MUMBAI: One of the world’s greatest and India’s holiest rivers, The Ganga is believed to be a Goddess and the source of spirituality for millions of people. Descending from the Himalayas, Discovery Channel will capture many facets of the Mother Ganga; from spiritual, cultural, geological and adventure in its one-hour special program Ganga: Himalayan Descent.
Premiering on 15 April 2016 at 9 pm on Discovery Channel, Discovry Tamil and Discovery HD World, the program through incredible footage and gripping narrativewill reveal the story of the Hindu’s holy pilgrimage and its tributaries that support India’s thriving ecosystem.
The film opens at the source, where River Ganga emerges from the glacial peaks of Shivling and Bhagirathi. From Badrinath Temple, one of the four most important pilgrimage sites in India to Ramganga and how it supports the massive ecotourism industry at Jim Corbett National Park to Rishikesh, the world’s Yoga Capital and ultimately land at Har Ki Pouri in Haridwar where the visitors congregate for the Aarti ceremony, the program will bring forth the story of people and their experiences living on the edges of the Ganga.
MUMBAI: Investigation Discovery will premiere a crime series titled Killing Fields which will take viewers inside an active criminal investigation as it unfolds. The series will premiere from 17 April 2016 every Sunday at 8 pm.
The series will explore the menacing reality of America where beautiful landscapes hide a much more grim reality. The show will go inside a case that went cold nearly two decades ago in the small community of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, located just 15 miles from the state capitol, Baton Rouge. In June 1997, Louisiana State University graduate student Eugenie Boisfontaine was last seen near LSU’s lakes. Two months later, her body was found nearby in a watery ditch with evidence of blunt force trauma to her head.
Detective Rodie Sanchez was assigned to the case in 1997 and hasn’t stopped thinking about it since. He makes the bold decision to come out of retirement and gets permission to re-open the case. Rodie is determined to solve the mystery and make good on a broken promise to Eugenie’s mother: to find the person (or persons) responsible for killing her daughter.
Joining Rodie in the chase is a young hot-shot detective, Aubrey St. Angelo, who has a knack for reading people and isn’t afraid to ask the tough questions. However, the two can’t solve this case alone – they are joined by top-notch detectives at the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s office.
MUMBAI: Investigation Discovery will premiere a crime series titled Killing Fields which will take viewers inside an active criminal investigation as it unfolds. The series will premiere from 17 April 2016 every Sunday at 8 pm.
The series will explore the menacing reality of America where beautiful landscapes hide a much more grim reality. The show will go inside a case that went cold nearly two decades ago in the small community of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, located just 15 miles from the state capitol, Baton Rouge. In June 1997, Louisiana State University graduate student Eugenie Boisfontaine was last seen near LSU’s lakes. Two months later, her body was found nearby in a watery ditch with evidence of blunt force trauma to her head.
Detective Rodie Sanchez was assigned to the case in 1997 and hasn’t stopped thinking about it since. He makes the bold decision to come out of retirement and gets permission to re-open the case. Rodie is determined to solve the mystery and make good on a broken promise to Eugenie’s mother: to find the person (or persons) responsible for killing her daughter.
Joining Rodie in the chase is a young hot-shot detective, Aubrey St. Angelo, who has a knack for reading people and isn’t afraid to ask the tough questions. However, the two can’t solve this case alone – they are joined by top-notch detectives at the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s office.
MUMBAI: Living Foodz has launched a new show titled Northern Flavours celebrating the authentic recipes and cooking styles from the subcontinent region. The show will go on air from 28 March 2016 every Monday and Tuesday at 2 pm with a repeat telecast at 7:30 pm.
Exploring hidden regional recipes from Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, the channel will introduce acclaimed culinarian chef Ajay Chopra on the channel for the first time.
Chopra will intersperse the show with interesting anecdotes behind delectable dishes like Murg Shikasta Hariprasada, a delicacy from Uttar Pradesh created by Begam Akhtar.
Northern Flavours will also see the chef recreating other dishes like Bhoot ka Halwa, from Rajasthan, Besan ki Kheer and Aloo Wadiya from Punjab, Dal ka Dulha&Potol Mithai from Bihar and Sikandari Raan from Delhi.
“North Indian food has been shaped primarily by the traveller. The region has witnessed a constant movement of people, including armies, trading communities saints and fakirs, who have all taken ingredients and flavours far and wide. More recently, refugees from Pakistan carried the sanjha chulha (village kitchens of rural Punjab) to many parts of North India, adding another interesting layer to an already hybrid cuisine. The trucker community too, primarily Punjabis, has spawned the quintessential highway dhabas across the region. Overall, the food is a wonderfully rich mixture of multiple cultural influences and it is with great excitement and pride that I look forward to its launch”, said Chopra.
“We are excited to bring chef Ajay Chopra on board with the launch of Northern Flavours. Through this show, we aim to bring the hidden dishes of North India in to the limelight because we believe that they appeal to a global palette. The show will ignite a sense of nostalgia among viewers from these states who once cooked these scrumptious dishes,” said Living Foodz business head Amit Nair.
MUMBAI: Living Foodz has launched a new show titled Northern Flavours celebrating the authentic recipes and cooking styles from the subcontinent region. The show will go on air from 28 March 2016 every Monday and Tuesday at 2 pm with a repeat telecast at 7:30 pm.
Exploring hidden regional recipes from Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, the channel will introduce acclaimed culinarian chef Ajay Chopra on the channel for the first time.
Chopra will intersperse the show with interesting anecdotes behind delectable dishes like Murg Shikasta Hariprasada, a delicacy from Uttar Pradesh created by Begam Akhtar.
Northern Flavours will also see the chef recreating other dishes like Bhoot ka Halwa, from Rajasthan, Besan ki Kheer and Aloo Wadiya from Punjab, Dal ka Dulha&Potol Mithai from Bihar and Sikandari Raan from Delhi.
“North Indian food has been shaped primarily by the traveller. The region has witnessed a constant movement of people, including armies, trading communities saints and fakirs, who have all taken ingredients and flavours far and wide. More recently, refugees from Pakistan carried the sanjha chulha (village kitchens of rural Punjab) to many parts of North India, adding another interesting layer to an already hybrid cuisine. The trucker community too, primarily Punjabis, has spawned the quintessential highway dhabas across the region. Overall, the food is a wonderfully rich mixture of multiple cultural influences and it is with great excitement and pride that I look forward to its launch”, said Chopra.
“We are excited to bring chef Ajay Chopra on board with the launch of Northern Flavours. Through this show, we aim to bring the hidden dishes of North India in to the limelight because we believe that they appeal to a global palette. The show will ignite a sense of nostalgia among viewers from these states who once cooked these scrumptious dishes,” said Living Foodz business head Amit Nair.
MUMBAI: Chandrasekhar Reddy’s acclaimed Indian documentary Fireflies in the Abyss has been selected to be featured in Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival this year. The festival will be held from 28 April to 6 May 2016.
The film is selected among 38 best features from across the world to be screened in the world showcase section, marking its North American premiere at the festival.
The 23 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America’s largest documentary film festival, conference and market that is held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Reddy’s feature captures the dream of an 11-year-old boy who fights his way out of life in the rat-hole coalmines, to put himself in school.
The film made its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival and made its India premiere at the 14 Mumbai International Film Festival where it won two top awards the Golden Conch award for best documentary feature film and the best cinematography in the national competition category.
Delighted with the selection at Hot Docs, Chandrasekhar says, “After the response and appreciation at the Busan and Mumbai fesivals, it is a great opportunity for the film to get a platform at Hot Docs, which will help reach the North American audiences and market. The Toronto audiences are known to be hugely appreciative and I am really looking forward to present the film there. There is also a brilliant selection of films this year to watch, including Herzog’s new film and am hoping to catch some of them.”
The short documentary titled Amdavad Ma Famous directed by Hardik Mehta is competing in the international shorts category.
Synopsis of Fireflies in the Abyss:
The ‘rat-hole’ mines in the Jaintia Hills of Northeast India, are hostile pits where men and boys risk their lives everyday to scratch coal out of hard rock. Burrowing into narrow tunnels, they are armed with nothing more than a pickaxe and a torch.
Each of them comes to the coal pit for different reasons. But once there, all of them are looking for a chance to breakout. Some are able to escape, most can’t. Even with the odds stacked against him, Suraj, an 11-year old boy, grapples his way out of this abyss to eventually put himself in school.
The film follows Suraj and several other miners whose lives intertwine with his, to reveal lives under extraordinary circumstances and the brutal choices they are forced to resolve at every turn of their lives
MUMBAI: Chandrasekhar Reddy’s acclaimed Indian documentary Fireflies in the Abyss has been selected to be featured in Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival this year. The festival will be held from 28 April to 6 May 2016.
The film is selected among 38 best features from across the world to be screened in the world showcase section, marking its North American premiere at the festival.
The 23 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America’s largest documentary film festival, conference and market that is held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Reddy’s feature captures the dream of an 11-year-old boy who fights his way out of life in the rat-hole coalmines, to put himself in school.
The film made its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival and made its India premiere at the 14 Mumbai International Film Festival where it won two top awards the Golden Conch award for best documentary feature film and the best cinematography in the national competition category.
Delighted with the selection at Hot Docs, Chandrasekhar says, “After the response and appreciation at the Busan and Mumbai fesivals, it is a great opportunity for the film to get a platform at Hot Docs, which will help reach the North American audiences and market. The Toronto audiences are known to be hugely appreciative and I am really looking forward to present the film there. There is also a brilliant selection of films this year to watch, including Herzog’s new film and am hoping to catch some of them.”
The short documentary titled Amdavad Ma Famous directed by Hardik Mehta is competing in the international shorts category.
Synopsis of Fireflies in the Abyss:
The ‘rat-hole’ mines in the Jaintia Hills of Northeast India, are hostile pits where men and boys risk their lives everyday to scratch coal out of hard rock. Burrowing into narrow tunnels, they are armed with nothing more than a pickaxe and a torch.
Each of them comes to the coal pit for different reasons. But once there, all of them are looking for a chance to breakout. Some are able to escape, most can’t. Even with the odds stacked against him, Suraj, an 11-year old boy, grapples his way out of this abyss to eventually put himself in school.
The film follows Suraj and several other miners whose lives intertwine with his, to reveal lives under extraordinary circumstances and the brutal choices they are forced to resolve at every turn of their lives
MUMBAI: With a number of campaigns fighting for the rights of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community and the continuous squabble to decriminalize section 377 of the IPC, The Creative Gypsy and Weirdoze are all geared up to launch their revolutionary web series All About Section 377. AAS 377 will launch on the YouTube channel on 27 March 2016.
The series aims at breaking the perceptions of the LGBT community in society. The team has also sent a two hour cut out of the series to various web series festivals.
The very draconian and archaic Section 377 from chapter XVI of the Indian Penal Code dating back to 1860 introduced during the British rule of India, criminalises sexual activities ‘against the order of nature’, including homosexual acts, as past orders of some of the courts indicate.
Highlighting the joys and sorrows of the much neglected and side-lined community by most of people, the 8 episode series of 18 minutes each presents a light-hearted look at a male gay couple’s life as seen through the eyes of a straight homophobic man.
Directed by Amit Khanna, the series is about Suresh who comes to Mumbai from Delhi to pursue a career in acting and modelling. His worst nightmare comes alive when he realizes that his cousin Rohit with whom he is supposed to live with is gay and also has a live-in boyfriend Sid in the same apartment. Thus begins the journey of a homophobic man who lives with a gay couple and how his perception changes over a period of time.
“From episode 6, the story changes completely and whoever is against the community will have no other go except to accept the fact. My expectation from this web series is that people must understand that they can’t bind love by gender, by society or by social status. I want our society to be more open-minded,” says Amit Khanna.
The Creative Gypsy’s Khera reveals that since the series did not have any sponsors on-board, they had to launch a new channel for it. “Whoever was ready to take the series was not ready to pay us the amount we have put in producing this series. They wanted to own all the rights of the series, and a few of them didn’t even want our name in it. We have all worked hard for this series. OTT is definitely an emerging platform, but the waters are being tested as yet. We are passionate about having our series up everywhere”, she further adds.
AAS 377 features an enthusiastic cast of 6 that includes Gulshan Nain aka Suresh, Ankit Bhatia playing Sid and Mustafa Shaik enacting the character of Chotu. The series also shows two girls Fiza Aziz and Surabhi Raut. Amit Khanna makes his debut in the series playing the role of Rohit. Celebrities like Niranjan Iyengar, Iris Maity and Suzanna Mukherjee will also be seen in cameos.
There are plans to launch a second series. “The second series depends on the success of this one. Till now, we have got a good response from the screening. We aim to give our viewers a strong message through the content on our channel. We have not compromised on anything and have poured our hearts in it”, concedes Khera.
MUMBAI: With a number of campaigns fighting for the rights of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community and the continuous squabble to decriminalize section 377 of the IPC, The Creative Gypsy and Weirdoze are all geared up to launch their revolutionary web series All About Section 377. AAS 377 will launch on the YouTube channel on 27 March 2016.
The series aims at breaking the perceptions of the LGBT community in society. The team has also sent a two hour cut out of the series to various web series festivals.
The very draconian and archaic Section 377 from chapter XVI of the Indian Penal Code dating back to 1860 introduced during the British rule of India, criminalises sexual activities ‘against the order of nature’, including homosexual acts, as past orders of some of the courts indicate.
Highlighting the joys and sorrows of the much neglected and side-lined community by most of people, the 8 episode series of 18 minutes each presents a light-hearted look at a male gay couple’s life as seen through the eyes of a straight homophobic man.
Directed by Amit Khanna, the series is about Suresh who comes to Mumbai from Delhi to pursue a career in acting and modelling. His worst nightmare comes alive when he realizes that his cousin Rohit with whom he is supposed to live with is gay and also has a live-in boyfriend Sid in the same apartment. Thus begins the journey of a homophobic man who lives with a gay couple and how his perception changes over a period of time.
“From episode 6, the story changes completely and whoever is against the community will have no other go except to accept the fact. My expectation from this web series is that people must understand that they can’t bind love by gender, by society or by social status. I want our society to be more open-minded,” says Amit Khanna.
The Creative Gypsy’s Khera reveals that since the series did not have any sponsors on-board, they had to launch a new channel for it. “Whoever was ready to take the series was not ready to pay us the amount we have put in producing this series. They wanted to own all the rights of the series, and a few of them didn’t even want our name in it. We have all worked hard for this series. OTT is definitely an emerging platform, but the waters are being tested as yet. We are passionate about having our series up everywhere”, she further adds.
AAS 377 features an enthusiastic cast of 6 that includes Gulshan Nain aka Suresh, Ankit Bhatia playing Sid and Mustafa Shaik enacting the character of Chotu. The series also shows two girls Fiza Aziz and Surabhi Raut. Amit Khanna makes his debut in the series playing the role of Rohit. Celebrities like Niranjan Iyengar, Iris Maity and Suzanna Mukherjee will also be seen in cameos.
There are plans to launch a second series. “The second series depends on the success of this one. Till now, we have got a good response from the screening. We aim to give our viewers a strong message through the content on our channel. We have not compromised on anything and have poured our hearts in it”, concedes Khera.
MUMBAI Discovery Channel has pledged its support to Earth Hour 2016 with its partnership with WWF-India to help raise awareness on the importance of climate change and renewable resources to inspire people to move to solar. The promotional partnership will be leveraged through Discovery’s network in India spanning on-air, digital and social media platforms.
Earth Hour is the world’s biggest celebration where people come together for the planet. On the last Saturday of every March, millions of people across the globe unite in a stunning show of support to raise awareness about climate change. This year, Earth Hour will be observed on Saturday, March 19, 2016 from 8:30 PM-9:30 PM.
Earth Hour 2016 is calling on citizens across the country to switch off non-essential lights for the hour and go solar. Supporting the government’s pledge to move toward renewable energy, the campaign is focusing on the benefits of renewable energy for a sustainable and greener future. Blessed with approximately 300 clear sunny days, India has a potential to harness 5,000 trillion kWh of energy per year, much more than the country’s total annual energy requirement.
WWF-India marketing and communication director Himanshu Pandey said, “Earth Hour is a global campaign by WWF that not only has massive outreach but has also led to action across the world. We believe that our association with Discovery will provide us a platform to reach more people and make them more responsible towards the planet. The association with the leading television network will strengthen the Earth Hour initiative to draw attention to conservation issues that we face as a planet.”
In India, the Earth Hour campaign has received unprecedented support, demonstrated by participation in over 150 cities by several state and city governments, the armed forces, public and private sector companies, celebrities and individuals. Lights at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the prime minister’s residence, residences of chief ministers and landmark monuments like the India Gate, the Gateway of India, the Howrah Bridge etc. have been switched off every year in support of the movement.
