ITV

Tag: directors

  • Change in independent directors at Sun TV

    Change in independent directors at Sun TV

    MUMBAI: The sun has set for certain independent directors at Sun TV.

    Nicholas Martin Paul, Mandalapu Krishna Harinarayan, and Ranganathan Ravi Venkatesh ceased to be directors as of the end of yesterday (25 September 2024) on completion of their respective second terms as independent directors.

    It may be recalled that Sun TV notched up a standalone revenue of Rs 4,630.19 crore in the year ended 31 March 2024 as compared to Rs 4,023.40 crore in previous corresponding year. Profit after tax was Rs. 1,875.15 crore as against Rs. 1,674.53 crores in the previous year.
     

  • “VisualDub has been built in India by NeuralGarage using its own original research”: Mandar Natekar

    “VisualDub has been built in India by NeuralGarage using its own original research”: Mandar Natekar

    Mumbai: NeuralGarage is a technology startup in GenAI & is the brainchild of IIT Kanpur alumni Subhabrata Debnath, Subhashish Saha, Anjan Banerjee, and media & entertainment veteran Mandar Natekar. It is one of the few startups from India that is building core tech with original research and developing its own models in the audio-visual domain. The startup’s flagship technology, VisualDub, addresses a significant challenge in dubbed content — the synchronization of visual and audio cues – ensuring a harmonious viewing experience across languages through visual dubbing and lipsync.

    Since its inception in July 2021, NeuralGarage has evolved strategically. After a year dedicated to research and development, and building the technology for commercial use, the company launched VisualDub in May 2023. A successful fundraising round in October 2022 paved the way for building a robust core engineering team, leading to collaborations with more than 10 large global clients.

    Building for the world, the company targets a diverse clients & partner base, including film studios, directors, production houses, advertising agencies, OTT players, broadcast networks, and media entertainment companies. Additionally, the company engages with media outlets covering the AI space, technology, and deep tech, establishing a comprehensive outreach and strategy.

    NeuralGarage has an ambition to take VisualDub to a global audience by refining its go-to-market strategy and securing further rounds of capital to fuel expansion and innovation. The company has received notable recognition, including being ranked No. 2 at ‘Pitch Fest’ during TechSparks’23 and was a part of YourStory’s Tech30 for 2023. Other accolades include NASSCOM Emerge50 (ranked No. 1 in the media category 2023), Amazon AWS ML Elevate 2023 cohort, and NASSCOM GenerativeAI Foundry. Currently, NeuralGarage has a dedicated team of 20 professionals driving its vision and mission forward.

    Indiantelevision.com had the pleasure of conversing with Neural Garage co-founder & CEO Mandar Natekar. In this interview, he offered plenty of valuable insights into the company’s operations and vision.

    Edited excerpts

    On identifying the need for VisualDub in the audio-visual domain

    Consider for a moment that you are watching a Korean film with English audio. Your audio input is English while your visual input remains Korean since the visual spoke expression does not match the audio. VisualDub solves for this visual discord, so now when you watch a Korean film with English audio, you feel as if you are actually watching a film shot in English itself. With localization content becoming the biggest currency for the content creation industry, this problem of Visual Discord is amplified exponentially. VisualDub was built to specifically solve this at scale and make content accessible seamlessly to every single person in the world in a language of their choice and which looks truly native and authentic visually in every language.

    On the technological innovations behind VisualDub that differentiate it from existing solutions in the market

    VisualDub has been built in India by NeuralGarage using its own original research and foundation models and without using third party wrappers. This tech is completely proprietary and is patent filed. It has been built specifically to cater to high impact industries like Films, Streaming, Broadcast Networks and Advertising where preservation of resolution and sync of the original is of paramount important across temporal and spatial movements including background and talent IP. The technology delivers at 2k resolution on pre shot footage without the need to create 3D models or avataars and works across screens of every size from theatrical to mobile phones. This differentiates it completely from any other tech available.

    On the role does original research play in the development of NeuralGarage’s models for VisualDub

    Original research ensures that you are building the tech from a top-down approach, and it’s built with a single focus of specifically meeting the high capability demands of the industries you are building for. Unlike horizontal tech that meets some requirements of many industries with generalized models, VisualDub has been built as vertical SaaS to meet all mandatory requirements of key industries like Films, Streaming Platforms and Advertising. We ensure that we are at the forefront at innovation by staying focused on original research that leads to differentiated tech innovations.

    On considering the diverse applications of VisualDub in the entertainment and content creation industry

    Currently we are offering it as a service to select large customers to ensure that technology is used correctly to deliver the right results and creates a playbook for the industry. Our ultimate goal is to create a desktop version of our VisualDub that can be licensed across both individual and enterprise level solutions depending on the size of the business and the annual contracts. We are currently raising capital to be able to move in the direction.

    On NeuralGarage anticipating VisualDub revolutionizing the content creation landscape and some potential impact you foresee it having on the overall quality of dubbed content across languages

    The biggest problem in dubbed content is the visual discord that makes it unrelatable and unauthentic. Content today is monetized across multiple revenue streams, and this is achieved through dubbing. This opens up massive global geographies for content monetization. With VisualDub, dubbed content as we know it ceases to exist. Now with technology it actually gives studios, streaming platforms to create content in every language without incurring additional production cost! VisualDub will allow you to shoot in one language and recreate it authentically in every language on earth without making it look like dubbed content.

    On your aspirations in terms of market penetration and becoming the go-to solution for audio-visual synchronization in dubbed content

    VisualDub has been made in Bharat for the globe. It solves a very pertinent problem for the entire Entertainment, Media & Content industries across the world and we intend to be the default technology for the post production pipeline across these industries. We are creating a new category “Visual Dubbing” in the post production workflow and VisualDub will define this through original innovation and globally scalable use cases.

  • Dish TV’s Jawahar Lal Goel resigns from the board

    Dish TV’s Jawahar Lal Goel resigns from the board

    MUMBAI: Dish TV, the DTH service provider has announced that director Jawahar Lal Goel has resigned from the board of the company. “Jawahar Lal Goel, Director…. has tendered his resignation from the company’s board of directors and committee/s thereof with effect from the close of business hours of September 19, 2022,” Dish TV informed in a regulatory filing.

    He is no longer the chairman of the company. Goel will vacate his position at the upcoming company’s AGM on 26 September, 2022.

    After the announcement, the share price rose by 10 per cent and hit the upper circuit.

    In June, over 75 per cent of shareholders voted against the reappointment of Goel as board’s managing director at the company’s extraordinary general meeting. After it happened, Goel had agreed to resign as Dish TV chairman ahead of the AGM.

    Yes Bank holds around 25 per cent stake in the company. It had been pushing for a board reconstitution and wanted the promoter family led by Goel to be removed. Yes Bank had cited corporate governance issues and Goel stepped down after engaging in a legal battle for a long time with Yes Bank.

    Earlier this month, Dish TV had agreed to appoint three of the seven independent directors, which were proposed by Yes Bank.

    The Goels own a six per cent stake in the company. They lost control over the company after banks seized the promoter’s pledged shares.

  • OTT series’ directors, editors share experiences, learning at Vidnet 2019’s Masterclasses

    OTT series’ directors, editors share experiences, learning at Vidnet 2019’s Masterclasses

    MUMBAI: Indiantelevision.com’s Vidnet 2019, for the first time, conducted Masterclasses for aspiring directors and editors of the OTT space. Masterclasses brought directors and editors of successful series like Ghoul, Gullak, Rangbaaz, Kota Factory, It’s Not That Simple, Criminal Justice and Delhi Crime to share their experiences and learning as creators.

    The initiative is an attempt to help the audience learn from the OTT industry’s best creators on creating successful web series. In the opening remark, Indiatelevision.com founder and CEO Anil Wanvari said, “This is the first time that we have organised Masterclasses and our vision is to create a platform and to build a community for aspiring creators."

    The first Masterclass was held by the makers of Netflix’s Ghoul. Creator, writer and director Patrick Graham shared insights on the process of making Ghoul which was initially written as a film and later converted to three-episode original premium content for Netflix. Graham also revealed that he took six months to write and research on the script of Ghoul and the post-production took three to four months. He said that horror is the most untapped genre in India and the concept of military horror was never attempted. Ghoul editor Nitin Baid briefed the audience on how he started working on the psychological horror-thriller and his experience while working with Graham on the project.

    The next Masterclass was conducted by Sachin Pathak, director of Rangbaaz S-2 who shared his experience on how he started his journey in the industry and how he got the opportunity to direct Rangbaaz S-2 for ZEE5. Pathak said that experience is the best teacher on shooting-related challenges.

    Another interesting Masterclass was on SonyLIV’s Gullak. Amrit Raj Gupta who directed Gullak began his journey in 2013 as an intern in TVF. He also directed TVF Bachelors season one and two. Amit Kulkarni editor of Gullak, Tripling S-2 and TVF Bachelors shared his two pence with the audiences. The duo said that the major challenge while creating content for OTT is to deliver satisfactory shots within a limited time span.

    Kota Factory director Raghav Subbu and editor Gourav Gopal Jha enlightened the audience on their recent success. TVF's Kota Factory premiered on YouTube this year and the show grabbed attention for being the first black and white web series. Subbu revealed that the idea of doing black and white web series hit him two weeks before the shoot and the team was slightly sceptical about it. They shot the show with two cameras- one for black and white series and another for colour series so that they have a backup if the concept didn’t work. They also explained motives behind having excessive aerial shots in the show and creating characters which resonate with the viewers. Subbu said that it is the responsibility of the director to turn the script into live characters on the screen. He said, “I follow the thought which says there is no good or bad film, there is a good or bad director and I come from that school. It’s important that the association with the script and directors works well.”

    At the Masterclass, Danish Aslam who directed It’s Not That Simple for VOOT touched the practical aspect of directing a show for an OTT platform. He explained the differences between shooting a film and a web series. He said, “The storytelling format is a crucial differentiating factor – episodic versus long-form storytelling. India has more daily soaps which stretch beyond 100 episodes. The concept of seasons is completely new in our country.”

    Aslam also explained how to keep the spark alive between episodes. He also gave some examples from his experience in addressing the challenges one faces while working on the limited budget and time constraints on OTT platforms.

    Vishal Furia, director of Criminal Justice and Lapachhapi, a Marathi Film, threw light on the concept and making of Criminal Justice and the research he conducted to bring the actual story from paper to screen. He too commented that the horror genre is not so evolved in India.

    The last and the most interesting Masterclass was taken by Delhi Crime’s writer, director and creator Richie Mehta who informed that he took four years to research on the subject and connected with most of the characters to understand their views. Mehta answered the audience's questions like how much fiction was added to the show, realism of the scene, deciding the point to start and stop the story, and psychological impact while researching and writing for Delhi Crime.

  • American, Canadian filmfests call for entries for features, documentaries

    American, Canadian filmfests call for entries for features, documentaries

    NEW DELHI: Several American and Canadian feature and documentary film festivals are calling for entries from across the world to compete their awards.

     

    The New York International Children’s Film Festival has set its final deadline for Feature Films as 10 November.

     

    The Festival is North America’s film festival for children and teens. Each year the Festival presents 100 animated, live action and experimental shorts and features from around the world plus retrospectives, filmmaker Q&As, workshops, audience voting and an annual Awards Ceremony.

     

    It wants creative, original, non-formulaic short and feature films that support the mission to create a more dynamic film culture for children and teens. It also often shows films that were not created with a young audience in mind, but are received passionately and enthusiastically by attendees aged 3 to 18.

     

    Members of the Festival jury include Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Bill Plympton, Christine Vachon, James Schamus, Henry Selick and Gus van Sant, among others.

     

    Meanwhile, the New York Festivals Awards 2015 ceremony will celebrate the World’s Best TV & Films, as well as present the Lifetime Achievement Award, Broadcaster of the Year, Production Company of the Year, and United Nations Department of Public Information Awards.

     

    The deadline to enter the 2015 Television & Film Awards competition is 15 October. All Entries in the 2015 competition will be judged online and screened by New York Festivals Television & Film Awards Grand Jury of 200 plus producers, directors, writers, and other creative media professionals from around the globe. Award-winning entries will be showcased on the NYF Television & Film Awards website.

     

    Meanwhile, the Nashville Film Festival will mark a celebration of the diversity of the human spirit expressed through the art of film. In year-round programs, NaFF helps build a more informed, collaborative and alive community. The call for entries for the 2015 Nashville Film Festival is open and cash and prizes valued at over $54,000 are given. Films that qualify are Live Action, Animated and Documentary Short Films for Academy Award. The deadline is 19 November.

     

    The Hot Docs, Canada’s largest documentary festival, conference and market, will present its 22nd annual edition from 23 April to 3 May 2015. An outstanding selection of approximately 200 documentaries from Canada and around the world will be presented to Toronto audiences and international delegates.

     

    Hot Docs will also mount a full roster of conference sessions and market events and services for documentary practitioners, including the renowned Hot Docs Forum, Hot Docs Deal Maker and The Doc Shop. In partnership with Blue Ice Group, Hot Docs operates the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, a century-old landmark located in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood.

  • Network18 gets independent directors’ approval for open offer

    Network18 gets independent directors’ approval for open offer

    MUMBAI: A day after TV18 got the nod by the Committee of Independent Directors (IDC) for the open price offer, now even Network18 Media and Investments has got the approval from the IDC for the open price offer made by the Independent Media Trust (IMT).

     

    The green signal for the open price offer was given by IDC chairman Manoj Mohanka and its member Hari S Bhartia.

     

    The offer was made by IMT along with Reliance Industries (PAC1) and Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings (PAC2) to the public shareholders of Network18 to acquire up to 22,99,46,996 equity shares at a price of Rs 41.04 per share. The manager to the offer is JM Financial Institutional Securities. 

     

    The announcement was made through a statement on BSE. “IDC believes that the open offer is fair and reasonable and in line with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011,” says the statement submitted to the BSE.

     

    The approval for the open offer was made after the IDC reviewed (a) the public announcement in connection with the offer dated 29 May 2014 issued on behalf of IMT and the PAC’s public announcement; (b) the detailed public statement in connection with the offer published on behalf of IMT and PAC’s on 5 June 2014 and (c) the draft letter of offer (DLOF) dated 11 June 2014.

     

    The offer price, according to the IDC, is higher than the volume weighted average price of the equity shares for a period of 60 trading days immediately preceding the date of public announcement. The IDC also sought external financial advice from Price Waterhouse & Co which advised that as of 29 May 2014, the offer price pursuant to the offer is fair and reasonable from the financial point of view.

  • Ministry of Home Affairs gives security clearance lifeline

    Ministry of Home Affairs gives security clearance lifeline

    MUMBAI: In a positive move, news broadcasters got a new lease on life when the Indian Home Ministry extended the current three year term of security clearance given to broadcasters to cover the entire duration of the channel’s licence. Currently, licences given to TV channels are for 10 years.

    According to a PTI report, the Home Ministry also mentioned to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) that this was a temporary measure and the issue will be relooked by a committee of secretaries that will then give its final recommendations.

    This comes as a major relief for broadcasters who had been stumped suddely last year when it came to be known that security licences
    given to companies running channels were only valid for three years.
     

    News broadcasters approached the MIB through the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) then to consider the extension of the clearance to 10 years which then wrote to the Home Ministry.
     

    So for now channels can be rest assured that their security clearances will be ‘co-terminus’  with the channel licence.

     

    However, existing companies will have to seek approval from the Home Ministry  if they want to start a new channel or add a new director to the board.
     

  • New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards Announces 2014 Grand Jury

    New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards Announces 2014 Grand Jury

    MUMBAI: New York Festivals® International Television & Film Awards™ announced the 2014 Grand Jury.

    NYF’s TV & Film Awards Grand Jury represents over 150 of the most respected and innovative minds working in the television and film industry today, ensuring diversity and unequaled fairness. This esteemed jury is comprised of award-winning producers, journalists, writers, actors, creative directors, art directors, filmmakers, composers, and programming executives. Nominated from over 40 countries around the globe, these prominent executives play a pivotal role in selecting the World’s Best TV & Films™. Their stellar reputations in the industry ensure that all the entries are given the utmost in professional consideration.

    “We recruit our Grand Jury members from all over the world. We think that points of view from many countries present a 360 perspective. They are award-winning producers, director, writers, editors, who are working on projects now.” said Rose Anderson, Executive Director, New York Festivals Television & Film Awards. “The most common feedback from our judges is the unique experience of viewing programs, stories, and news on a global level. They comment that they are impressed with the quality and diversity of the programs, presentations, and promos they view.”
    To view the complete list of 2014 Television & Film Awards Grand Jury members and recent updates visit: Grand Jury.

    The 2014 Television & Film Awards is still accepting entries. Entry details and competition rules and regulations can be found on the NYF Television & Film Awards website www.newyorkfestivals.com. To view a complete list of categories visit: 

    http://www.newyorkfestivals.com/main.php?p=2,3,6.

    All entries in the 2014 competition will be judged online by the Grand Jury using NYF’s unique judging platform. Award-winning entries will be announced at the NYF International Television & Film Awards on April 8th at the 2014 NAB show in Las Vegas. All competition winners will be promoted via media partners, international press releases, social media, publicity campaigns and featured in the Showcase on the New York Festivals Television& Film Awards website.

    Press inquiries are welcome and should be directed to Gayle Mandel: gmandel@internationalawardsgroup.com

  • Casbaa adds Todd Miller and William Wade to board of directors

    Casbaa adds Todd Miller and William Wade to board of directors

    MUMBAI: Casbaa, the Asia Pacific multichannel TV association, has announced the election of Celestial Tiger Entertainment CEO Todd Miller and AsiaSat president and CEO William Wade to the board of directors.

    Re-elected as chairman of Casbaa was Marcel Fenez, global leader, entertainment & media practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and re-elected for additional terms on the board were PCCW TV and New Media MD Janice Lee and GroupM APAC CEO Mark Patterson.

    “We are delighted to welcome William Wade and to have Todd Miller return to the Casbaa board of directors. With their vast experience and wide-ranging knowledge of the multichannel TV landscape in the region, Miller and Wade will prove to be invaluable in helping chart the future of the association,” said Casbaa chairman Marcel Fenez. “We are also pleased to have the continued support of Lee and Patterson whose contributions to the governance of the association has been an integral part of our success.”

    Celestial Tiger Entertainment CEO Todd Miller is responsible for driving the company’s core businesses of branded pay-TV channels, content creation and content distribution across Asia and beyond. Prior to joining Celestial Tiger Entertainment, Miller spent 17 years at Sony Pictures Television, where he last served as executive VP, Networks, Asia-Pacific, overseeing and managing over 25 television networks and channel investments in the region. Miller has previously served two terms on the board of directors of Casbaa.

    William Wade was appointed as CEO on 1 August 2010 to lead AsiaSat, with his title changed to president and CEO from 1 January 2011.  Prior to assuming his role as CEO, he had served as AsiaSat’s deputy CEO for 16 years. Wade has over 26 years of experience in the satellite and cable television industry. Prior to joining AsiaSat in April 1994, he was with Hutchison Whampoa, as director of business development for Pan Asian Systems, and was in charge of all sales and regional operations.

    Miller and Wade will be replacing retiring members Disney-ABC International Television (Asia Pacific) SVP & MD Robert Gilby and Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific president and MD Steve Marcopoto.

    Added Fenez: “On behalf of the board of directors, council of governors and the executive office, Casbaa would also like to recognise the incredible efforts and hard work of both Robert Gilby and Steve Marcopoto. Their guidance and dedication to the evolution of the association will be greatly missed.”

  • 18th ICFF gets over 100 films made by child directors for next edition

    18th ICFF gets over 100 films made by child directors for next edition

    NEW DELHI: A total of more than 845 entries have been received from over 70 countries for the 18th International Children’s Film Festival, India (ICFF), popularly known as ‘The Golden Elephant’, to be held in Hyderabad in November.

    The Festival, which is traditionally held every second year alternating with the Mumbai International Film Festival for short films, will also have films from twenty countries like Austria, Chile, Cuba, Lebanon, and Ghana that were not represented in the last edition in 2011. The Festival will as usual be held from 14 to 20 November.

    Chairman of the Children’s Film Society India Amole Gupte said, “We have received an overwhelming response this year and we aim to make the festival bigger and better than ever before. The number of entries for the section ‘Little Directors’ which will feature films made by children is over 100.”

    CFSI CEO and festival director Shravan Kumar added that there were many ‘firsts’ in this festival. “Some of the ICFF films have been sourced from Cannes Film Market, allowing us to pick a selection of the latest children’s films, awaiting their World/Asian Premiers. ICFF has received 26 films from south America, a region barely represented in the earlier editions. We have also received 255 animation films from around the world.”

    The Lalitha Kala Thoranam – built in 1986 for the International Film Festival of India – will be the venue for the inaugural and closing ceremony this year and the films will be screened at Prasad IMAX Multiplex and seven other theatres.

    This was decided in the first organising committee meeting held in Hyderabad recently attended among others by Andhra Pradesh chief secretary Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Bimal Julka, I&B Joint Secretary (Films) Raghuvendra Singh, and Dr. Shravan Kumar.

     The festival will present four competitive sections. The best film would bag the Golden Elephant trophy and Rs two lakh in cash and and the second best feature will bag the Golden Elephant Plaque with Rs one lakh in cash.

    The Festival will also focus on “Children with Special Needs” through its Open Forum, where filmmakers will interact with activists, educators and parents. Films representing children with special needs will also be screened.  

    A Master-Class Workshop on how to market Indian Children’s films internationally will be organised in collaboration with Cine-Kid, Amsterdam, the world’s most popular children’s film market.

    The festival will also be bringing the best of Czech children’s cinema in the Country Focus section, including animations created by world renowned Czech animators, in collaboration with Zlin Film Festival – the oldest children’s film festival in the world.  

    Kumar added, “We are sourcing international award winning films featured in the 20 most prestigious International children’s film festivals including Dutch nomination for the Academy Awards and other recent children’s films that have won or featured in Berlinale, Toronto, Cannes, etc.”