earlier in 2025, my editor, Goutam Das, had...