ITV

Tag: Ashish Kaul

  • Hinduja Group’s Ashish Kaul joins Prakash Jha Productions as CEO

    MUMBAI: Prakash Jha Productions has appointed the media and entertainment vet Ashish Kaul as the CEO for its television and digital business.

    Kaul has taken up this role after being the business head for IN Entertainment India Limited, the digital cable broadcasting & content business of Hinduja Group. He had joined the group in 2012 as the vice-president.

    Kaul has over 23 years of experience in leadership roles across managing businesses across entertainment, news, ITES, retail and consumer goods. He has served in executive governance roles with conglomerates such as the Essel Group / Zee Network, Credence International, BAG Films, Bajaj Herbals and Golden Medias. He was also the CEO for Association of Motion Pictures & TV Programme Producers in India.

    Prakash Jha Productions is a brand incorporated by the well-known director of topical cinema Prakash Jha, to take his unique brand ‘Cinema with Power’ forward.

    Prakash Jha Productions has been synonymous with the production of quality films for over 20 years. He is a multiple award-winning filmmaker known nationally and internationally for his critically acclaimed and popular films including Amitabh Bachchan starters Satyagraha & Aarakshan, and Raajneeti, Apaharan, Gangaajal, Mrityudand, Parinati and Damul as well as award-winning documentaries such as Sonal, Faces After The Storm, Kudiattam, and Looking Back. Other feature productions include Rahul (2001), Dil Kya Kare (1999) and Hip Hip Hurray (1983).

    Confirming the news to Indiantelevision.com, Kaul said, “Television and digital media is a sunrise industry with tremendous potential of reach and value for the advertisers. I believe the approach to content production and management for television and digital space is not yet understood by the industry and I believe Prakash Jha Productions will be that catalyst of change. Personally, I would like to bring in a collaborative effort to content creation that delivers reach, popularity and ultimately value to the advertisers.”

  • Winners of Nach Baliye season 7 take home Honda Jazz

    Winners of Nach Baliye season 7 take home Honda Jazz

     MUMBAI:  Honda Cars India presented the keys of the All-new Honda Jazz to the Grand-Finale winners of the popular dance reality show Nach Baliye season 7 which was aired on Star Plus. The car was handed over to the winners Amruta Khanvilkar & Himmanshoo Ashok Malhotra at a glittering ceremony at Solitaire Honda in Andheri. The handing over ceremony was attended by Ashish Kaul, Zonal Head West, Honda Cars India and Krishna Kachalia of Solitaire Honda.

     

     Speaking on the occasion, Honda Cars India sales & marketing senior vice president Janneswar Sen said, “We would like to congratulate the winners of Nach Baliye season 7 and thank Star Plus for associating with Honda Cars India. The show has been extremely popular among the younger audience who is also our primary target audience for the all new Jazz.  The new generation Jazz is packed with futuristic and aspirational styling which resonates well with the viewers of the programme and hence it was great to be associated with one of India’s most popular dance reality show.”

     

     The All-New Jazz is developed as the World’s Best Functional Compact Hatchback which offers Dynamic styling, Outstanding Package, Class-leading Fuel Economy, Advanced Technology & Equipment and Versatile Utility. The Jazz appeals to customer from diverse profiles who are young, dynamic, early achievers and want everything in life.  They seek comfort, driving pleasure, features and a hassle-free drive. The Honda Jazz is like nothing else and fulfils all these needs.

  • Subhash Chandra’s mother passes away

    Subhash Chandra’s mother passes away

    MUMBAI: Just as the fortunes have started favouring Zee Group, founder-promoter Subhash Chandra lost his mother today.

    Tara Devi passed away at around 5.30 pm.”She was ailing for some time now,” says Zee spokesperson Ashish Kaul.

    “Her body will be taken to Hissar in Haryana on Wednesday morning and the cremation will take place at 2.30 in the afternoon,” he adds.

  • Zee TV unveils celeb judge line up for ‘Cinestars’

    Zee TV unveils celeb judge line up for ‘Cinestars’

    MUMBAI: Zee TV has announced the people associated with its upcoming talent hunt event Idea Zee Cinestars. In its second edition, the show is going to be judged by Anupam Kher, Pooja Bhatt and Madhur Bhandarkar.

    The show will be anchored by Aman Verma.

    Announcing the initiative, Zee Network SVP Ashish Kaul said, “Idea Zee Cinestars has so far received lots of entries from young candidates who want to make a name for themselves in Indian cinema. The show will provide participants from various cities an opportunity to court fame and fortune by showcasing their acting and dancing skills.”

    He further added, “The hunt will narrow down to two Best performers from the entire nation. 60 participants will be brought down to Mumbai – The City of Dreams, where, over the weeks they will begin to get eliminated to give us the winners of Idea Zee Cinestars.”

    This journey to fame is interwoven with the trials and tribulations of the participants who are hoping to be introduced to Hindi cinema as actors. The journey of these contestants working towards winning the title will be shown as a reality series that will be split into various stages and will essentially showcase the ecstasy, trauma, victory and defeat of participants through 18 weeks, informs an official release.

    The 60 participants are grouped as couples whom Bollywood’s popular directors and choreographers will groom. Viewers, who will vote for their favourite performers through the weeks, will choose the Best couple., the release adds.

  • HBO, Star Movies start to feel blackout pinch

    HBO, Star Movies start to feel blackout pinch

    MUMBAI: It has been two weeks since English film channels HBO and Star Movies have been off air in Mumbai. While the Hindi film channels have returned with the undertaking not to air ‘A’ rated films, the problem with the above mentioned two channels is that they do not have enough films rated U and U/A to put on air for 24 hours.

    In Mumbai, Hathway and InCable, which control 55 per cent of the cable homes in Mumbai, have not resumed telecast of these two channels. Even some other areas of Mumbai that have other service providers are not getting them. The first problem is that a significant percentage of the viewership for English movie channels (around 15 per cent) each week, comes from Mumbai.

    The second difficulty is that the channels have to get their films cleared by the Censor Board. A Star official says that the channel is in the process of submitting the films. He was non committal when asked as to when the channel was expected to be back on air.

    HBO too, has a significant backlog to be cleared. While attempts to contact HBO proved unsuccessful, a Zee Turner official says that it is looking to help HBO in the process. The repercussions of the blackout are already starting to show however.

    On the ad revenue front, information available with Indiantelevision.com indicates that agencies will ask for some kind of compensation if the problem is not resolved soon. The amount of course will depend on the delay in getting the channels back on the air.

    On the distribution front though, the Zee Turner official says that the cable fraternity has been cooperative and understanding of the situation. Of course subscribers in Mumbai will continue to pay for HBO. So there is no loss there in the absence of addressability.

    The longer this drags on the better it is for the likes of Zee Studio and Pix. While the ratings are not yet out they would have benefitted to some extent as some viewers who would normally watch HBO and Star Movies tune in to them.

    What is interesting though is that Zee spokesperson Ashish Kaul says that the blackout is too restrictive to be a reason for the channel to do anything drastic like push forward its planned marketing campaign. “Had it been a nationwide blackout, the situation would have been different. While more people in Mumbai will tune in to us we need to push ourselves more for them to stay with the channel once HBO and Star Movies come back on. We will be launching new properties and a campaign in around three weeks time. If the blackout is still on (which looks likely) then we will certainly see more visibility.

    “However we recognise that the blackout is temporary and to get viewership in the long term we need to create better visibility for ourselves. It is important that our brand position of being a channel for the movie connoisseur be clear.”

    Another beneficiary from the blackout would be DVD libraries. A spokesperson from a library says that more English movie DVDs are being rented on the weekends. The blackout does not affect rentals the weekdays as people in any case do not have the time, he says. On weekends though the number of English film DVDs being rented is up by around 15 per cent over the past couple of weeks.

  • Essel Group picks up stake in UNI

    NEW DELHI: The Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel Group, which is the co-owner of DNA newspaper along with the Dainik Bhaskar group, has joined the United News of India (UNI) board as a shareholder.

    News agency UNI has shareholding from about nine big media organisations who also form the board of the news organisation formed in 1961.

    Confirming the development, Essel Group senior vice-president Ashish Kaul said, “We are on the board of UNI now as a shareholder, but the quantum of the holding cannot be disclosed at this point of time.”
    Kaul also clarified that Zee Telefilms, also an Essel Group enterprise, has nothing to do with the UNI deal. The other shareholders and board members of UNI include media outfits like HT Media, Times of India group, Ananda Bazar Patrika and The Hindu.

    Chandra has used his investment vehicle, Mediawest, to conclude the UNI agreement.

    Launched in March 1961, UNI has grown into one of the largest news agencies in Asia. today it serves more than 1000 subscribers in more than 100 locations in India and abroad. They include newspapers, radio and television networks, web sites , government offices and private and public sector corporations.
    The agencies communication network stretches over 90,000 kms in India and the Gulf states with bureaux in all major cities and towns of India.

    UNI has collaboration agreements with several foreign news agencies, including Reuters and DPA , whose stories are distributed to media organisations in India.

    Apart from that, UNI has news exchange agreements with Xinhua of China, UNB of Bangladesh, Gulf News Agency of Bahrain, WAM of the United Arab Emirates, KUNA of Kuwait News Agency, ONA of Oman and QNA of Qatar.
    The terrestrial TV area also will include a demonstration of the Harris/Neural Audio MultiMerge for DTV. MultiMerge uses intelligent detection to blend any audio (mono, stereo, matrix encoded stereo (L/R), and 5.1 discrete content) into a seamless, uninterrupted 5.1 surround sound stream.

    Harris began developing terrestrial transmission platforms for mobile TV in 2004 after participating in early demonstrations and the development of the DVB-H standard. The company’s recent acquisition of Leitch Technology adds a range of servers, routers, switchers and processing equipment to Harris® NetVX video encoding and distribution systems, providing the infrastructure for bringing content into the mobile TV headend. Meanwhile, equipment from the Harris Software Systems business unit adds a complement of broadband software and distribution equipment for network management, traffic scheduling, digital asset management and ad insertion, among other applications.
     

     

  • HBO, Star Movies start to feel blackout pinch

    MUMBAI: It has been two weeks since English film channels HBO and Star Movies have been off air in Mumbai. While the Hindi film channels have returned with the undertaking not to air ‘A’ rated films, the problem with the above mentioned two channels is that they do not have enough films rated U and U/A to put on air for 24 hours.
    In Mumbai, Hathway and InCable, which control 55 per cent of the cable homes in Mumbai, have not resumed telecast of these two channels. Even some other areas of Mumbai that have other service providers are not getting them. The first problem is that a significant percentage of the viewership for English movie channels (around 15 per cent) each week, comes from Mumbai.

    The second difficulty is that the channels have to get their films cleared by the Censor Board. A Star official says that the channel is in the process of submitting the films. He was non committal when asked as to when the channel was expected to be back on air.
    HBO too, has a significant backlog to be cleared. While attempts to contact HBO proved unsuccessful, a Zee Turner official says that it is looking to help HBO in the process. The repercussions of the blackout are already starting to show however.

    On the ad revenue front, information available with Indiantelevision.com indicates that agencies will ask for some kind of compensation if the problem is not resolved soon. The amount of course will depend on the delay in getting the channels back on the air.

    On the distribution front though, the Zee Turner official says that the cable fraternity has been cooperative and understanding of the situation. Of course subscribers in Mumbai will continue to pay for HBO. So there is no loss there in the absence of addressability.

    The longer this drags on the better it is for the likes of Zee Studio and Pix. While the ratings are not yet out they would have benefitted to some extent as some viewers who would normally watch HBO and Star Movies tune in to them.

    What is interesting though is that Zee spokesperson Ashish Kaul says that the blackout is too restrictive to be a reason for the channel to do anything drastic like push forward its planned marketing campaign. “Had it been a nationwide blackout, the situation would have been different. While more people in Mumbai will tune in to us we need to push ourselves more for them to stay with the channel once HBO and Star Movies come back on. We will be launching new properties and a campaign in around three weeks time. If the blackout is still on (which looks likely) then we will certainly see more visibility.

    “However we recognise that the blackout is temporary and to get viewership in the long term we need to create better visibility for ourselves. It is important that our brand position of being a channel for the movie connoisseur be clear.”

    Another beneficiary from the blackout would be DVD libraries. A spokesperson from a library says that more English movie DVDs are being rented on the weekends. The blackout does not affect rentals the weekdays as people in any case do not have the time, he says. On weekends though the number of English film DVDs being rented is up by around 15 per cent over the past couple of weeks.

  • ETC Music business head Ashish Chakravorty quits

    ETC Music business head Ashish Chakravorty quits

    MUMBAI: ETC Music business head Ashish Chakravorty is leaving the company. He has put in his papers and is presently serving his notice period.

    “Chakravorty has decided to leave ETC Music. He is moving out to explore other challenging opportunities. We wish him all the best,” says Essel Group senior VP Ashish Kaul, while confirming the development.

    When contacted, Chakravorty refused to reveal any information on his future plans.

    Chakravorty has been associated with Zee Group since the last six years. He was heading Zee Records for four years and thereafter moved over to head the Syndication Sales & Film Acquisition division of Zee. Chakravorty moved to ETC Music this February, to head the channel in the capacity of business head.

  • Zee Telefilms likely to call off deal to buy Venus

    Zee Telefilms likely to call off deal to buy Venus

    MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) is likely to call off its deal to acquire 60 per cent stake in Venus Films Pvt Ltd and Venus Records & Tapes Pvt Ltd.

    “Zee won’t go ahead with the acquisition of Venus,” an industry source tells Indiantelevision.com. ZTL had announced in March that it would buy controlling stake in Venus, subject to due diligence and final approval from the board.

    Zee Network senior vice president Ashish Kaul, however, did not confirm that the deal had fallen through. “A due diligence has been conducted and it will be presented at the ZTL board meeting. A decision will be taken after that,” he says.

    When contacted, Venus promoter Ganesh Jain refused to comment on the issue. The Zee board is meeting on 24 July to consider and approve, among other things, the financial results of the company for the first quarter.

    Zee already has secured telecast rights to most of the Hindi movies produced by Venus including Garam Masala, Akele Hum Akele Tum, Josh, Kyunki and Baazigar. “The failure of the deal won’t have much impact on Zee as the company has the rights to most of the successful movies of Venus. Some rights to movies like Hulchul are, though, with Star India. What would have been of interest is the joint film production activities,” the source adds.

    The deal would also have given Zee access to Venus’ music titles. While Venus Films has negative rights of 30 blockbuster films, Venus Records & Tapes has a repertoire of 2500 titles. Venus also has post-production facilities.

  • Zee to file Rs 500 million defamation suit against BCCI VP Lallit Modi

    Zee to file Rs 500 million defamation suit against BCCI VP Lallit Modi

    MUMBAI: There is a Zee-BCCI face off in the offing as the former has decided to sue BCCI VP Lalit Modi for using “abusive and unparliamentary language” against its sports channel Zee Sports business head Himanshu Modi.

    A PTI report has quoted Zee Telefilms EVP Ashish Kaul as saying that, it would file a defamation suit against Modi for Rs. 500 million for using filthy and abusive langaugage against our Zee Sports CEO Modi.

    Kaul said, “We are going to send legal notice immediately for use of such language against a top official of Zee Sports.”

    Reportedly, the alleged incident happened on 6 April when Himanshu Modi protested against a violation by a competitor in the bidding for BCCI’s global media rights for matches at neutral venues in the next five years. Zee won the rights after emerging as the highest bidder quoting a figure of $219.15 million.

    Responding to the charges, Lalit Modi said he only protested against leakage of information to media and did not use any abusive language against Zee official. “Zee officials were protesting against Sahara’s bid for overseas telecast rights, but I told them not to leak it to media,” Modi has been quoted in the report.