ITV

Tag: Goa

  • IDOS 2013 to kick off in Goa on 27 Sep

    IDOS 2013 to kick off in Goa on 27 Sep

    MUMBAI: The countdown to the ninth edition (and second under its current
    nomenclature) of the annual India Digital Operators Summit (IDOS) has begun with the two-day event kicking off tomorrow at The Leela in Goa.

    A joint initiative of the Indiantelevision.com Group and Media Partners Asia, the summit will discuss and debate the hot-button topic of the digital television opportunity in India, what with the implementation of Phase II of digitisation nearing completion in three major metros – Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai and in another 38 cities all over India.

    IDOS 2013, themed ‘Harvesting the fruits of digitisation’ will highlight pertinent issues faced by industry and offer valuable insights into how other key Asian markets have succeeded in their digital transition.

    Participants include leaders from regulatory, cable distribution, DTH, broadcast, TV distribution and technology segments as also content providers and investors in the broadcasting and pay TV industries.

    Flagging off the summit will be Indiantelevision.com Group founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari, who will share the vision behind the event. Following suit will be Media Partners Asia executive director Vivek Couto with a presentation on India’s digital TV ecosystem and lessons learnt from other global markets.

    Day one’s inaugural session titled ‘Opening Keynotes and In Conversation’
    will discuss how digitisation is no longer a goal but the means to a critical end, where national economic benefit, advanced infrastructure and content democratisation converge to create a win-win for all. The panelists include TRAI principal advisor N Parameswaran, DEN Networks chairman & MD Sameer Manchanda, Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal and Star India president & general counsel Deepak Jacob. They will share their views on the progress so far in Phase II of digitisation. The session will be moderated by Couto and Wanvari.
        
    The second session, ‘Cable 2.0 – Profits across the pipe’ will see leaders across the cable and distribution industry share insights into the key challenges faced by industry as it moves into billing, tiering and rolling out of new services. The session will be moderated by NDTV head-affiliate sales & network distribution Rahul Sood while the panellists include Hathway Cable and Datacom MD & CEO Jagdish Kumar, Den Network CEO S N Sharma, HSBC Securities lead analyst – telecom & media Rajiv Sharma, Media Pro COO Gurjeev Singh Kapoor, Digicable MD & CEO Jagjit Singh Kohli, SITI Cable Network ED & CEO VD Wadhwa and Indiacast Group COO Gaurav Gandhi.

    Next up, ‘DTH – Driving the value equation’, will be moderated by Couto with panelists including Dish TV India’s Gaurav Goel, Videocon D2H CEO Anil Khera, Kotak Securities senior analyst Amit Kumar and Macquarie Capital Sr
    VP Ausang Shukla. The session will seek to answer the question: What are the key catalysts for the next phase of DTH’s value creation story?

    Titled ‘The business of specialised and premium channels’ and powered by BBC World News, the fourth session will study the proliferation of niche channel launches. To be moderated by BBC Global News COO – Indian Operations Preet Dhupar, the participants include Viacom18 SVP & GM – English Entertainment Ferzad Palia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific SVP and GM -South Asia Rahul Johri, FoodFood promoter & director Sanjeev Kapoor, Disney UTV Media Networks MD MK Anand and HBO India MD Monica Tata.

    This will be followed by a session on ‘HD as a mass driver for distribution platforms’ chaired by Castle Media director Vynsley Fernandes along with Videocon D2H deputy CEO Rohit Jain, Times Television Network CEO – English Entertainment Channels Ajay Trigunayat, Dolby Laboratories India country manager Pankaj Kedia and Chrome Data Analytics & Media founder & MD Pankaj Krishna.

    The next session, ‘Hidden gems riding the digital wave’ will look at how on the back of digitisation, distribution majors (MSOs and DTH) hold the promise to create ample value. The panelists include What’s-On CEO Atul Phadnis, Amagi Media Labs co-founder Srinivasan K A and Cisco Sr. business development manager – APAC Fabien Gauthier with Castle Media director Vynsley Fernandes as moderator.

    Day one’s closing session, ‘New media monetisation’ will discuss how Hindi GECs and youth channels are increasingly making content available across newer media platforms. Chaired by Wanvari, the discussion will see participation from Zenga TV CTO & MD Shabir Momin, IBM India ED & partner Raman Kalra and Exset global head – sales and marketing Rahul Nehra.
        
    Day two will start with a presentation on ‘Sports & Pay-TV – The Path to Value Creation’ by Couto followed by a Q&A session. The Last mile operator community will be represented by a presentation by Maharashtra Cable Operators Federation head Arvind Prabhu, who will talk about their role in a digitised ecosystem.

    The closing session ‘Driving digitisation deeper’ will be moderated by Wanvari and Couto and will analyse how action is going to shift next to India’s heartland which houses nearly 70-80 million TV homes among other key issues. The panellists include DEN Networks CEO S N Sharma, Hathway Cable and Datacom MD & CEO Jagdish Kumar, TRAI principal advisor N Parameswaran, Indian Broadcasting Foundation secretary general Shailesh Shah, Chrome Data Analytics & Media founder and MD Pankaj Krishna, Founder & MD, Magnaquest CMO Ramakrishna Mashetty and HSBC Securities lead analyst – telecom & media Rajiv Sharma.

    “As organizers of IDOS, our aim is to provide unity and strategic vision to drive forward digitalization and bring new value, profit and sustainable growth across the television ecosystem,” read a joint statement by Indiantelevision.com group founder Anil Wanvari executive director and cofounder Media Partners Asia Vivek Couto.

    “The next year is critical as the cable industry steps up on its B2C execution with billing, tiering and subscriber management,” added VivekCouto.”IDOS will explore the issue of co-operation with last mile local cable partners to create a valuable ecosystem for the consumer; one in which differentiated content, customer service and value added offerings are at the highest level. That will be worth paying more for and will drive ARPUs higher.”

    “It’s an important evolution,” said Wanvari, “as it helps scale and grow the cable industry and enables broadcasters and content providers gain the ROI they so desperately need to invest. It also eases the burden on the DTH sector and provides effective competition at the ground and consumer level And the entire evolution gives the regulators to mull over deregulating pricing.”

    *IDOS 2013 is powered by Star India, while summit partners include Discovery Channel, Dolby, CISCO, Hathway Cable and Datacom, SES, and Videocon d2h. The associate partners are BBC World News, Exset, Indiacast and Media Pro. 24 Frames is the webcast partner.

  • Ticketplease.com brings 2013 to a close with many exciting events

    Ticketplease.com brings 2013 to a close with many exciting events

    MUMBAI: Ticketplease.com, one of India’s largest entertainment ticketing portal has been consistently delivering successful Movie and Event associations in 2013. This year has been a witness to their success streak where in ticketplease.com has partnered with movies like Once upon a time in Mumbai Dobara, Madras Café, Boss, Bhaji in Problem, Hunger Games 2 & What the fish to name a few. Also on event front in 2013, ticketplease.com has handled ticketing and registrations of Large Scale Sporting events like Vadodara International Half Marathon ( attended by more than 2 lakh individuals) to Musical Concert by Arijit Singh (Attended by 30000 audience) to choicest of Navratri events in Mumbai, Delhi & Pune.

    The latest addition to this list is Goa’s premium beach music festival, Budweiser Supersonic 2013 as their official ticketing partner for both online and on ground box office ticket sales as well as several value added on-ground services for the event happening from 26th -30th December 2013 at Candolim Beach,Goa. The festival boasts of a super line up of both international and local artist viz: Above & Beyond, Ferry Corsten, Benny Benassi, BT, Booka Shade, John ‘00’ Fleming, Sanjay Dutta, Ma Faiza, Pearl, and many more.

    Ticketplease.com offers innovative and convenient ticketing solutions to its consumers who can book their tickets for movies and events. With a widespread presence across all Metros, II Tier & III Tier cities and a vast mobile outreach, Ticketplease.com ensures a seamless and efficient ticket booking experience to their target audience with many offers, discounts and value deals reaching out to around 100 million Indians through online, mobile and retail mediums.

    Speaking about this association, Ashish Doshi, CEO, Ticketplease.com, said “In our constant endeavour to create value based proposition for our business associates by creating additional touch points for maximizing revenue & for our end customers by giving them optimum value for every buck they spend with us. I am happy to share that we will be closing this year on a very successful note and are working towards ensuring that the momentum of this growth reaches new levels in 2014.”

    Apart from Supersonic there are many other event offerings available for booking on ticketplease.com platform, there are plays of historical importance like Shambhuji Raje in Pune, New Year Celebrations at Tulip Star, Juhu & Hotel Renaissance, Powai, Corinthian Club, Pune & Manali. Famous performers right from Mika Singh & Huma Qureshi to Jazzy B, DJ Akhtar & DJ Nyk feature in these apart from 300 kids shortlisted through registration process of India Kids Fashion Week 2014.

  • Bhaag Milkha Bhaag to run tax free in MP, Goa

    Bhaag Milkha Bhaag to run tax free in MP, Goa

    MUMBAI: Undoubtedly, Farhan Akhtar’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is getting commendable responses from the viewers at large. Last week, it was the Maharashtra government that declared the actor’s recent release Bhaag Milkha Bhaag to go tax free in the state. Now, even the state governments of Madhya Pradesh and Goa have declared the film to go tax free.

     

    In an official statement, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced tax exemption to the film in the state, stating that it was quite a while ago that a patriotic movie was made and released.  

     

    The government of Goa has made the film tax free for three months. This decision was taken by the state finance ministry, late Thursday.

     

    Directed by Rakeysh Mehra, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag stars Farhan Akhtar, who plays Milkha Singh and Sonam Kapoor.

  • MSM Motion Pictures announces Mango in association with KEPL

    MSM Motion Pictures announces Mango in association with KEPL

    MUMBAI: One of India‘s leading television networks, Multi Screen Media (MSM) announced the release of two of the movies this year which have been produced by its motion picture arm MSM Motion Picture. First of which is ‘Bajatey Raho‘ releasing on 26 July. The revenge comedy flick has been co-produced by Eros International and stars Dolly Ahluwalia, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Ravi Kissen and Vishakha Singh playing the leading roles.

    Throwing light on their next titled, ‘Mango‘ which will be helmed by the renowned director Abbas Tyrewala and produced in association with Kaleidoscope Entertainment (KEPL). The romantic comedy will star Ranvijay in the lead, the winner of the reality show Roadies and also an accomplished host along with playing sidekick roles in Hindi and Punjabi films. Along with Ranvijay, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Harman, Monali Thakur and Swara Bhaskar will also be seen in prominent roles.

    Set in the heart of Goa, Mango marks Abbas‘ third directorial venture and is set to cast the same spell that his directorial debut Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na did at the box office in 2008.

    In an interesting plot based in the calm atmosphere of modern Goa in the monsoons, this frenzied film traces one night in the life of five youngsters, whose stories intertwine in a manner quite unlikely changing their lives altogether.

    As revealed by the production house Mango outlines a story of love, life, friendship, relationships and betrayal with primary, secondary and even incidental romances sharing the spotlight with the main characters where some chase love, while others chase money.

    Commenting on MSM‘s venture into motion business, MSM CEO Man Jit Singh said, “We realise that there is a huge untapped market in the motion picture business and the sector has immense growth potential. We have the expertise and experience in this domain and hence it was a logical extension for us. We plan to produce movies across different genres.”

    “Mango is a romcom with a twist. Shot in the beautiful locales of Goa the film captures the tale of five youngsters whose lives are entwined by destiny. Mango is a young film and will appeal to masses. It will break the clutter through its refreshing content and fresh casting.” says MSM COO NP Singh.

    KEPL‘s Bobby Bedi added, “One of my most successful films was my first foray into mainstream Bollywood – that is Saathiya – a romcom with a difference. Today I re-enter the same space with some of my best colleagues – Abbas, who wrote Maqbool, Aradhana, who designed Fire, Allan – action director for Bandit Queen, and Mulchand who has lit every single work I have ever done. Together we are producing what we believe is a really funny and fast paced film, deliciously called Mango”.

  • Prasad Lolayekar takes over as CEO of Entertainment Society of Goa

    Prasad Lolayekar takes over as CEO of Entertainment Society of Goa

    NEW DELHI: Prasad V. Lolayekar, Director for Art and Culture in the Goa Government and Officer on Special Duty to the Chief Minister, has been given additional charge as Chief Executive Officer of the Entertainment Society of Goa.

    This follows the resignation of Manoj Srivastava, who was Deputy Director in the Directorate of Film Festivals of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Earlier, Srivastava had been a producer with Doordarshan.

    During his tenure from June 2008 to 31 December 2012, Srivastava managed the International Film Festival of India on behalf of the Goa Government, since the ESG had been established for collaborating with the DFF after Panaji became a permanent venue for the IFFI in 2004.

    During his tenure, Srivastava introduced short films to IFFI by launching the Short Film Center in 2008, giving a fillip to short film movement.

    Ever since, the short film movement began in India. During his tenure, Goa bagged the Best Film Destination Award last year.

    From a state having five films shot each year, Goa last year boasted of shooting 79 films. Sources said the non-existent film business in Goa has shot up to an industry of Rs four billion.

    The attendance at the IFFI has risen from a paltry 3,700 in 2008 to over 13,000 in 2012.

    During Srivastava’s tenure, the first Digital Film Archive in Asia was set up in ESG, apart from Goa Cinephile, a famous Film Club for Goans and development of film culture in Goa.

  • Centre earnings from IFFI in Goa far short of expectations

    Centre earnings from IFFI in Goa far short of expectations

    NEW DELHI: The Central Government earned a sum of Rs 8.32 million through registration of delegates from 2004 (when the International Film Festival of India moved to Goa) to 2011, despite claims of increasing number of delegates year after year..

    The Central Government has spent a sum of Rs 153.948 million between 2009-10 and 2012-13 through the 11th Plan Scheme of Export Promotion through Festivals in India and overseas and the 12th Plan Scheme of Development, Communication and Dissemination of Film Content.

    In addition, the Tourism Ministry of the Central Government also contributed a sum of Rs 23.93 million towards IFFI 2011, according to Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources.

    The sources said that the funds allocated by it for the IFFI had risen from Rs 27 million in 2009-10 to Rs 60 million in 2012-13.

    However, the sources said that IFFI was not aimed at earning profit but at promoting Indian cinema and film culture.

    According to information furnished by the Entertainment Society of Goa, the Goa Government earned a total of Rs 84.258 million between 2004 and 29 November this year.

    The Goa Government spent a sum of Rs 29.0835 million between 2009 and 29 November 2012.

  • Copyright challenges with globalisation of the Indian film industry

    Copyright challenges with globalisation of the Indian film industry

    NEW DELHI: Media lawyers Jamshed Mistry and Suneera Madhok have said categorically that copyright belongs to the filmmaker by right, simply because he or she has created a piece of art – film – and the right was inviolate.

    It is when these rights are transferred that copyright issues come to the fore. Unless sold outright (not advisable under any circumstances) all transfer of rights are temporary and applicable to the media/format, the geographical territory and for a given period.

    If these issues are taken care of through a contract, then issues of insurance come up to cover not-budgeted for legal expenses on cases thrust on the production/producer by some mischievous litigants, asserted insurance expert Maneck Dastur.

    These experts were taking part in a panel discussion on challenges following globalisation of the film industry in India. The discussion was moderated by writer and filmmaker Ramesh Tekwani. Filmmaker Brahmanand Singh also spoke at the discussion jointly organised by Entertainment Society of Goa and the Film Federation of India.

    Filmmaker and distributor Vincent Corda confirmed that no international co-production or distribution deal could be finalised unless the project is adequately insured. He went on to explain that besides the various development funds that existed to initiate and sustain project development, there was also a risk fund to cover such exigencies.

    Straying from films yet staying with entertainment, Entertainment Society of Goa CEO Manoj Srivastava wanted to know just how IPR applied to events; the system of collection of fees seemed to be in place but he was not quite sure how the IPR owners got their dues from the collections. As this flummoxed all, the Film Federation of India had been asked to tackle it at the industry level with a condition that it must take up the copyright issue as a full-fledged, daylong seminar and thrash out the issue in detail.

  • Goa to build film city within two years: Wagh

    Goa to build film city within two years: Wagh

    PANAJI: Goa is well on its way to building a film city and will be adding at least two multiplexes and a convention centre over the next two years in Panaji which plays host to the International Film Festival of India.

    This was announced by Vishnu Surya Wagh, Chairman of the Kala Academy and Vice Chairman of the Entertainment Society of Goa, at the inauguration of the Open Forum at the Festival venue. The Open Forum has been organised by the Federation of Film Societies of India with the Indian Documentaries Producers Association with the cooperation of the IFFI Secretariat and the ESG.

    Referring to local criticism about hosting a Festival at a time when the state was facing an economy crunch, he said there was need to develop cinema as an alternate business which could bring in as much revenue as other businesses did.

    Wagh, who is an MLA, said the state government was in the process of consulting film personalities to shortlist a suitable place for a film city. He said it was unfortunate that filmmakers who came to Goa to shoot often had to bring their own equipment as there was no infrastructure.

    However, he said Goa recently won the Cinemascapes award for the Best Film Destination in India.

    Referring to ESG, he said the Society had been set up to facilitate IFFI to hold the Festival here after the decision to make this the permanent venue.

    IFFI Director Shankar Mohan said the entire world was moving towards digital technology and therefore some films had been screened only at Kala Academy and it was not possible to re-screen them elsewhere. This had been done to prevent theft of copyright and prevent video piracy. He said 60 per cent of the films here were in DCP, which meant that reels were not available and passwords were needed to screen these films.

    He said the Festival this year had seen tremendous vibrancy and a steep jump in the number of delegates. The Open Forum had now moved to a greater purpose and focus. Each section had its own genre, he added.

    IDPA President Mike Pandey welcomed the idea of a film city in Goa and said this would help the growth of better cinema.

    FFSI President Kiran Shantaram and Sudhir Nandgaonkar also spoke at the forum which will be held daily till 29 November at 1.30 pm in the area outside Inox.

  • Restored print of Garam Hawa to screen at IFFI on 25 November

    Restored print of Garam Hawa to screen at IFFI on 25 November

    MUMBAI: The Balraj Sahni-starrer Garm Hava, directed by M S Sathyu, considered a milestone in Indian cinema, that has been fully restored, will be screened at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa scheduled to go underway today.

    According to IFFI officials, the film that also stars Geeta Siddharth, Farooq Shaikh, the late A K Hangal and Jalal Agha, will be screened on 25 November as part of commemoration of 100 years of Indian cinema.

    The 1973 Hindi-Urdu classic based on an unpublished Urdu short story by Ismat Chughtai and adapted for screen by Kaifi Azmi, will also be released theatrically soon.

    The film deals with the plight of a North Indian Muslim family post-Partition as the protagonist (Sahni) faces the dilemma of whether to move to Pakistan or stay back. One of the most poignant films ever made on the Partition, it was also India‘s official entry to the Oscars in 1974.

    Since the film‘s negative was in a bad shape, Mumbai-based distributor Subhash Chheda who also runs a DVD label Rudraa Chheda proposed to Sathyu that he be given the responsibility of restoring of both the audio and video segments of the film to which the director easily obliged.

    Thus began Chheda‘s two-year-long elaborate effort to have an upgraded 5.1 and Dolby mixed version of Garm Hava, which was almost lost in the annals of time.

    “Restoration of a classic is very tricky and complex, as people remember the original movie forever – frame-by-frame, dialogue-by-dialogue, word-by-word,” he says.

    “The project stayed under the scanners of the best creative and technical experts around the world for about a year. Almost 2,00,000 frames of 2K resolution were observed by all these experts again and again. The restoration and post-restoration of the movie consumed more than 5,00,000 man-hours of our technical and creative team and terabytes of space of our computers,” Chheda said in a statement.

    However, no portion of the film has been deleted nor anything added. “Everything has merely been enhanced to give a complete theatrical experience to the modern viewer,” Chedda concludes.

  • Akshay Kumar to inaugurate IFFI this year

    Akshay Kumar to inaugurate IFFI this year

    MUMBAI: It‘s official. Akshay Kumar will inaugurate the ten-day International Film Festival of India (IFFI) that gets underway 20th November in Goa.

    It needs to be noted that the name of Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan was doing rounds to inaugurate the annual film festival.

    “Akshay Kumar will be inaugurating the IFFI this year,” said Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) vice chairman Vishnu Wagh.

    Wagh also said that the inauguration of the IFFI this time around could move from being ritually held indoors to a picturesque river jetty located in the city itself.

    “It will be a much grander event this year with over 2,500 people attending it, as against the 1,000 odd invitees, who were traditionally invited every year,” Wagh observed.

    “The government of Goa would be spending around Rs.9 crore for the 10-day event. The central government will only foot the bill for the inaugural and closing ceremonies,” he added.