ITV

Tag: Devotional

  • Tata Play launches Deiveegam, a new collection of Tamil devotional content

    Tata Play launches Deiveegam, a new collection of Tamil devotional content

    MUMBAI: This is for the spiritually-inclined or those seeking peace of mind which is a large part of India’s population of 1.4 billion.  

    Whether it’s the captivating mythological narratives, the moving devotional music, or the tranquil darshans from Tamil Nadu’s sacred temples,  these are available on Tata Play Deiveegam which is a new collection of devotional content that the pay TV operator launched recently. With the introduction of this dedicated platform, Tata Play encourages viewers to delve into Tamil Nadu’s rich spiritual legacy like never before. This meticulously curated service provides an authentic experience of Tamil spirituality, enabling audiences to fully engage with enduring traditions of devotion and the deep beauty they encompass.

    The aim of Tata Play Deiveegam is to broaden the reach of Tamil Nadu’s spiritual heritage. This platform showcases devotion and spirituality while maintaining the authenticity of its linguistic and cultural roots.

    Whether you’re looking to enhance your faith, reconnect with ancient customs, or appreciate the moving essence of Tamil spirituality, this Tata Play Special offers a sacred space for exploration and engagement with these profound expressions of devotion. 

    The lineup features mythological shows such as Original Ramayan, Adhi Parasakthi, Uttar Ramayan, and Shri Krishna, along with devotional music, daily astrology, and spiritual discourses led by prominent spiritual figures like Sadhguru, Maraban Maindham Muttiah, Dr. Suresh T, Tirupur Krishnan, and others. 

    Additionally, the service boasts a comprehensive library of documentaries focusing on Tamil Nadu’s temples and deities, daily live temple darshans, and a variety of Tamil calendar events and pan-India live broadcasts, including Tiruvanamalai Karthigai Deepam, Srirangam Pagal Pathu Ra Pathu, and Mahashivratri Live. Viewers can enjoy a delightful mix of morning and evening aartis, followed by the Daily Astro Show hosted by Subash Balakrishnan.

    This 24/7 ad-free service is being powered by Shemaroo Entertainment and will be complimentary for the first five days following subscription, after which a nominal fee of Rs 2 per day will apply.

  • Jai Mahalakshmi now streaming on Hari Om OTT

    Jai Mahalakshmi now streaming on Hari Om OTT

    Mumbai: Hari Om OTT, India’s streaming platform for Vedic history and devotional content, has announced its new series Jai Mahalakshmi, featuring Puja Banerjee in the lead role. The series tells the story of goddess Mahalakshmi, embodying wealth, prosperity, and fortune. Blending traditional storytelling with modern production, it offers a visual portrayal of devotion, compassion, and wisdom.

    In Jai Mahalakshmi, the divine goddess descends from her celestial abode to restore balance in the universe, confronting the chaos unleashed by the demon Kolhasur. With the guidance of Lord Vishnu and her own unparalleled wisdom and strength, she battles the forces of darkness to protect humanity and restore prosperity. The series beautifully showcases the goddess’s power, compassion, and timeless values as she overcomes challenges to bring peace and harmony to the cosmos.

    Banerjee said, “After taking a break from the industry, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to play Mata Lakshmi. It truly felt like a once-in-a-lifetime role, and as someone who has always held great belief in the goddess, it was deeply personal for me. I’ve fasted every Thursday in devotion to Mata Lakshmi, so portraying her on screen felt like a natural extension of my faith. This role allowed me to connect spiritually while bringing her grace, strength, and compassion to life. It’s more than just a character—it’s a journey of empowerment that I’m proud to share with the world.”

    She further added, “The role demanded not just physical preparation but emotional depth. Her journey in the show is not just about the battles she fights but also about the wisdom she imparts. It’s an honor to bring this iconic character to life on screen, and I hope audiences feel inspired by her as much as I did portraying her.”

    Hari Om OTT CEO Megha Agarwal said, “We are thrilled to bring Jai Mahalakshmi to audiences at a time that perfectly aligns with the essence of Mata Lakshmi’s story and the values she embodies. From the visuals to the storytelling, everything was crafted to deliver an epic experience, inviting viewers of all generations to explore the greatness and incredible journey of Mata Lakshmi. With Jai Mahalakshmi, we are proud to showcase India’s rich culture and heritage to the world, connecting audiences with our vibrant traditions and spiritual legacy.”

    Hari Om OTT head of content Angira Vats added, “Our vision at Hari Om was to present stories that resonate with audiences of all ages. Jai Mahalakshmi is a testament to that goal, blending mythology with engaging visuals. We’re proud to bring such a culturally significant story to life for the first time on Indian OTT.”

    Hari Om OTT, India’s first streaming platform dedicated to mythological, devotional, and spiritual content, brings forward the stories and values of Indian culture through original series, documentaries, music, and live broadcasts.

    The platform is available on devices including Play Store, App Store, Google TV, Fire TV, Samsung TV, Apple TV, and LG TV.

  • Devotional category is important growth driver for Shemaroo Entertainment: Hiren Gada

    Devotional category is important growth driver for Shemaroo Entertainment: Hiren Gada

    MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment has been betting big on devotional category with its recent show launch of Shemaroo Bhakti Studio. From launching devotional devices to various shows and apps in the last one year, this segment has definitely emerged as an important part of its overall business strategy. The content powerhouse has seen impressive growth in this category too.

    Shemaroo Entertainment CEO Hiren Gada spoke to Indiantelevision.com on Shemaroo's growth, focus on devotional category and show availability on various platforms.

    Will the new show be exclusive to your OTT platform?

    I would not really call it a show. It is much larger than just a show. It is a platform for new talent, music and devotional content to get created and discovered. So, it will be available on all distribution platforms – DTH, digital and on Shemaroo Me, Shemaroo Bhakti. It will be available on YouTube too. Even the audio part will be available on all the major audio streaming platforms. The whole idea is that it is the platform which is important. Essentially, we want to put together, create this platform where talent and content can be created, promoted, discovered and the audience also can have easy access to this talent.

    Which is the key demographic you are targeting through this show?

    Devotion actually cuts across age. The idea will be that the younger audience is better served with this kind of content.

    How has been the initial response to your recent devotional device?

    The initial response has been very good. We just launched a third device into devotional space which is a smaller device Bhajanbani which has 221 songs and aartis of Ganesh because Ganpati festival is coming up. We just launched that a few days ago. It comes in Hindi and Marathi languages and is priced at Rs 2000 a month. Earlier products were priced at Rs 4500 and had more content and powerful speakers. Right now we are placing it in retail and different parts of the country, opening new distribution channels and tying up with more distribution outlets.

    How important is devotional segment in your overall digital strategy?

    It's a very important focus for us. In terms of scale, even today Bollywood has a large scale. This is one more important initiative for us. This, I hope, will expand the market in terms of connecting different kinds of consumers to the devotional category.

    How do you expect devotional segment to contribute to your overall revenue?

    We are in the process of putting our business plan together. Definitely, devotional will form an important part of our overall business mix. I would still say at this point that Bollywood definitely is a large contributor and the market won’t change in a hurry.

    How has the category grown in the last one year?

    I think we have experienced good growth particularly because we have been investing in content in a big way. We have been investing in production value. Shemaroo Bhakti Studio is an example of the kind of investment we are making in terms of creating a platform for talent, investing in the production values and marketing etc. As a result of all of that, we have seen very good growth on our platforms.

  • Star Bharat: Comedy, devotional & fiction shows start on 28 Aug

    Star Bharat: Comedy, devotional & fiction shows start on 28 Aug

    MUMBAI: Star India, which is launching Star Bharat from the 28 August at 6 pm, will showcase inspirational stories about journeys of strong and fearless characters that rise for the collective. Celebrating the many facets of Fearless India, Star Bharat unveils a content line-up with strong, rooted icons and differentiated programming that is in line with the brand’s philosophy of “Bhula de darr”.

    Om Shanti Om: For the first time on Indian television, a channel will celebrate the essence of devotional music with a contemporary twist. A devotional music reality show where tradition meets trendy, creating ‘trenditional’ music. The show will depict the musical journey of 14 voices that will give a contemporary touch to devotional songs and unify audiences across the country with their renditions. Produced by Colosceum, the show will mark the debut of Baba Ramdev on television as the Maha Judge. While the esteemed panel of judges will include Bollywood sensation Sonakshi Sinha, singer and music director Shekhar Ravjiani, and singer Kanika Kapoor.

    Kya Haal Mr. Panchaal? –1 Saas. 1 Son. 5 Brides. Boon or bane? Kya Haal Mr. Panchaal? is a comedy of errors where a mother’s quest for the perfect bride lands her with five. See how a desperate mother’s prayer for the ‘perfect’ bride with 5 essential qualities gets answered in the form of 5 women with 5 different qualities. What follows is a series of funny events. Sometimes getting more than what you ask for can be a curse! Created in association with Optimystix, ‘Kya Haal Mr. Panchal?’ is a rib-tickling comedy starring Kanchan Gupta as the saas and Manindar Singh as the son.

    Nimki Mukhiya- Set in Bihar this is a story of a village that has been ruled by men for years. Women here are confined mostly to being home makers. But a wind of change is about to set in. Call it opportunity or sheer luck, for the first time ever the state will witness something extraordinary. A naïve and bubbly young girl, Nimki, who loves to daydream and is unaware of the world outside her house, is about to take on the responsibility of her village and become the Mukhiya. The show is a journey of self realisation that power to change oneself as well as the environment we live lies within. Nimki’s unexpected position as the Mukhiya gives a comical twist to situations.

    Saam Daam Dand Bhed- Saam Daam Dand Bhed is the personal journey of Vijay Namdhari, played by Bhanu Uday, a high-potential but misguided youth who doesn’t know what he wants from life. This family drama, based in a fictitious town in India, is produced by Shakuntalam Telefilms. When a storm shatters his life, Vijay finally finds the courage to fight back and protect his family. The show will trace his transformation from a carefree youngster into a political leader, who becomes the inspiration to many.

    Ayushman Bhav- Set against the backdrop of Mathura, Ayushman Bhav is a gripping story of Krish. The show depicts the poignant tale of an eight-year-old boy whose childhood is not as simple as others’. Like other children his age, Krish plays with toys and games but he also harbors a burning desire to seek justice for the wrong doings in his past life. Produced by White Horse International, the revenge drama stars popular child artist Ricky Patel as the lead and Avinash Sachdeva, Megha Gupta, and Manish Goel as cast members.

    Star Bharat’s launch campaign ‘Mat kar’ is based on a simple yet powerful insight on how we unknowingly allow different kinds of fears to creep into our minds and how these fears end up in stopping us from pursuing our dreams.

    ‘Mat kar’, an oft repeated phrase in Indian society refers to a pull-back factor. Pulling back from free flowing fun, nurturing a dream, making a life choice or simply following one’s instincts. The film, conceptualized by Star India’s creative team and directed by Shimit Amin of Chak De fame, takes us through various scenarios, some significant and some apparently not so, all of which play on fear. Star Bharat’s answer to “Mat kar” leading to fear is a resounding ‘Bhula de darr’…

  • Mahindra Comviva bets big on digital music growth around the globe

    Mahindra Comviva bets big on digital music growth around the globe

    MUMBAI: Mahindra Comviva, a mobile solutions provider is emerging its reach on digital music portfolio across video, voice and text. The company is aggregating its content across Asia and Africa‘s continent.

    Mahindra Comviva owns music rights for over 260,000 music assets, in addition to 300,000 other content assets (video, images, voice & text). It has more than 200 categories in SMS/USSD-based services with a very strong WAP catalogue, spanning multiple genres including movie classics, lifestyle tips, hip hop, inspirational, spiritual, rumba, hip life, sports, devotional, jazz, rock, reggae and retro in more than 90 languages such as English, Mandarin, Indonesian, Malay, etc.

    Mahindra Comviva digital services head Atul Madan said, “Over the last few years service providers in the Asia Pacific region have witnessed huge demand for digital music, especially in ASEAN countries. By offering content personalization options for end-users and multiple revenue models for mobile operators, Mahindra Comviva‘s range of digital services, spanning music, voice, video and text, drives service usage and ensures superior end-user experience whilst maximizing operators‘ revenue window.”

    Mahindra Comviva has also pioneered and launched “Infotainment Portal”, a mobile data-based app that allows subscribers to watch and download videos and even share, integrate content with social network websites. The mobile app allows the subscribers to access infotainment through a single app irrespective of the choice of bearer channel between mobile client, text or voice. “Infotainment Portal” is powered by its “Recommendation and Analytics Engine”, which recommends content based on the user‘s profile and his personal preferences rather than content preferred by the crowd as done in most conventional VAS services.

  • Disney UTV launches four freemium apps

    Disney UTV launches four freemium apps

    MUMBAI: Disney UTV Digital, the digital media arm of Disney UTV, has launched four freemium apps UTV, Disney, Comedy and Devotional, for Indian mobile subscribers. Nokia Asha series has pre-embedded the UTV App on more than 2.5 million devices.

    Content in the UTV app includes movie trailers, full length movies (Bollywood and Regional), Bollywood gossip and more. The Disney App includes short form content featuring Mickey and Friends, other Disney classics such as Big Bad Wolf and Santa‘s Workshop and celebrated Pixar short form animation such as Reds Dream and Adventures of Andre and Wally B.

    The Comedy App gives users access to humorous videos like MENtals, Baba Aur Baby, Chickipedia and more. The Devotional App includes stories of Indian deities like Maa Durga, Sai Baba, Sri Krishna, and it includes the mythological epic Ramayana as well.

    These apps, which feature the breadth and depth of Disney UTV‘s content across movies, television, Hollywood and English content along with aggregated content, have already crossed the 15 million download mark in their test phase itself. The apps provide a superior streaming experience for users, even on low-bandwidth GPRS networks.

    The apps support monetisation via both ads as well as paid subscriptions enabled through Digital Disney UTV‘s mobile operator billing platform. This allows regular mobile users to access both ad-supported content as well as premium content within the same app, through a seamless one-click transaction via their mobile operator.

    Disney UTV director, celebrity and video Sameer Pitalwalla said, “Feature phones are currently the dominant data consumption devices in India. While we have a robust smartphone strategy, we wanted to provide feature phone users with an excellent video experience. We combined our great catalogue with best in breed technology and have seen both download and engagement numbers catching fire. 15 million downloads, 1.5 million active users, terabytes in streaming and millions of ad impressions prove the power of our content and experience.”

    Nokia India director developer experience Gerard Rego said, “Engagement and innovation have emerged as one of the top deciding factors in the mobile phone industry with more and more youth accessing Apps that enhance their user experience. Our association with Disney UTV has been extremely successful and, together, we continue to add value to our consumers by offering superior on-the-go video streaming. The availability of Disney UTV Digital‘s new Freemium Apps is a great milestone as users can enjoy their favourite content through fast and seamless video streaming on their Nokia Asha devices.”

  • HP teams up with Universal Music & Hungama.com to launch music service

    HP teams up with Universal Music & Hungama.com to launch music service

    MUMBAI: HP has joined forces with entertainment giants Universal Music and Hungama.com to launch subscription-based music service in India called HP Connected Music.

    The service provides unlimited rental downloadable music free of charge for one year. This brand new service is available on selected HP notebooks with the imbedded Windows 8 launcher.

    With the new range of HP consumer notebooks featuring Windows 8, consumers can now enjoy music on the move – with acess to their favourite music anywhere, anytime. HP Connected Music is available in India on selected consumer notebooks.

    HP Connected Music has been introduced in India to provide HP customers exclusive content and access to Hungama.com’s and Universal Music‘s diverse catalogue which includes over 1 million songs from more than 20,000 artists from different genres inlcuding Bollywood, Devotional, Rock, Classic, Hip Hop, Jazz, Regional, R&B, Country and others.

    Consumers will have access to unique content such as previews, behind the scenes, VIP events and many more, to connect with their favourite artists, including the likes of A. R. Rehman, Sonu Nigam, Priyanka Chopra, Anoushka Shankar, Euphoria and international artists like Justin Bieber, Lady GaGa, Aerosmith, Akon among others.

    Speaking about the service, HP PPS India Head, Marketing Ranjivjit Singh said, “Our consumers have told us they want a seamless music experience, while using their device and this is exactly what HP Connected Music provides. Through its subscription service, it allows people the chance to explore a whole new world of music and exclusive content, while using their HP device.”