ITV

Tag: Anna Hazare

  • B4U brings Bollwood to Manhattan

    B4U brings Bollwood to Manhattan

    A day of fun and excitement in New York as B4U Television Network vows the crowds at the annual India Independence Day Parade >on Sunday 18th August 2013.

    The India Day Parade, celebrating its 33rd anniversary attracted a diverse audience from all around America and is considered the largest Independence Day parade in the world outside India. Madison Avenue was closed for the festivities as decorative floats brought a slice of Indian culture to scores of onlookers.

    More than 25,000 people attended the event which was organised by the Federation Of Indian Associations With special guests including Bollywood actress Vidya Balan, and Tamil film star Sarath Kumar, the event celebrated India’s 67th Independence day with exclusive performances, marching bands, a procession of over forty floats and mouth-watering food. The veteran social activist Anna Hazare also marched along with hundreds of his supporters.

    B4U kept the crowds entertained with live music and a large float that was seen as one of the most colourful attractions of the event. DJ Ladla on the B4U float played some catchy Bollywood tracks and patriotic songs as the crowds swayed along. The colours of the B4U logo red, white and black adorned the float and were the cynosure of all eyes. B4U branded T-shirts and goodie bags were given away by the B4U team to thousands who lined up through the parade.

    As the worldwide pioneer of Bollywood entertainment, B4U certainly lived up to its reputation as it represented Indian cinema and celebrated Bollywood music at this prestigious event in New York City.

  • Biopic of Rajiv Gandhi, Shammi Kapoor in offing

    Biopic of Rajiv Gandhi, Shammi Kapoor in offing

    MUMBAI: Of late filmmakers tread on three paths: remakes, sequels and biopics that they think will get them enough returns besides entertaining people at large.

    Amid talks of filmmaker Manish Gupta making a biopic of Anna Hazare, comes the news that Bhavna Talwar has firmed up her mind to make a film based on the life of India’s former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

    The film is said to delve into the life of Gandhi encompassing every aspect – from his personal life to that of him as a political leader.

    Currently, in the process of scripting the film, Talwar has over the last year researched extensively on the subject.

    The film is being produced by Sheetal Talwar under his WSG banner.

    Meanwhile, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is all set to make a documentary on the life and times of Shammi Kapoor, who passed away in August last year due to chronic renal failure.

    “From the pessimism of Guru Dutt’s ‘Jinhe naaz hai Hind par woh kahan hain’ from Pyaasa, Shammi took us kicking, screaming, singing and dancing with ‘Hum pyar ke toofanon se ghire hain hum kya kare’in Junglee,” Mehra added while speaking on his inspiration to make the documentary titled Bollywood The Greatest Love Story Ever Told.

    Work on the documentary is slated to begin after completion of Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag in July.

  • Doc on Anna Hazare to open next month

    Doc on Anna Hazare to open next month

    MUMBAI: Anna Hazare and his campaign against corruption has inspired a budding director Ankit Narayan to make a 26-minute documentary film Jai Bharat that focuses on the Jan Lokpal bill.

    The documentary highlights the differences between the government‘s Lokpal Bill and Team Anna‘s version.

    Narayan said, “I was so inspired by this movement against corruption that I thought of making a film and educate people about it. We are not encashing on Hazare‘s popularity, we are trying to pass the information and educate people about the movement about corruption.”

    “The film talks about both the bills – Jan Lokpal and Lokpal. The benefits and losses of both these bills,” he said.

    The documentary now awaits the Censor Board clearance. “Once the documentary is passed by the Censor Board, it will be released in the first or second week of January,” Narayan said.

    The film features Arvind Kejriwal and Virendra Saxena with footage of Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi.

  • TV news coverage of corruption issues up 11 times: CMS study

    TV news coverage of corruption issues up 11 times: CMS study

    MUMBAI: Television news channels are crusading against corruption as never before. Corruption coverage in primetime bulletins by the six television news channels during 2005 to 2011 have grown over eleven times in terms of percentage, a research study by CMS (Centre For Media Studies) Media Lab reveals.

    Though the coverage of corruption-related issues by TV news channels as well as newspapers have increased substantially, especially during Anna Hazare‘s fast in August, petty corruption involving vulnerable sections of people are yet to become a concern for the media.

    The study – ‘Face of Corruption in News Media 2011‘ – says that the priority is for scams and scandals rather than for systematic issues and correctives that need to be pursued. The far off and grassroots level corruption hardly figured.

    It said the coverage related to corruption issues was well over eight per cent of primetime and six per cent of front pages from January-June 2011, but during Anna‘s fast the coverage overall went up to over 60 per cent of primetime of news channels and mostly live coverage.

    “Reporting on corruption in news media between the year 2010 and 2011 has doubled. However, during July – September of 2011 alone the coverage has more than tripled,” noted CMS director PN Vasanti in the report. “Since the Anna Hazare crusade, there are initiatives all around and all across the states towards curb, contain corruption and the compulsions. With the kind of spread of e-seva and e-governance services, and transparency movement gaining ground, hopefully news media would take up reporting these in 2012 and expedite the process of decline of corruption.”  
         
      Mainstream news media attached priority to scams and scandals involving high-profile personalities. “Most of the corruption covered in 2011 involved individuals, but with high profiles and of high scams. English channels focused relatively more – both on institutions and individuals; while Hindi news channels focused relatively more on individuals in their coverage of corruption,” the report stated.

    The study pointed out that there were seven scandals, which were reported more often in the stories of news media – channels, newspapers and radio – during the period of the study. Of these, four were to do with government (2G, CWG, Adarsh, Bofors), two were to do with civil society (Ramdev and Anna Hazare) and two (Hasan Ali and Citi Bank) were from private / corporate.

    “The news channels focused more on scams referring to politicians and bureaucrats and to big public utilities / services (like CWG, DGCA, GNDA, etc). CNN-IBN had only 21 percent for covering such corruption against as high 90 percent of Aaj Tak and 81 percent by Star News. Even DD News had 42 percent coverage to do with corruption involving or referring to bureaucrats. In all, major stories covered by news media were analysed. By and large they were all chasing the same stories, and even same way,” said the report.

    This CMS Media Lab study for January – June 2011 involves analysis of primetime (7– 11 pm) coverage of corruption by news media. It includes front pages of six newspapers (Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasjar, Hindustan, The Hindu, The Times of India and Hindustan Times), six news channels (NDTV 24×7, CNN-IBN, Zee News, Star News, DD News and Aaj Tak) and AIR news.

  • Post Anna, news channels see a dip in viewership

    Post Anna, news channels see a dip in viewership

    MUMBAI: After two-weeks of hysteria surrounding Anna Hazare’s crusade against corruption, television news channels have gone back to their old ratings graph.

    The English TV news genre has dropped 33 per cent. As per TAM data, the English news genre, which was averaging 0.33
    per cent share in the All India market (C&S, 25+) during week 30-33 (7 July – 13 August), had seen a jump to 0.55 points (66.67 per cent jump) in the two following weeks (14-27 August). However, in the week ended 3 September, the share has come down to 0.37 per cent.

    In the Hindi news genre (HSM, C&S 15+), the share had gone up to 11.67 per cent (14-27 August) from an average of 5.7 per cent (7 July – 13 Aug). Here also, the genre has come down to 7.3 per cent, but it is still above its average share.

  • Murugadoss mulls Hindi remake of Ramanna

    Murugadoss mulls Hindi remake of Ramanna

    MUMBAI:Director A.R. Murugadoss, known for the hit film Ghajini, is in plans to remake his Tamil hit Ramanna in Hindi.


    The film is about a college professor who decides to abolish corruption with the help of his ex-students who work in various government offices. The reason behind this powerful decision is told in flashback.


    It is said that not many were interested to make a film of that nature. But now that people have been awakened about corruption due to the Anna Hazare‘s India Against Corruption movement, filmmakers want to encash on the situation and are keen to give the film a Hindi makeover.


    After the Tamil version became a hit, the film was in Telugu as Tagore and in Kannada as Vishnu Sena.

  • Prakash Jha to make film on creative freedom

    Prakash Jha to make film on creative freedom

    MUMBAI: Inspired with his stints at the Supreme Court vis-a-vis the ban on his film Aarakshan by the UP government and the aftermath, filmmaker Prakash Jha has decided to make a film on creative freedom and the efforts to muzzle the artiste through extra-constitutional means.

    Jha‘s experience of battling various organisations and the UP government for the release of Aarakshan has inspired a script on the subject. "Why are we filmmakers constantly subjected to efforts to stifle our voices? I was provoked enough to go to the Supreme Court. A lot of filmmakers just succumb to pressure and make whatever adjustments are required of them. We shouldn‘t allow this to happen,"Jha said.

    According to the filmmaker, the Supreme Court‘s decision to lift the ban imposed on Aarakshan was historic. However, there is no sense of triumph in the victory, since the failure to release the film in Uttar Pradesh along with other states on 12 August resulted in huge losses.

    The director is happy he fought the ban. "There‘s a lesson for all filmmakers. We should not buckle under pressure. My film is not the first to face hurdles from state governments after being censored by the central board of certification. The film industry needs to collectively fight pressures from the outside," he asserted.

    Meanwhile it is learnt that Jha and Amitabh Bachchan will soon collaborate again on the former’s next film, Satyagraha, that will take on the issue of corruption in Indian politics.

    Scheduled to go on the floors in January, the film will address the ethos of a peaceful mass protest against corruption and will have Bachchan play a Anna Hazare-styled crusader who takes on the establishment in his fight against corruption.