ITV

Tag: Bengali

  • Gujarati film ‘The Good Road’ is Indian nomination for Oscars

    Gujarati film ‘The Good Road’ is Indian nomination for Oscars

    New Delhi: Debut feature filmmaker Gyan Correa’s Gujarati film ‘The Good Road’ will represent India at the Oscars 2013 in the Foreign Language Film category.

    The film was picked by a 16-member committee headed by eminent Bengali filmmaker Goutam Ghose appointed by the Film Federation of India.

    Ritesh Batra’s Irrfan Khan starrer ‘The Lunchbox’, which has been a front runner for India’s entry to the Oscars, was the closest contender.

    However, ‘The Good Road’ was unanimously picked by the committee which comprised of eminent film professions representing different regions and languages from all over the country.

    Others in the running included ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, ‘Ship of Theseus’, ‘English Vinglish’ and ‘Shabdo’.

    ‘The Good Road’ had bagged the National Award for Best Feature Film (Gujarati) earlier this year.

    The National Film Development Corporation-produced film stars Sonali Kulkarni, Ajay Gehi, Keval Katrodia, Shamji Dhana Kerasia, Priyank Upadhyay, and Poonam Kesarsingh Rajput.

    Rajat Dholakia who has composed music for ‘Delhi 6’ and ‘Mirch Masala’ among others gave the music for this film.

    Based in Kachchh, Gujarat, the film revolves around a journey of three sets of people who travel on a highway, traveling across Banni, which borders the Rann. They are all on a journey to achieve their respective pursuits but over the next 24 hours, they discover something altogether different, something new and unexpected about their lives.

  • Star India’s sports push

    Star India’s sports push

    KOLKATA: In a bid to expand its footprint beyond film, Star India’s Bengali movie channel, Jalsha, has acquired exclusive broadcast rights of two football events: the Calcutta Football League (CFL) and IFA Shield Tournament.

    The CFL, which enjoys the distinction of being the oldest football league in Asia, will be broadcast live on Jalsha Movies starting 8 September, 4:00 pm onward. The upcoming season of the prestigious IFA tourney too will be aired with the aim of ushering a new era in Bengal’s much loved sport.

    When contacted, business head Jalsha Movies Kevin Vaz confirmed the news and added, “The acquisition of broadcast rights of CFL and IFA Shield is a step towards ensuring an even more engaging relationship with our viewers. We are excited to partner with IFA in making CFL a bigger extravaganza and we will bring in expertise from our sports channels to create a state-of-the-art product.”

    While on the subject of sports, highly placed industry sources told this correspondent that Star India plans to launch a Bengali sports channel.

    “Star India is looking forward to working with sports authorities and boards, and making local Bengali sports like swimming, hockey and football popular,” a source revealed.

    Apparently, Star India is looking to expand beyond cricket into sports such as hockey and kabaddi, and producing sports programming in regional languages is part of the plan. “The channels’ focus on sporting activities clearly indicates that Star India is betting on this segment for growth,” pointed out the source.

    A sports analyst observed, “Star India aims to make sports the new religion, looking at the fact that there are 650 million cricket-crazed consumers in India. Knowing this, the entertainment channel has earmarked a huge investment in sports.”
    The shows will be marketed through a multi-media campaign with effective use of television, print, out of home and digital. The marketing campaign is focused on innovations as it will help in creating the required noise in the markets and also establish the shows.

  • Khabar 365 Din to sell part stakes to Gitanjali Jewellers

    Khabar 365 Din to sell part stakes to Gitanjali Jewellers

    KOLKATA: Kolkata headquartered Rose Valley, which launched ‘Khabar 365 Din’ – a Bengali daily last year, plans to sell a part of the stake to Mumbai based jewellery company Gitanjali Jewellers.

    Also, Rose Valley which registered a public limited company by the name of Rose Valley Patrika was initially in talks with two-three Kolkata headquartered ‘big companies’ who were willing to strike a deal with the company.

    A senior media person on the condition of anonymity said: “The deal has been done between Rose Valley and Gitanjali Jewellers.”

    Khabar 365 Din, which launched on 16 January 2012, is published from Kolkata and Siliguri.

    “Within a span of one and half years, after its launch, the newspaper made a mark in the Kolkata media industry,” said media analysts.

    The company was also in the process to publish daily newspaper in English language from Kolkata but nothing concrete was heard, the media person added.

    A Kolkata based media manager said companies which need to spend a huge amount on advertising; sometimes prefer to pick a small stake in regional dailies so that by publishing advertisements at the appropriate time they can reach their clientele.

    A Kahabar 365 Din daily senior employee confirmed that Gitanjali may buy a small per cent stake in the newspaper. “We have been hearing about this development recently but though no official announcement has been done by the management,” he clarified.

  • Samsung moves into 9 Indian languages for its Smartphone and tablets

    Samsung moves into 9 Indian languages for its Smartphone and tablets

    MUMBAI: Smartphone and tablet manufacturing giant Samsung has decided to offer user interface and access to content for its users in nine Indian languages. These will be supported on Galaxy Grand, Galaxy S4 and Tab 3. These nine languages will be Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati.

    The languages will be available on more affordable phones within this month itself. This initiative has been created especially for the Indian market. Applications from the Samsung store such as Bharat Matrimony, India Property, Times of India will be available in the vernacular languages. Select phones will also have Facebook, Gmail and the likes in the nine languages.

    Samsung Mobile and IT, India Head, Vineet Taneja said “We clearly sense a need and a demand amongst users to communicate in local languages using their mobile devices. That is the reason, as an industry leader, we are taking the lead by offering users the ease of accessing regional language content in their preferred language.”

    More devices will be added as well as more languages.

  • Acclaimed Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh passes away at 49

    Acclaimed Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh passes away at 49

    NEW DELHI: Noted filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, who was expected to take on the mantle oficons like Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak in West Bengal, died early this morning of cardiac arrest at his south Kolkata residence.

    Winner of 12 national and some international awards, the 49-year-old Ghosh was suffering from pancreatitis and died of heart attack at 7.30 am, his family said.

    Ghosh had gained international fame for films like Dahan (1997),‘Asukh(1999), Chokher Bali (2003), Raincoat (2004), Bariwali (1999),Antarmahal (2005), Noukadubi (2010), and The Last Lear ((2007), all of which won him several awards.

    Born on 31 August 1963 in Kolkata, Ghosh was fortunate that both his parents were related to films, his father being a documentary film maker. He completed his schooling from South Point High School, and pursued economics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

    Rituparno started his career in advertising. He had first gained fame for his direction of a children‘s film ‘Hirer Angti‘ in 1994 and his film ‘Unishe April‘ won him a national award in 1995.

    He won the National film award for Best Director for his Bengali film Abohoman starring Jishu Sengupta, Ananya Chatterjee, Dipankar Dey and Mamata Shankar. He made his first screen presence in an Oriya film Katha Deithilli Ma Ku which is directed by Himanshu Parija and released in 2003.

    He hosted two celebrity chat shows, namely Ebong Rituporno on ETV Bangla and Ghosh and co. on Star Jalsha. He also was the scriptwriter of Gaaner Opare.

    His film Just another Love Story in 2009 received rave reviews all over the world. He later made Kashmakash in 2011. His last films were Chitrangada in Bengali in which he also acted, and Sunglass in Hindi, both in 2012. In both Just another Love Story and Memories in March, he reprised the role of a homosexual.

    In fact, he never hid the complexities about his sexuality and said he wanted to live his life on his terms.

    Talking to indiantelevision.com over telephone, thespian Soumitra Chatterjee said he was too shocked to say anything. He said the nation had lost a very promising film director at a very early age.

    Eminent filmmaker Buddhadeb Das Gupta, speaking over the phone in Mumbai, said he had known Ghosh as a young man coming to his house with his father, and had also helped him when he turned filmmaker. He was therefore very saddened by the death. As a tribute, Das Gupta said Ghosh always lived life the way he wanted, without caring about what society would say.

    West Bengal State Commerce and Industry minister Partha Chatterjee visited his home in the morning.

    I&B minister Manish Tewari has condoled the untimely death of Ghosh.

    In his condolence message, Tewari said, "I am deeply shocked by the tragic and premature death of Ghosh. He was a creative genius who gave a new dimension to film making with every film that he was associated with. His films always left a deep imprint on minds of the audiences who were captivated by the honest portrayal of human emotions. Cinema has lost a visionary, as Ghosh was always innovative and bold in undertaking new themes for his films. His death has left a void which will be very difficult to fill.”

  • Sequel of ABCD being worked on; remake of Special 26 on cards

    Sequel of ABCD being worked on; remake of Special 26 on cards

    MUMBAI: There‘s something more about the releases of last week viz ABCD – Any Body Can Dance and Special26 — one film is going to have a sequel and the other could be remade in several languages.

    First let‘s talk of the sequel.

    Buoyed by the positive response that ABCD – Any Body Can Dance has been receiving, producers UTV has roped in Remo D‘Souza once again to work on the sequel of the film.

    Confirming the same, Remo said, “Though talks of the sequel were being heard in the corridors of filmdom for quite some time, it is now that UTV has whole-heartedly backed my vision. I‘m very much excited to have been offered two more films under the banner. One of them is the sequel of ABCD on which I‘m working on right now.”

    The film will retain the cast of ABCD with a few fresh additions.

    Commented Disney UTV Studios managing director Siddharth Roy Kapur, “ABCD showcases Remo‘s ability to thrill and entertain his audience while at the same time he has sensitively handled emotion and drama. Having worked with a team of superb dancers, he has brought out the actor in each one of them. We‘re thrilled to be continuing our association with him.”

    For Special 26, filmmakers down south and the east have approached the makers of the film for the remaking rights in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Bengali.

  • First Bengali science thriller Jole Jonngole to be remade in Hindi

    First Bengali science thriller Jole Jonngole to be remade in Hindi

    MUMBAI: Mithun Chakraborty will be playing a scientist in Nitish Roy’s upcoming Bengali film Jole Jonngole, the first science thriller in Bengali, will be remade in Hindi as Gehra Paani.

    The Hindi version will have a higher budget than the Bengali make. While Mithun Chakraborthy will have Mithun Chakraborthy in main role, Sanjay Dutt will replace him in the Hindi make.

    “This is the first science thriller in Bengali. The movie will feature a crocodile in a pivotal role. I was inspired by Hollywood movie Jurassic Park and since then I always wanted to make a movie like this,” said Chakraborthy in a statement.

    The film will have Chakraborty portraying a scientist who wants to bring back prehistoric creatures who have perished millions of years ago from the earth. Said Chakraborty, “He is a scientist and is researching on animals. He is trying to expand the brain of crocodiles.”

    For the Hindi version, the cast and location will remain the same except Chakraborty.

    The film also stars Tinu Anand, Ashish Vidyarthi, Biswajit, Dibbeyendu, Mumtaz Sorkar, Riju Biswas, Sayak, Rajdeep, Pamela Bhutoria, Sayantani, Anindya, Titas, Dhruv, Dijana and Chigaru.

  • ETV channels to go pay, price at Rs 10

    ETV channels to go pay, price at Rs 10

    MUMBAI: Eenadu Television is taking its Bengali general entertainment channel pay with effect from 1 February. The other channels in the network will also go pay in a phased manner.

    ETV Bangla will be priced at Rs 10 a month per subscriber. “Our Bengali channel is going pay from 1 February. The other channels in the network will follow suit,” a senior ETV executive confirms.
    ETV Kannada and ETV Marathi are likely to go pay by March. All the ETV channels will be priced similarly at Rs 10.

    In the Cas (conditional access system) areas of Mumbai and Kolkata, ETV has not yet decided whether it should stay free-to-air (FTA). “We haven’t taken a call yet whether ETV Bangla will be FTA in the Cas notified areas of Kolkata. Similarly, we have to decide about ETV Marathi in the Cas region of Mumbai when we take the channel pay,” the executive said.

    Last year ETV had taken its Telugu channels – ETV Telugu and ETV2 – pay and priced it together at Rs 10. ETV has a bouquet of 12 regional channels including ETV Oriya, Gujarati, Urdu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

    Private investment firm Blackstone Group recently announced it would pump in $ 275 million (approximately Rs 12.38 billion) to acquire a stake in Ushodaya Enterprises Limited (UEL), the holding company that manages Ramoji Rao’s media assets. UEL owns Eenadu, the third largest newspaper, and ETV, the fourth largest private television broadcasting network in the country.

  • 24 Ghanta tops Bengali news channels

    MUMBAI: ’24 Ghanta’, the 24-hour Bengali news channel from Zee Aakash News Private Limited, has proven its excellence in the Bengali News genre within a very short span of its existence. Now, the Channel’s excellence is apparent on the TRP charts also, a press release from the channel claimed today.

    The recent data of TAM (w.e. 30th Dec’06, C&S 15+, Mkt – WB+Kol) shows that ’24 Ghanta ‘ is the clear leader in the Bengali news channel market.

    The channel achieved remarkable market share of 40, said the statement, adding that this is considerably above Star Ananda. With its swift and in-depth reporting, the channel is enjoying the status of favourite Bengali News channel in the region.

    The latest figures suggests that ’24 Ghanta’ is leading the pack in Kolkata with a market share that is 26 per cent higher than that of Star Ananda.

    The sustained and relentless efforts by high quality professionals, who worked round-the-clock lead to the success story of the channel. They made sure to report authentic and accurate information with lightning speed.

    24 Ghanta’s strength lies in its innovation-led content, information without bias, bold exposes and its incisive analysis with supportive visuals.

    The channel marks a watershed in television journalism in Bengali language. It has redefined journalism in the region, at a time when television journalism was fast degenerating into a medium for dishing out cheap sensationalism and distorted information laced with figment of imagination.