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Tag: Bangalore

  • Ekta Kapoor to set up ICE branch at Bangalore

    Ekta Kapoor to set up ICE branch at Bangalore

    MUMBAI: Ekta Kapoor is all set to open a branch of her media school – Institute of Creative Excellence (ICE) – in Bangalore. The institute is already running in Mumbai and Delhi.

    “Almost 15 per cent of total applications to our Mumbai institute come from South and since Bangalore is the hub of South India, we decided to open up a training set up there,” ICE CEO Anurag Gupta said.

    “In the recent past, Bangalore has nurtured models who are very successful in Media & Entertainment Industry today. Keeping that in mind we would be conducting modeling, dance and young filmmakers program directed at children in our Bangalore facility,” he said.

    ICE covers specialisations in acting, modeling, cinematography, direction, editing, production, scriptwriting, sound and visual effects.

  • Cinépolis launches multiplex at Ludhiana

    NEW DELHI: Cinépolis today launched a five-screen, fully digital multiplex at Ludhiana with a seating capacity of 1,376 seats.

    The cinema will bring together Real D, the world‘s best 3D technology, Hollywood standard 2k digital screens and 7.1 Dolby digital audio. After Amritsar, this would be the second Cinépolis in Punjab.

     
    Cinepolis India managing director and country head Milan Saini said, “We are pleased to open the biggest cinema of Ludhiana. Our patrons can look forward to a state of the art movie going experience that will feature our world class service, a great ambience and the latest and most advanced audio and video technologies.”

    Cinépolis currently operates at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Patna and Surat. Starting 2011 with 4 screens, Cinépolis now has 37 screens across all four geographic zones.

  • ‘Hello Kitty’ apparel plans brand strategy for India

    ‘Hello Kitty’ apparel plans brand strategy for India

    BANGALORE: Sanrio Co. Ltd, the creators of the ‘Hello Kitty’ brand, have announced in Bangalore the launch of the Hello Kitty apparel collection in India through Twenty One Fashion Studio, its sole licensee and distributor in India.

    TOFS is the holder of Hello Kitty license for apparels, accessories, toys and games, footwear, watches, health and beauty, bed and bath, food and beverages, and furniture for the territory of India.

    The brand is planning its strategy for India. “Hello Kitty is a brand for females across all age groups. We have to be very careful about our communications so as not to isolate anybody. In other geographies, word of mouth is one of the best ways for brand communication, but we are very careful about the communications by us and our franchisees,” reiterated Sanrio Global Consumer Products President Roberto Lanzi while speaking with www.indiantelevision.com.

    “We will be using online also for mass media communications, and will have an India specific Hello Kitty page on facebook. Our US facebook page has over 8 millionlikes, while the Hong Kong page has around 3 million of them,” added Lanzi.

    Lanzi furter added, “We have hatcheries supplying eggs in Dubai with the Hello Kitty brand. We also have Hello Kitty bars in other countries where the cream on the cappuccino is Hello Kitty. We will study India before we decide on the strategy for India.”

    The character Natasha played by Sumona Chakravarti in the Balaji tele-serial on Sony ‘Bade Achhe Lagte Hain’ sported ‘Hello Kitty’ apparel in number of episodes, as did the character Dimple Chaddha played by Parineeti Chopra in some of the scenes in the 2011 Bollywood movie ‘Ladies v/s Rick Bahl’. This was done voluntarily by the females actors who were aware about the brand, revealed TOFS CEO Muthukumar.

    Hello Kitty, created in 1974, is a worldwide social icon with relevance to women of all ages, ethnicities and economic backgrounds as well as an inspiration to artists and designers. Her motto says: ‘You can never have too many friends’.

    Hello Kitty products range from mass market items to high-end consumer products and rare collectibles.

  • Bangalore’s Switch-Hit Sports signs two hockey players

    Bangalore’s Switch-Hit Sports signs two hockey players

    MUMBAI: Bangalore-based sports management firm, Switch-Hit Sports, has announced its association with drag-flicker Raghunath and forward SK Uthappa to source endorsements and other brand building activities.

    The young Kodava lads recognised as key players on the national field hockey team will be instrumental in India‘s Olympic Campaign in London. Uthappa, an attacking forward, hogged the limelight in last year‘s National championship in Bhopal, where he was adjudged the best player, while Raghunath who has more than a ton of goals to his name has been playing on the Indian team for over six years.

    Commenting on the association, Switch-Hit Sports Founder & CEO Dhruv Mullick said, “Our firm believes in innovation and looks to constantly expand our horizons on a wide canvas of Indian sports. Hockey is enjoying a much welcomed period of resurgence in India, and our association with Raghunath & SK Uthappa firmly instills our commitment to Hockey, particularly in an Olympic year where our hockey team will capture the nation‘s interest and new sporting icons will emerge.”

    Founded last year, Switch-Hit Sports is the brainchild of Dhruv Mullick, who had earlier spent five years in the Indian sports management industry, with stints at the UB Group‘s sports marketing division, Professional Management Group and Globosport India, before launching his entrepreneurial venture.

    Switch-Hit Sports also manages the brand investment portfolio of upcoming Karnataka cricketer Kunal Kapoor.

  • Anish Daryani joins Orchard Advertising as VP

    Anish Daryani joins Orchard Advertising as VP

    MUMBAI: Orchard Advertising has roped in former Ogilvy Africa general manager Anish Daryani as vice president and branch head at the agency’s headquarters in Bangalore.

    Daryani‘s key responsibility will be to strengthen and grow existing client businesses, cement relationships and look to grow Orchard Bangalore in the south market.

    Orchard Advertising, a Leo Burnett Group agency, has clients like Wipro, SAB Miller, Essilor, Godrej, Colors, RIM and Piramal Healthcare.

    Daryani said, “I have always admired the Leo Burnett Group for the thinking agency they’ve been, since I started my advertising career. So when I got an opportunity to join Orchard, one of the three agency brands from Leo Burnett’s stable, taking it forward came very naturally to me.”

    Orchard India SVP and brand partner Kaushik Mitra added, “Anish is very driven, hungry and passionate about the business. Having diverse experience in categories such as FMCG, telecom, durables, automotive, healthcare and rural sectors he will strengthen Orchard’s position in the market.”

    Daryani comes with over a decade’s experience in advertising and has done two stints each with Ogilvy and the Rediffusion-Y&R Group. Some of the brands he’s worked on include Tata Motors, Tata Nano, Tata Steel, Hutch (now Vodafone), Airtel, Kingfisher Airlines, Danone, Brooke Bond Red Label, The Economic Times, The Times of India, Colors, Linc Pens and The Statesman.

  • Canara Bank lines up 8 agencies

    Canara Bank lines up 8 agencies

    MUMBAI: Canara Bank has empanelled eight agencies – Inter Publicity, Lowe Lintas India, Percept/H, Adwit, Ad Factors, Ad Syndicate, Aakar Advertising, and MC&A Communications.

    An official from Canara Bank confirmed the news to indiantelevision.com. The annual spends on the media are expected to be in the range of Rs 300-400 million. The business will be managed from the Bangalore branches of the respective agencies.

    The empanelled agencies shall be involved in the conceptualisation of creative and designing advertisements for print, electronic, and outdoor media.

    The nationalised bank had called for an empanelment opportunity in May 2011. The previous empanelment of advertising agencies took place in the year 2009.

  • MPS Food to spend Rs 200 mn towards marketing

    MPS Food to spend Rs 200 mn towards marketing

    BANGALORE: Kolkata-based organic and organic enriched food products’ company MPS Food Products (MPS) has planned to spend Rs 200 million towards marketing of its products this fiscal, starting October 15.


    The ATL activities include print, TVCs’, radio and outdoor. BTL activities include in-store sampling, in-store displays and events around the products.


    MPS products are currently available in the eastern, western, north-eastern and southern parts of India. It has around 200 super stockists, 500 distributors and its products are available at 32000 retail points.


    By the end of this fiscal, MPS intends to increase the counts to 500 super stockists, 1000 distributors and availability of its products across 50000 retail points. The print, television, outdoor and radio communications by the company will be area and language specific across the states that its products are available.


    For television, MPS plans to use GEC channels – Hindi as well as regional. Two TVCs’ created by Madison’s creative arm BMB have been canned and will go on air soon.


    “We will be launching our products in Delhi shortly. We already have our own retail hubs – three in Kolkata, one in Guwahati and one in Bangalore that was opened today. We are planning to take the count to 8 by the end of this fiscal, including one more in Bangalore and one in Mumbai.Based on our expansion plans, we have taken on-board Vertebrand as consultants to help us build the brand across India,” revealed MPS CEO – Marketing Dipankar Sinha while speaking with www.indiantelevision.com.


    Besides opening its retail hub, MPS also launched its new range of mixed masala and tomato ketch-up, mixed veg-pickle and mix fruit jam in new sachet packs at Bangalore today.


    Media buying is done by MPS‘ internal creative agency Eye Vision.

  • Radio ads to get a boost as RAM expands footprint

    Radio ads to get a boost as RAM expands footprint

    MUMBAI: Radio Audience Measurement (RAM), launched by TAM Media Research in 2007 for the radio Industry, has expanded its footprint across nine additional Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Nagpur and Pune.


    RAM has also released its first set of findings in these cities based on respondent data collected during May-August 2011.


    In the last four years, RAM operated out of the four metros – Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.


    TAM CEO LV Krishnan said, “Our commitment to take RAM beyond the four metros has fructified. This time, the RAM roll out is much wider and deeper. These nine cities will throw light to advertisers the interaction radio is bringing to their consumers and also help broadcasters fine tune their basket of programming to these audiences. This will help propel higher commercial viability for the Industry at large. As always, we will work very closely with the ndustry to help them understand the dynamics of this very high potential communication and brand building medium from these markets as well. Like in four RAM metros earlier, we believe that in these nine metros too, RAM’s entry will boost the radio advertising investments.”
     
    RAM said that the study based on new cities offers some “very interesting trends” about radio listenership or consumption behaviour.


    Some highlights are:


    The universe size of the newly added nine markets is an impressive 50 per cent of the existing four RAM markets.


    Southern markets observe higher FM penetration as compared to northern markets.


    On an average, there is 95 per cent FM universe has been reached in a week across all the markets.


    Chennai and Jaipur observe 100 per cent weekly reach.


    Time spent listening among the nine new markets is comparatively more than the existing four metro markets.


    Markets like Nagpur and Jaipur observe 28.29 (hh:mm) and 24.05 (hh:mm) time spent on a weekly basis.


    While majority of the newly added nine markets observe heavy in home listening, OOH (out-of-home) listening in existing four metros market is higher compared to new markets.


    Indore and Lucknow observe least OOH listening among the new RAM markets.


    Majority of the new markets have heavy composition from male audiences whereas existing Mumbai and Kolkata market witness substantial composition from female audiences.


    Listenership in northern cities like Delhi and Jaipur are skewed towards higher SECs. Markets like Nagpur and Kanpur are skewed towards lower SECs.


    Morning time band observes highest listenership contribution across the day.


    Indore market observes highest listenership contribution from mid morning time band.


    Listenership contribution on Saturday and Sunday are higher for the new markets whereas in the existing markets Saturday observes least contribution.


    Radio ADEX data reflects a very positive change that RAM has brought about in the radio advertising scenario ever since its launch in 2007.


    “If one looks at 4 metros advertising numbers for the period of January-June 2011 and compare it with the same period in the year of RAM launch in 2007, ad duration volume grew by 87 per cent, new advertisers entered which resulted in an increase of 42 per cent in the advertiser base; and the number of brands participating in radio advertising grew by 45 per cent,” RAM said.
     
     

  • Darshan denied bail; industry lambasts KFPA for Nikitha Thukral ban

    Darshan denied bail; industry lambasts KFPA for Nikitha Thukral ban

    BANGALORE: The potboiler drama of Sandalwood actor Darshan bashing up his wife is showing no signs of conclusion. Bangalore‘s first additional chief metropolitan magistrate Venkatesh Ulagi dismissed his bail petition yesterday and ordered him to remain under judicial custody.


    One of the reasons for the court rejecting his bail plea could be that the First Information Report (FIR) filed by his wife Vijaylakshmi at the Vijaynagar Police Station on 9 September speaks of a sordid history of abuse, despite her giving a different version later. The medical report of his wife, on being admitted to the hospital, belies her later claim that she had slipped in the bathroom and sustained injuries.


     
    Meanwhile, people across the industry and various walks of life have come in support of Nikitha Thukral against the unilateral ban imposed on her by the Karnataka Film Producers Association (KFPA). The KFPA had announced a three-year acting ban on the actress, blaming her for the marital discord in Darshan‘s personal life. Allegedly, over the last few years, Darshan has had liaisons with a number of women.


    Thukral is a North Indian – a Punjabi, who has acted in around 30 Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. She has denied any ‘other than professional‘ association with Darshan.


    All the three actor sons of the doyen of the Kannada Film industry, the late Dr. Rajkumar, have condemned the KFPA saying that it was an irresponsible act and that no association could interfere in the personal affairs of anybody.
    The Rajkumar family is known as the first family of Sandalwood and its members wield a considerable amount of power in the industry since they are big producers, distributors and actors. Amongst the other big names from Sandalwood who support Thukral include Ambreesh, Tara and Kannada Cine Artistes Association (KCCA) secretary Doddanna.


    A number of people have questioned the KFPA‘s high handedness in blaming the woman and not banning Darshan too; if at all the ban had to be enforced.
    Darshan‘s incarceration has put on hold four film projects which are under various stages of production and have cost about Rs 300 million to date. Amongst the four movies is ‘Kranthiveera Sangoli Rayanna‘ (KSR) which is about 80 per cent complete and on which the producers have reportedly spent around Rs 120 million to date. Darshan and Thukral play the lead roles in KSR. The other affected movies are ‘Virat‘, ‘Chingari‘ and ‘Sarathi‘.

  • Fox Star Studios releasing Engaeyum Eppothum this Friday

    Fox Star Studios releasing Engaeyum Eppothum this Friday

    MUMBAI: MUMBAI: After making films like My Name is Khan, Dum Maro Dum, Khichdi: The Movie among others, Fox Star Studios is set to release its first Tamil film Engaeyum Eppothum on 16 September in Mumbai, Chennai and select markets.

    Engaeyum Eppothum is a breezy romantic film with an ensemble of cast including Jai, Anjali, Ananya and Sharvanand in lead roles.

    Co-produced by A.R Murugadoss Productions, Engaeyum Eppothum is the first of a two-film deal for co-producing Tamil films between the two entities.

    While the film will release in over 130 screens in Tamil Nadu, it will also be released in major markets including Bangalore, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi. The release in key International markets will follow in the next two weeks.

    In Mumbai, the film will open across multiplexes as well as some single screens, recording the widest release for a Tamil film in Mumbai this year.