ITV

Category: Movie Channels

  • Zee Cinema to premiere romantic thriller ‘I’

    Zee Cinema to premiere romantic thriller ‘I’

    MUMBAI: Zee Cinema is all geared up for the World Television Premiere of Shankar’s Magnum Opus ‘I’.  A modern day love story of a man selflessly giving up his own dreams to fulfil those of his soul mate, ‘I’ starring National award winner Vikram and the emerging queen of Bollywood Amy Jackson will air on Saturday, 27 June at 8 pm.

     

    Shot across exquisite locations in China, where no other Indian film has ever been, ‘I’ hosts stunning visual effects handled by Weta Workshop that helmed mega Hollywood movies like Avatar, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. With 2 and half years in the making ‘I’ was one of the most challenging films of Vikram’s career. The film exhibits him in four different looks where he had to undergo 3-4 hours of prosthetic make up to sport the look of a hunchback and a beast in the film. Inspired by his real life hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vikram achieved a chiselled physic of a bodybuilder in the film and then went on to lose 30 kgs to portray a lean and fit model who falls head over heels in love with gorgeous model Diya played by Amy Jackson.

     

    The film has broken many records and is the only film in the year to garner 300 Crores at the box office. It was also for the first time that the teaser of any Indian film hit 2 Million views in just 24 hours of its launch. 

     

    Zee Hndi Movie Channels deputy business head Ruchir Tiwari stated, “A masterpiece in the true sense, ‘I’ is the biggest blockbuster of 2015. Encapsulating the romance, mystery and thrill, the film is a complete family entertainer. At Zee Cinema, we stand true to our promise of delivering top notch ‘Movies.Masti.Magic’ experiences and with the World Television Premiere of ‘I’ we are fulfilling that commitment to our audiences.”

     

    ‘I’ also marks another successful collaboration of Shankar and musical genius AR Rehman. The film delivers a melodious and scintillating soundtrack completely in relevance to the film’s romantic theme.

  • Zee Studio presents ‘The Terrific Weekend’

    Zee Studio presents ‘The Terrific Weekend’

    MUMBAI: Mr. Hero is about to set himself on fire, hop from car to car, jump off a bridge and save the world; all in 5 minutes. But, please don’t try this at home!

     

    Zee Studio brings you ‘The Terrific Weekend’- the most diverse line up of action-packed, horror and extremely entertaining movies that will keep you gripped throughout.

     

    Zee Studio’s newest innovative programming property- ‘The Terrific Weekend’ will comprise double premieres on one weekend every month. The exclusive mix of movies airing on Zee Studio for the first time on Indian television will leave you at the edge of your seat.

     

    Starting with The Lost Bladesman and Police Badge on 27 and 28  June, 2015 at 9pm, ‘The Terrific Weekend’ will return every month with a pair of most engaging- never-seen-before- movies to be enjoyed at home.

     

    With action that is too dangerous to try at home, horrors that you should stay away from and entertainment that will leave you gasping for more.

     

    Zee Studio’s communication plan will be maneuvered towards engaging the young restless target audience via trade & consumer communications through digital /social platforms, outdoor campaign, radio and print ads.

  • Zee Classic to air cult favourite ‘Sholay’ for the first time

    Zee Classic to air cult favourite ‘Sholay’ for the first time

    MUMBAI: Even after 40 years of its release, the characters and dialogues of Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay are etched into our memories. Be it Basanti chatting away nines to the dozen but at the end claiming breathlessly, ‘Kyunke mujhe befuzool baat karne ki aadat to hai nahin’ or Gabbar Singh’s booming voice philosophizing, ‘Jo darr gaya samjho margaya’ or the sound of the swing squeaking after the dacoits have inflicted their reign of terror on the household of Thakur Baldev Singh, the movie continues to be a favourite throughout generations. Bringing alive its core proposition – ‘Woh Zamaana, Kare Deewana’ – Zee Classic brings the greatest epic ever told with the finest starcast ever assembled on Saturday, 20 June at 7:30 pm.

     

    The movie starring Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan in lead roles holds a first-time record of running successfully for five years at Mumbai’s Minerva theatre. Not many know that initially Dharmendra was keen to play the role of Thakur Baldev Singh, which was immortalised by Sanjeev Kumar. He agreed to play Veeru only when the director told him, if he didn’t do it, Sanjeev Kumar would get the part and Basanti, too. Since Sanjeev Kumar had just proposed marriage to Hema Malini, Dharmendra didn’t want him sharing screen space with her let alone romancing her. And as they say rest is history, he quickly took on Veeru’s role.

     

    During the making of Sholay, four of the leads became romantically involved. While Amitabh Bachchan married Jaya Bhaduri four months before filming started, Dharmendra had begun wooing Hema Malini during their earlier film Seeta Aur Geeta and used the location of Sholay to help further his case. During their romantic scenes, he would pay the light boys to spoil the shot, thereby ensuring retakes.

     

    Exalted more than a religious scriptures for characterisation in Bollywood, Sholay tells a story of Amitabh Bachchan (Jai) and Dharmendra (Veeru) the two outlaws hired by a traumatized police officer (Sanjeev Kumar) to avenge the brutal murder of his family by Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), the most feared villain in Hindi film.

     

    Everything about Sholay attained classic status and quickly entered the pop culture mainstream: the music by R.D. Burman, the dialogue by Salim-Javed and the characters, who also include garrulous female horse cart driver Basanti (Hema Malini) and the wistful widow Radha (Jaya Bhaduri). 

  • Zee Cinema inks long term ad sponsorship deal with Rubicon in UK

    Zee Cinema inks long term ad sponsorship deal with Rubicon in UK

    MUMBAI: Moving away from the traditional ad spots during programming, Zee Cinema has inked a long-term contract with Rubicon in the UK and will create exclusive properties suiting the client’s requirements.

     

    The first property under Zee Cinema’s special sponsorship package for the brand will be called ‘Rubicon Amitabh Special’ and will showcase blockbuster movies starring the living legend Amitabh Bachchan once every month.

     

    The second property named ‘Rubicon Family Movie Nights’ will be a bi-weekly property showcasing yesteryear classics and latest superhits on Wednesdays and Sundays respectively. Rubicon will get exclusive sponsorship for these properties.

     

    Zee Network head of sales Vasdev Tuli said, “This is the very first time Zee Cinema has created a bespoke partnership like this. We’re really excited about our partnership with Rubicon, a brand with such a great profile with our viewers.”

     

    AG Barr head of marketing Adrian Troy added, “Rubicon has been a favourite amongst South Asian families for over 30 years. This partnership does more that target family moments, it helps Asian mums create those moments too.”

     

    OMG Ethnic director Debarshi Pandit said, “We wanted this partnership’s aim to not just associate Rubicon with family moments, but actively bring the family together while watching their favourite films on Zee Cinema.”

  • Cinema 24×7 launches new Hindi movie channel for LC1 market

    Cinema 24×7 launches new Hindi movie channel for LC1 market

    MUMBAI: Even as there are talks of media and entertainment behemoth Eros International looking to disrupt the Hindi movie channels space with its plans to launch a channel that will focus on shortening the window between the theatrical release and television premier of a film, a new player has quietly entered the already cluttered space.

     

    The cluttered Hindi movie channel genre, which has more than ten players like Zee Cinema, Star Gold, Sony Max, Sony Max 2, Zee Classic, Zee Action, &Pictures, Movies OK, B4U Movies, UTV Movies and Filmy, can now add ‘Wow Cinema’ to its growing list. 

     

    The channel, whose tests runs have been on since 1 June, 2015, will be available across the country from 10 June onwards on all Direct to Home (DTH) operators as well as major multi system operators (MSOs).

     

    Armed with a chest of more than 500 Hindi movies, which have been released between 1990 and 2006, the new free to air (FTA) channel from Cinema 24×7’s stable aims to target the LC1 market initially and then gradually move ahead to capture market share in the metros.

     

    From the sound of it, the channel may as well compete directly with Zee Classic, which only airs old Hindi movies. Nonetheless, Wow Cinema does have plans to acquire new movie titles in the near future.

     

    Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com, Cinema 24×7 CEO Hitesh Sabharwal says that the channel will aggressively forge ahead towards buying movies and creating a strong library. The channel has the rights for the movies for a period of five years.

     

    Facing stiff competition from existing players who pull in viewers with big ticket movie premieres along with old but popular Bollywood fare, Wow Cinema aims to be a destination that will offer a mix of old and new. However, Sabharwal refused to divulge names of the movies that the channel has the rights to.

     

    “Wow Cinema will be a destination for Indian viewers to witness the mix of new and old. While we will keep the retro mode with our wide collection from 1990s to 2006, we will also have national premieres on the channel. The channel will give 360 degree value to advertisers on board and in the long run will compete with every player irrespective of new or old, small or big. Our target age group is from 4 to 60 across the country,” he asserts.

     

    Cinema 24×7 head of sales Dipak Shelke explains, “Our priority at this stage is to make a mark in the LC1 market and then gradually evolve in the metros. In terms of viewership, our initial target is to garner around 20 GRPs in the HSM.”

     

    With zilch subscription revenue coming in courtesy its FTA status, the channel’s single source of revenue will be advertising. Moreover, with the 12-minute ad cap regulation still being applied to FTA channels as the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has not yet taken a formal decision to exempt them from it, Wow Cinema’s task has been cut out for it. In a scenario like this, the channel will have an uphill journey in raking in the revenues.

     

    Shelke opines, “Wow Cinema has the potential to emerge as advertisers’ destination as we promise to be audience’s choice by providing extensive content. We are in talks with many brands but it’s too early to name names. All I can say is that FMCG brands and E-Commerce companies are showing keen interest in the channel and we hope to seal the deals soon.”

     

    The channel launch will be backed by a marketing campaign, which will be rolled out soon.

     

    It now remains to be seen how the new channel differentiates itself from existing players and whether it manages to make a mark in the consumers’ mind by offering them fare that they haven’t seen before.

  • Zee Classic to air ‘Deewaar’

    Zee Classic to air ‘Deewaar’

    MUMBAI: Zee Classic that believes in ‘Woh Zamaana Kare Deewana’ is all set to quench the audiences thirst for classic cinema. The channel brings the ultimate family drama ‘Deewaar’ starring Amitabh Bachchan, Sashi Kapoor, Parveen Babi, Neetu Singh and Nirupa Roy this Sunday, 7 June at 2 pm.

     

    Written by Salim- Javed and directed by veteran filmmaker Yash Chopra’s ‘Deewaar’ received unprecedented success. The film in totality ran for over 100 weeks and was one of the only 13 films that grossed over Rs one crore mark in every territory across India between 1970s-1980s. Considered among the top 10 money-spinners of the industry, ‘Deewaar’ was a trend setter in true sense. Starting from iconic dialogues such as ‘Mere Paaas Maa Hai’ to ‘Main aaj bhi phenke huye paise nahi uthatha’ the film turned out to be the plinth for Amitabh Bachchan’s thriving stardom.

     

    Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) are two brothers who were raised in poor conditions by their formidable mother (Nirupa Roy).  However dire social circumstances lead both brothers to follow different life choices and career paths. Where, Vijay turns out to be a shrewd criminal, Ravi chooses to be a police inspector assigned to locate lawbreakers. Vijay burnt with anger for the social injustice caused by the society on his family especially his mother wants to provide her with all the luxuries of life. And thus begins a fundamental battle of the righteous ideologies.

     

    Who will win? Will Ravi bring Vijay to justice?

  • &pictures presents action packed Fridays with back to back ‘Bond Nights’!

    &pictures presents action packed Fridays with back to back ‘Bond Nights’!

    MUMBAI: The dashing Pierce Brosnan and the equally cosmopolite Roger Moore are set to grace the Indian television screens with their films, The World is Not Enough and The Spy Who Loved Me back to back on Friday, 5th June, 8 PM onwards. &pictures – India’s premium mass Hindi Movie channel that prides itself in bringing world class movie-viewing experience to the audiences, has handpicked the best amalgamation of recent and classic James Bond series. Taking action to a higher level, ‘Bond Nights’ will feature British secret service’s rouge assassin James Bond fighting the nuclear meltdown in The World is Not Enough followed by The Spy Who Loved Me where Bond saves the world from a reclusive megalomaniac who wants to create a new civilisation under the sea.

     

    In The World is Not Enough, oil tycoon Sir Robert King and Bond’s friend (David Calder) is assassinated after recovering $3 million British pounds from a Swiss Bank in Spain. James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) feels responsible for his death and takes the position as bodyguard to his daughter (Sophie Marceau) while trying to catch his killer. Soon, Bond learns that an evil terrorist known as Renard was responsible for the assassination of Sir Robert and with the help of nuclear scientist Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) and former enemy, Ex KGB agent Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), Bond sets out to foil Renard’s plan to wipe out Europe with a nuclear bomb. As Agent 007 tries to protect Elektra while trying to save an entire continent, he is challenged with the worst obstacle of it all – defeating a villain who can feel no pain at all. What will James do to protect the lives of millions of people while he has only just begun to question Elektra’s motives?

     

    In The Spy Who Loved me, a globe-trotting assignment sees Bond skiing off the edges of cliffs and driving a car deep underwater. The British super-spy James Bond (Roger Moore) unites with sexy Russian agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) to defeat megalomaniac shipping magnate Karl Stromberg (Curt Jurgens), who is threatening to destroy New York City with nuclear weapons. Bond’s most deadly adversary on the case is Stromberg’s henchman, Jaws (Richard Kiel), a seven-foot giant with terrifying steel teeth. Will Bond be able to defeat Karl Stromberg? Will Karl Stromberg destroy New York City?

     

    Tune- in to Pierce Brosnan`s -The World is not enough and Roger Moore’s ‘The Spy Who loved me’ on &pictures this Friday, 5th June 2015 from 8 PM onwards!

  • Star Gold HD announces ‘Director’s Cut’

    Star Gold HD announces ‘Director’s Cut’

    MUMBAI: Star Gold HD, India’s favorite destination of movies, is all set to entice its viewers by bringing the best of director’s movies starting from 1st June to 14th June, daily at 9pm. The festival will showcase blockbuster movies by renowned directors like Karan Johar, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, Prakash Jha, Imtiaz Ali, Farah Khan, Zoya Akhtar and many others.

    The festival has curated 14 best films from the library of these renowned directors. The two week-long festival will begin with ‘Rajneeti’, directed by Prakash Jha starring Ranbir Kapoor & Katrina Kaif. Followed by ‘Om Shanti Om’ directed by Farah Khan, ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ & ‘Rang De Basanti’ by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, ‘Highway’ and ‘Rockstar’ by Imtiaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Luck By Chance’ and ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Doobara’. Karan Johar’s blockbuster hits like ‘My Name Is Khan’ and ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum’, R Balki’s ‘Cheeni Kum’ and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Guzaarish’ are also a part of the movie festival. 

    Experience the biggest hits of your favourite directors in Director’s Cut on Gold HD from 1st June to 14th June at 9.00 pm.

  • Sony Pix to premiere ‘Hercules’ on 31 May

    Sony Pix to premiere ‘Hercules’ on 31 May

    MUMBAI: As part of refreshing their content, Sony Pix will be premiering the Hollywood movie Hercules.

     

    Based on Radical Comics’ Hercules by Steve Moore, the film is a revisionist take on the classic myth. The movie will be premiered on 31 May at 1 pm and 9 pm.

     

    The movie revolves around Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) who has become a mercenary due to the sins from his past. Along with five faithful companions, he travels ancient Greece selling his services for gold and using his legendary reputation to intimidate enemies.

     

    However, when the compassionate ruler of Thrace and his daughter seek Hercules’ help to defeat a savage and terrifying warlord, Hercules finds that in order for good to triumph and justice to prevail, he must once again become the hero he was and embrace his own myth.

     

  • Zee Cinema to premiere ‘Lingaa’ and ‘Khoobsurat’

    Zee Cinema to premiere ‘Lingaa’ and ‘Khoobsurat’

    MUMBAI: Zee Cinema is all set to premiere two movies this coming weekend.

     

    On 31 May, Zee Cinema will premiere Rajinikanth’s Lingaa in Hindi at 9 pm, whereas Zee Cinema HD will premiere the Fawad Khan – Sonam Kapoor starrer Khoobsurat at 9 pm.

     

    Zee Hndi Movie Channels deputy business head Ruchir Tiwari said, “With the recent revamp of Zee Cinema, our aim has been to air the fresh and varied movies on our channel. And when we talk about entertainment who better than Superstar Rajinikanth. Lingaa is full of Rajini’s magic and pure treat for his fans. On the other hand, Khoobsurat is a young refreshing romantic story. I am certain that the audiences are going to enjoy watching these movies in the comfort of their homes on a lazy Sunday night.”

     

    Lingaa marks the debut of Sonakshi Sinha in the South and it was also Rajinikanth’s first ever birthday release. The film, which also boasts double role by Rajinikanth, revolves around a small-time thief who reforms after learning about the role his grandfather played in building a village dam that transformed many lives.

     

    On the other hand, Khoobsurat narrates the story of a chirpy and rule breaker physiotherapist Milli (Sonam Kapoor) who falls in love with a Rajput prince Vikram (Fawad Khan).