Tag: Chale Chalo

& Pictures to premiere documentary on cricket ‘Beyond All Boundaries’

MUMBAI: Cricket is nothing less than a religion in India and to build on the recent Cricket World Cup phenomenon, &pictures, India’s premium Hindi movie channel, post the successful presentation of Amir Khan’s unreleased film ‘Chale Chalo’ has set itself apart by airing the glorious documentary – Beyond All Boundaries directed by Sushrut Jain. The channel, known to raise the bar with its differentiated offering each time has scheduled this gripping tale of three ordinary Indians and their love for an extraordinary sport. The film touching the life of three ardent cricket fans Sudhir Kumar Chaudhury –the biggest Sachin Tendulkar fan, Prithvi Shaw – the young prodigy in Indian cricket, and Akshaya Surve – a talented young female cricketer who dreams of making it to the Indian women’s team will premiere on Saturday, 14 March at 2:20 pm.

Speaking of the World Television premiere of Beyond All Boundaries, Zee Hindi Movie Channels deputy business head Ruchir Tiwari stated, “At &pictures, we are constantly innovating the content we provide to our audience and with Beyond All Boundaries we had an opportunity to showcase something unusual and inspiring. India being a cricket-loving country, this documentary is a tribute to them and give viewers a glimpse into the sport. We plan to bring more such unique films that are entertaining, distinctive and engaging.”

Beyond All Boundaries featuring prominent cricket players such as Saurav Ganguly along with Yuvraj singh is co-produced and skillfully narrated by Kunal Nayyar famous for his nerdy astrophysicist character ‘Raj Koothrappali’ from the successful American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The film describes cricket as a metaphor for life in India encapsulating the emotions of cricket fans during 2011 World Cup. The film effectively depicts an ordinary fan’s addiction to the game, the desperation for winning a World Cup after 28 long years and the breathless excitement during the last overs of a match. The film also beautifully captures the purest form of devotion from the three lead protagonists to their beloved game.

March 12, 2015
Micromax joins hands with Sony Music to create cricket anthem

MUMBAI: In India, one’s language changes every hundred kilometers, but one of the few things which brings our diverse cultures together, is our love for ‘cricket’ and ‘music’.

Encouraging the fans across the country to come together and cheer for the Indian cricket team as they fight to retain their world cup title, Micromax Informatics has unveiled the ‘Micromax Unite Cricket Anthem’.

Recreating the cult Hindi song, ‘Chale Chalo’, the anthem brings together nine artistes, singing in nine languages set to a new age rock beat.

Launched in association with Sony Music Entertainment India, the Micromax Unite Cricket anthem has been rewritten and re-mastered in Hindi, Punjabi Tamil, Bengali, Gujrati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada and Assamese. The track has been produced by Gaurav Gokhindi and performed by Benny Dayal, Raghu Dixit, Shalmali Kholgade, Akriti Kakar, Karthik, Zubeen Garg, Shakthisree Gopalan, Kavita Seth and Hari and Sukhmani.

Taking the concept of Micromax Unite series forward, they are setting out to recreate the success of last year’s Roobaroo Unite Anthem, which celebrated the pride of speaking in your mother-tongue.

Micromax chief marketing officer Shubhajit Sen said, “In India, cricket is a passion, which cuts across any cultural divide to unite all of us in support of our team. Micromax Unite Cricket Anthem reflects this thought and tries to bring alive the spirit of belonging in the versatility of our country. We would like to thank all the nine artistes and Sony Music who extended their support for this magnificent initiative.”

“This is our second project with Micromax and an even more exciting one where we are showcasing one of our A R Rahman classics ‘Chale Chalo’ with nine talented artistes singing the song in nine different languages all dedicated to the Indian cricket team. The concept is unique and will connect with the passion that we all have for cricket,” said Sony Music national head – brand partnerships Kiran D’Cruz.

Benny Dayal added, “The Micromax Unite Cricket Anthem features several amazing artistes who are both young and edgy and I am just really glad to be a part of it. ‘Chale Chalo’ is one of the best songs about team-work, and it was a great feeling to be working on this.”

Hari & Sukhmani said, “We had an absolute party recording and shooting for the song. Great bunch of people from the music producer to the artistes to the video team to the production team. What fun!”

“The Micromax Unite Cricket Anthem is a wonderful platform to create that blissful feeling of togetherness by way of music and cricket – the two forces that invariably help bind people together,” added Shalmali Kholgade.

To watch the video click here

February 13, 2015
2014: The year of fatigue for Hindi movie channels

2014 has been an interesting year for the Hindi movie genre.

The Hindi movie genre holds about 17 per cent of the total TV viewing pie which has been flat compared to 2013 and on an average per week, it clocked 1,187 GVM (Gross Viewership in Millions) in the year. One of the most positive trends observed in the category is the rise of new and smaller channels finding their share of voice in a cluttered environment. Digitisation has given the consumers today many options to tune in to varied content. Riding on this phenomenon, the Hindi movie genre has finally started to carve out more differentiated offerings and the viewership trends on these channels have been extremely positive.

Let me first share our experiences on Zee’s Hindi movie cluster. Zee Cinema, the premier leading movie channel launched in India, also enhanced its movie library by premiering recent releases like ‘Entertainment’ and ‘Holiday’. In fact, ‘Entertainment’ was the highest rated premiere of this year. The Independence Day premiere of ‘Holiday’ also raked in good ratings for the channel. In a unique offering, the channel also premiered Prakash Jha’s ‘Satyagraha’. The film was extensively promoted by the film’s lead talent Amrita Rao and director, Prakash Jha in key HSM regions.

&pictures was launched as India’s first interactive and premium Hindi movie channel in August 2013 and it continues to deliver on its brand promise. The channel that has grown from strength to strength in a very short span of time has pioneered trends in the movie channel industry. For instance, &pictures launched a documentary movie ‘Chale Chalo’ endorsed by Aamir Khan receiving thunderous response for this one-of-a-kind initiative from the industry and consumers alike. It also opened avenues for interactivity by introducing live call-ins for viewers with Aamir Khan for the first time in India. In fact, this concept of engaging with the viewers was again replicated by Aamir in promoting ‘Dhoom3’ television premiere and ‘Satyamev Jayate’. Helming the social cause, &pictures also premiered ‘Manjunath’ a true story of a whistleblower murdered for exposing the petrol adulteration scam in UP.

Zee Classic, on the other hand, has progressed tremendously this year. This re-instates our faith in good quality timeless cinema. The season 3 of ‘Classic Legends’ hosted by Javed Akhtar is the most viewed film based show on television. Zee’s Hindi movie cluster has gained its dedicated viewer base. The entry of Sony Max 2 in the same content space as Zee Classic has created exciting competition and it will only help us nurture the category and carve a niche in this segment.

2014 has also seen bigger channels undergoing a slight decline in viewership. One of the key reasons for this can largely be attributed to their dependence on premiering the latest blockbuster commercial films which add immense excitement to the content mix for all the channels. The comeback of commercial potboilers such as ‘Wanted’ and ‘Dabangg’ in 2009-10 made way for a series of such content being dished out from Bollywood.

However, 2014 shall be remembered as ‘the year of fatigue’ for such films. For instance, the TV premiere ratings of films like ‘Kick’, ‘Singham Returns’ and ‘Dhoom 3’ almost shrunk by 50 per cent as compared to the record breaking ratings achieved by movies like ‘Singham’, ‘Dabangg’ and ‘3 Idiots’ between 2010-2012.

This fatigue was even more startling at the box office with releases like ‘Humshakals’ and ‘Action Jackson’ that were expected to do well in theatres failed miserably. This occurrence also indicates that there is no fixed formula for success. Bidding for any film after a certain price is definitely not a commercially viable option and even exclusive star led deals struck with A-list actors such as Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn cannot guarantee definite success. Interestingly, these trends in overall viewership and revenues have finally led to the long overdue correction of overpriced satellite rights of most Hindi Movies in 2014.

2014 has been a great year for Indian cinema as the so-called small films not only increased in numbers but also emerged into huge commercial blockbusters and with them, we also witnessed the younger actors achieve huge successes at the Box office. Cinema like ‘Queen’, ‘2 States’, ‘Main Tera Hero’, ‘Heropanti’, ‘Highway’ and ‘Mardaani’ are clearly indicating the mood of the cinegoers and the need of fresh and new ideas right now is more than ever before. It’s only a matter of time such movies that get maximum footfalls in a multiplex will also find its space on television. The acceptance of such films will help us garner more eyeballs and I see a wonderful fit for such movies with the High Definition (HD) movie channels. Zee Cinema HD and &pictures HD have already pioneered its presence in this space.

With the unremitting motto to engage, innovate and entertain, we are excited and geared up with all our six movie channels. Zee’s Hindi movie cluster offers a very distinct and differentiated content mix and has a lot to look forward in the year 2015.

(These are purely personal views of Zee’s Hindi movie cluster business head Ruchir Tiwari and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

January 10, 2015
&Pictures gifts fans ‘Dil Se’

MUMBAI: For a country which loves its movies, there are many options to choose from. So when Zeel launched &pictures – Sapnon ki Udaan – in the Hindi movie space it promised to be different from the rest.

Keeping the promise, the channel acquired movies, which would cater to the new mindsets, and took it to next-level through its various interactive programming. Who would have thought Chale Chalo, a documentary film, based on the making of Aamir Khan’s Oscar nominated movie Lagaan, would become a talking-point even before it was aired on the channel. The buzz created on the social media and the chance to speak to the actor through live dial-ins achieved unbelievable ratings.

Now to up its ante after completing one successful year, the channel has come up with delightful surprise for its fans – ‘Dil Se.’ The new digital innovation will help bridge the gap between the Bollywood stars and their fans. Created by YouToo Technologies, first for the Zee TV viewers in North America in 2012 to help connect with each other, the creator has tweaked the video service a little for the movie buffs here.

Expanding on the idea, Zee TV Americas marketing head Vibha Chopra says that in a large country like the USA, families which couldn’t meet too often loved the idea of ‘Dil Se’ when Zee gave them an opportunity to send in small video chats. “It helped us to increase our viewership base as people loved the idea of seeing their loved ones on television. We have got more than 50,000 videos so far and a two to three minute spike in time spent.”

“We are a movie channel and what would be better than to enhance the engagement level between audiences and the stars or movies they admire so much,” says Zeel chief content and creative officer Bharat Kumar Ranga while adding that through these 15 second videos the channel wants the viewers to share their message from the heart.

The 15 second video will have to go through censors before being aired on the channel. Since, its TG lies in the Hindi speaking markets (HSM), the channel isn’t worried about language barriers. “It will be mostly Hindi but when a fan says something from within his/her heart, it doesn’t need a language to express his/her feeling,” says Zeel Hindi movie channels deputy business head Ruchir Tiwari.

And to market the new section, the channel will take the digital route. Since it wants people who are always online and comfortable with the digital world, ample amount of the marketing spend will be on social media apart from the regular in-channel promotions.

In the past one year, the movie channel has been able to distinguish between itself and its sister channel, let alone competition. Stating the example of Ghanchakkar, Ranga says that he had never allowed a Imran Hashmi film on Zee but the channel acquired the Hashmi and Vidya Balan starrer. “For a traditional masala movie, we have Zee Cinema and for the viewers with progressive attitude but still rooted there is &Pictures.”

Another feather to its cap was the launch of the HD version of &Pictures which will have a completely different FTP than the SD version! The channel aims to target the very core of its target audience of &Pictures. “Even within a TG, one can see fragmentations. Through the HD channel we want to cater to the core TG and not the scattered movie buffs who surf through various channels,” says Ranga.

August 28, 2014
Interactive programming, the new trend

MUMBAI: Ever imagined talking to Aamir Khan while watching his film? Thanks to the broadcasters who have now started taking the digital approach seriously, the dream is turning into a reality for many.

For the country which eats, sleeps and breathes movies, it will be unwise of movie channels to not create a connection between the two. Multi-screening is a reality today and media planners believe that if one needs to survive in today’s digital age then a broadcaster needs to be available on all the platforms.

Taking a cue from changing consumption patterns, the increasing number of middle-income households and the propensity of consumers to spend on leisure and entertainment, channels today are pursuing two important facets – innovation and interaction.

A case in point is &Pictures, from the Zeel stable, which for Aamir Khan’s first unreleased movie, Chale Chalo, invited fans of the movie and the actor together and gave them the opportunity to watch the movie along with Khan himself.

Chale Chalo, a documentary film, based on the making of Khan’s Oscar nominated movie Lagaan, became a talking-point even before it was aired on the channel. The buzz created on the social media and the chance to speak to the actor during live dial-ins achieved an unbelievable ratings. “No one expected a documentary film to garner more viewership than the original film,” says pleased Zeel executive vice president – marketing, national channels Akash Chawla.

“Until a few year ago, only News channels had an option of live dial-ins, but since second screen is becoming an important part of viewing today and is becoming a reality in India as well, we had to go beyond the usual,” he adds.

The concept of bringing high-level of interactivity was later also used by Sony Entertainment Television for the premiere of Dhoom 3. The channel wanted to interact with its younger audience and hence, invited kids for a live call-in to the Dhoom star, Aamir Khan.

In an earlier interview to indiantelevision.com, Sony Max senior VP and business head Neeraj Vyas had said that the use of digital space has became a kind of a case study for them. “Even post the IPL, we have some very aggressive plans. We were the first ones to have live tweets during the telecast of Jab Tak Hai Jaan. We got close to 2,500 responses. We also had Twitter contests called #TalaashHunt for Talaash. Through the contest we added around 11,545 followers from 11 to 14 July, 2013, the day the movie was telecast,” he had said then.

Recently, Sony Max showcased a special programme Pancham – Mujhey Chaltey Jaana Hai that showcased never-seen-before nuggets about Rahul Dev Burman aka Pancham Da.

The channels know that viewers today want more than just plain-vanilla movie watching experience. &Pictures created a crowd-sourced Online Milo Sajna during its launch a year ago, where viewers wrote a script and the channel shot the best one and showcased it online. It added another feather in its cap with a blogger activity in a train for the movie Chennai Express.

However, the new trend isn’t as simple as one might think of. Depending on projects, teams (research and digital) sit together to ideate and come up with tactical measures to woo viewers. Channels are even earmarking a certain amount ranging from 10 to 20 per cent of the total marketing budget on these projects.

“Anything innovative always catches advertisers fancy,” says Zee’s chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal while adding that the brands too want to interact with viewers and hence, are eager to advertise on such innovations.

As per sources, a normal film would charge as less as Rs 6,000 for every 10 second ad slot; however, the innovations especially for a blockbuster film can charge up to Rs 2 lakh. “Chale Chalo sold 10 second ad spots for a lakh. And the interactions helped the channel earn almost Rs 2 crore from it which would have never happened especially for a documentary,” says a planner.

The innovations are moving regional as well. Zee Marathi premiered Fandry with a difference. The campaign was woven around the concept Jaaniv Zhali, Badal Havaa that aimed at bringing about change in society and making a difference in the lives of children. The channel tied up with 10 NGOs that work in the area of child development and protection and raised funds for these NGOs through the movie and also got the likes of Nana Patekar, Sonali Kulkarni, Urmila Matondkar to promote it.

Media observers believe that though it is a good trend and getting the movie channels what they want, but with time the innovations might overlap and hence, each channel will have to differentiate itself from the other. “A lot will depend on how they keep the mark up and come up with innovations that will attract viewers and not come up with an interactive programming just because it is a fad,” opines a media planner.

July 5, 2014
&pictures takes interactivity a notch higher!

MUMBAI: &pictures, the channel known for providing ground-breaking interactive content to its viewers since its launch, created a first time record of a LIVE interactive initiative with Bollywood’s superstar, Aamir Khan. Taking interactivity to the next level, &pictures hosted Aamir Khan in a LIVE event where he interacted with his fans through calls, tweets and sms. Separately, the channel also gave an opportunity to select lucky winners across India to watch the film with Mr. Perfectionist himself in Mumbai.

During the interactions, Aamir disclosed that ‘Chale Chalo’ – the making of ‘Lagaan’ is very close to his heart. It was not only the story and script that appealed to him but also the on-set experiences that made this film special for him. Interestingly, while Lagaan was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker who is known for his remarkable cinematic style, ‘Chale Chalo’ was shot by an amateur cinematographer. Supremely talented director-producer and TV chat show host, Karan Johar added to the excitement as he came with Aamir to curate the event and the screening of the movie. Karan Johar who once said that ‘Aamir Khan is Indian Cinema’s game-changer’ was truly excited himself as he found the real life drama and content of Chale Chalo really intriguing.

Mr. Akash Chawla, ZEEL Marketing Head, National Channels, said, “&pictures being a true reflection of the subtle evolution of movies and movie viewing experience, has its positioning revolving around two keywords- interactivity and engagement. For this movie, we built up an extensive curiosity campaign to intrigue our audiences and we are very excited with the response we have received. It has been a pleasure to work with Mr. Aamir Khan and we look forward to creating any more such interactive experiences for our viewers in the future on &pictures”.

Mr. Ruchir Tiwari, Vice President -Head of Programming, ZEEL – Hindi Movie Channels, said, “At &pictures we always aim at providing interactive content and Chale Chalo is the proof of the pudding. While the movie was an enthralling experience in itself, the live segments, tweets and sms’ by Aamir himself took created very exciting break content.”

A very excited Aamir Khan said “This movie is closest to my heart. When we were making the film, we were not thinking of releasing it at all… we just made it out of passion. I am really excited that I have got this opportunity with &pictures to showcase my film to the television audiences.”

Hurdles, obstacles, tears of joy, real emotions and feelings – ‘Chale Chalo’ had it all; and so did Aamir. &pictures gave its audiences a one of its kind opportunity to watch the film and have a t?te-e-t?te with their favourite star, the one and only, Aamir Khan!

June 10, 2014