Rajinikanth launches daughter Soundarya's voice-based social-media platform

On the day he received the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award, superstar Rajinikanth launched "Hoote", a voice-based social media application, co-founded by his daughter Soundarya Vishagan.

“Hoote--a voice-based social media platform, from India for the world,” he tweeted on Monday. Using Hoote, people can post 60-second voice notes instead of text. The application comes from the firm Hoote Global Technologies, set up in March 2021. Its directors include Amtex Group CEO Sainath Pokala, Soundarya and her husband Vishagan.

A few days ago, Soundarya had mentioned that Freshworks founder-CEO Girish Mathrubootham is an advisor to her new venture. Mathrubootham is a big fan of Rajinikanth and had even named his initial public offering as Project Superstar as a mark of respect for him. Arvind Parthasarathi, a tech entrepreneur at Silicon Valley and the founder of Project Crosswords, is another advisor to the platform. The application was active for some time with ministers like Piyush Goyal and Ashwini Vaishnav and celebrities like Rana Daggubati and Gautam Gambhir.

“I am very happy to launch this innovative, useful and first-of-its-kind the "HOOTE APP" in my voice,” Rajinikanth said.

“With the blessing of Thalaivar Rajinikanth sir, Soundarya and myself, the co-founders of Hoote, are motivated to take Hoote to the next level. We are also thankful to the advisors, Girish Mathrubootham and Arvind Parthasarathi, for helping us build the largest social media voice platform from India to the world,” said Pokala in a voice message on Hoote.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin had congratulated Rajinikanth calling him the sun. “Suriyaan (Sun) Rajini of the screen should take the Tamil film industry to the next level and win many awards worldwide! Congratulations!,” he said.