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Tag: Hindi

  • Stars light up Star Parivaar Awards 2013

    Stars light up Star Parivaar Awards 2013

    Star India’s much-appreciated Star Parivaar Awards is getting glitzier and glamorous. As the actors walked the red carpet, dressed in their best attires, unlimited fun and entertainment was guaranteed. Yash Raj Studio became a witness again to a bigger and better Star Parivaar Awards 2013, which was held on 15 June. The channel has roped in Oral-B as the main sponsor and Amway as the associate sponsor for the grand event.

    The initiative marks the success and recognition of TV characters on Star Plus by the audiences who monitor them closely and daily on their favourite soaps. The function was a limitless package of path-breaking performances, glamour, humour and not to forget the gorgeous television stars.

    Sooraj (Anas Rashid)-Sandhya (Deepika Singh ) from Diya aur Baati Hum, Aaditya (Nakuul Mehta)-Pankhuri (Disha Parmar) from Pyaar Ka Dard Hain, Gopi (Giaa Manek) – Ahem (Mohammad Nazim) and Rashi (Rucha Hasabnis)-Jigar (Vishal Singh) fromSaath Nibhana Saathiya, Aakash (Rahul Sharma)- Poonam (Ishita Dutta) from Ek Ghar Banauga,Nach Baliye-5 winners Jay and Mahi, Ranvijay (Bhavesh Balchandani) -Veera (Harshita Ojha) with Ratan (Sneha Wagh) from Veera were some of the popular Parivaar faces who walked the red carpet.

    Masterchef Fame Sanjeev Kapoor, Vikas Khanna and Kunal Kapur also did the honours along with Masterchef India season 3winner Ripu Daman Handa.

    The evening could not have ended without the doffing of the collective cap to the power of Bollywood. Celebrities like Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Riteish Deshmukh, Sonakshi Sinha and Imraan Khan added some spice to the event.

    Star Parivaar Awards’ unique theme ‘Yeh Prem Kahaani Hai…Parivaar Ki’, brought out the best from the members of the family, who enthused the audience with their breathtaking acts. Be it young or old, all the popular Star Plus actors burned the dance floor with some mesmerising performances.

    With Parivaar Awards roping in Shiamak Davar to choreograph the entire show, the musical theme adopted for this year, was an add-on to entertainment. As the biggest Parivaar of the country came together to celebrate love and togetherness, the evening had its moments of pathos, joy and tongue-in-cheek humour. Present at the occasion also were quite a few TV producers who have contributed to Star Plus success: Rajan Shahi, SLB’s Arvind Babbal , Tony and Deeya Singh, Shashi and Sumeet Mittal, Rakesh Paswan, Yash and Mamta Patanaik, Kavita Barjatyya, and Rashmi Sharma. Star India’s CEO Uday Shankar, COO Sanjay Gupta, content engine head Gaurav Banerjee, Star Plus business head Nachiket Pantvaidya, non-fiction head Ashish Golwalakr were all there to cheer their actors on.

    Also on hand were Star Parivaar Awards jury members Indiantelevision.com and The Indian Telly Awards CEO Anil Wanvari, producer J.D. Majethia, and veteran journalist and writer Bhawana Somaiyya.

    This apart, the 3D mapping projection and three-sided Varsha Desai-designed stage at YRF were a revelation. While SOL Productions was responsible for the creative and the TV production of the event, Frames handled production on the red carpet and the curtain raiser.

    The highlight of the show was the group performance by Shagufta Ali (Moti Chaiji from Veera), Hina Khan (Akshara from Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai), Disha Sharma (Pankhudi from Pyaar ka Dard) and Neelu Vaghela (Bhabho from Diya aur Baati Hum) who made the audiences go ga-ga with their mind-blowing moves and grooves.

    While most of the stars burned the dance floor with their high on energy performances, the rest of the members were seen humming the new STAR Parivaar song 2013 – ‘Tum Jo Milgaye ho’ sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Ankit Tiwari.

    Well onto the show, the event started with an electrifying prayer dance by the team of Shiamak Davar along with Bhabho, Naitik, and other popular faces of Star welcoming guests to a memorable evening. This was followed by a comic act put together by the cast of Diya aur Baati Hum and other famous actors from the show Yeh Rishta and Veera and Rahul Mahajan.

    The very dashing television chocolate boy Karan Wahi and Ek Hazaaron me Meri Behna hai fame Jeevika left the viewers in splits with their quick drollness and rocking stage presence as they co-hosted the evening for the first category of awards. Helping them with the awards segments were the lively co-hosts Jay Bhanushali, Karan Mehra, Neelu Vaghela and Ashok Lokhande.

    Star India CEO Uday Shankar gave away the ‘Har Ghar ka Pasand Sadasya’ Award.

    While on the one hand, the gorgeous Monica Bedi, who shook the audience with her exotic performance on the popular number Lat Lag gayee from Race 2, provided an oomph factor, Akshara, Sandhya and Pankhudi made the audiences go ga-ga with their thumkas and latkas.

    All through the fun and entertainment, the Star Parivaar Awards did not forget to highlight the plight of women and the injustice faced by them. The spectacular performance by Ratan from Veera and Pankhudi from surely was a highlight of the star-studded evening.

    The rope walking act with no support by Anas Rashid (Diya aur Baati hum fame Sooraj) surely made everyone skip a heartbeat.

    All in all, Star Parivaar Awards was a magnificent evening to remember with fabulous performances, surprising acts and the shinning television industry at its glamorous and entertaining best.

    Click here for photos of the Star Parivaar Awards Red Carpet

  • ‘Dard-E-Dil Likhun Kab Tak’ by Rukhsar Amrohvi released by Ansari

    ‘Dard-E-Dil Likhun Kab Tak’ by Rukhsar Amrohvi released by Ansari

    NEW DELHI: VP Hamid Ansari has noted that the late filmmaker and Urdu writer KamalAmrohvi was a legend who contributed a lot to the promotion of Urdu language through his remarkable writings.

    Ansari was speaking at the release of ‘Dard-e-Dil Likhun Kab Tak‘ (in Urdu and Hindi) authored by Rukhsar Amrohvi, daughter of the legendary film director. The VP also complimented the author for bringing out such a valuable book in Hindi as well.

    The book consists of poems composed by the poetess and some rare photographs which are not a family album but record the historic moments of Indian cinema, which is completing 100 years of its glorious existence.

    The book is a valuable addition in Urdu literature, Ansari noted.

  • Star Plus believes digital is the way forward

    Star Plus believes digital is the way forward

    (Hindi GEC Star Plus features in this the second of our series on what TV channels are doing in the digital and social media space)

    It’s the leader in the Hindi general entertainment space in India and has been so for the most part of the previous decade, and even this one. The Star India network, has been gung-ho on the online space, ever since one can remember like its owner Rupert Murdoch, who has had a fascination for it but confesses he does not know how to deal with it.

    Star India took a big punt when it acquired the much-touted indya.com way back in 2001, coughing up a hefty $50 million in buying it. It has since not known what to do with it. Just like Murdoch failed to fathom what the group could do with myspace.com, finally selling it out cheap.

    Star India‘s Indya.com fiasco looks unlikely to be repeated today. CEO Uday Shankar is quite clear on that and a crack team at the media giant has been working overtime to engage with its viewers.

    “We have leveraged the platform of digital, our various digital assets and the power of broadcast integration to drive deeper multi-screen engagement and conversations,” says Star India marketing & communications executive vice president Gayatri Yadav.

    “Having an engaged audience that can interact with the brand is a very meaningful goal. This helps us build loyalty for the characters and the brand, develop interest in new launches and of course acts as a great influencer for new audiences to sample the on air content. The engaged audience base also acts as a great feedback mechanism for our content.”

    Star India marketing & communications executive vice president Gayatri Yadav

    Star has been innovative in actively energising, featuring and interacting with audiences with powerful integration of online with on-screen content. All the key show launches and events now have at least one element of live engagement with the viewers. Auditions, which were earlier only limited to on-ground activities, have further been extended to the digital platform, reveals Yadav.

    In terms of video content that it uploads, Star Plus broadly classifies it into long form and short form, catch-up content, web exclusives, promos and legacy. For platforms like YouTube the channel‘s approach has been to upload short form catch-up content, which it says has been very well received. Its own video platforms have long form catch up content, along with some marquee legacy shows.

    Starplus.in and Star Player (www.startv.in) are among the two-owned platforms that it uses to encourage users to engage with the channel and download content. Data on how many downloads the Star Player app has achieved was not available at the time of writing but its Facebook page had received 93,000 likes or so.

    Star Plus constantly keeps on updating pictures and videos of its shows on their website

    Star Plus constantly keeps on updating pictures and videos of its shows on these websites. Star, however, does not upload an episode within a couple of hours of its telecast. Besides, it uses textual and image content like daily recaps, show highlights, trivia and polls to interact with and engage the visitor.

    Apart from internet based platforms, Star Plus also leverages the reach of the voice platform through SPOM (Star Plus on Mobile – 5057827). Through its voice portal Star Plus on Mobile, the channel runs audio recaps of the daily shows, daily diaries, and voice blogs of popular characters and also title tracks of the shows.

    Star Plus uses the mobile platform to leverage it‘s content

    With live engagement being one of the significant elements, Star has Plus has created applications for Apple, Blackberry, Android and Nokia through which people could interact, chat with the judges and read blogs while watching shows such as ‘MasterChef India‘.

    For some of its marquee shows like ‘Nach Baliye‘ and ‘MasterChef India‘, Star Plus has leveraged the transmedia storytelling route – where the main show has a strong storytelling leg running exclusively on digital platforms which link back meaningfully to the main show.

    Apart from this, the channel has showcased its content on the digital platform through initiatives like the web premiere of ‘Saraswatichandra‘ exclusively for digital audiences.

    Star Plus has an official Facebook page with around 2.80 million likes and hundreds of thousands of visitors talking about the channel and its programmes at any point in time. On Twitter, another vital ingredient of the social media mix, the channel has around 88,250 active followers. @StarPlus is buzzing with tweets and re-tweets every couple of hours. The numerous fan-driven handles of their popular shows are busy re-tweeting and sharing every Star update, making for a huge cacophony of views across the digital world.

    YouTube also plays an integral part in Star’s digital strategy with close to 2.50 million subscribers

    YouTube also plays an integral part in Star’s digital strategy with close to 2.50 million subscribers. Drama series and reality shows are attracting a good number of page views, say channel executives. Star uploads day-to-day activities, episodes that viewers may missed, comparatively, among on-air shows, fiction has an upper-hand over non -fiction shows.

    The channel’s official Facebook pages for some of its TV shows have received commendable responses from nitizens/viewers. The Facebook page of its leading fiction series ‘Diya Aur Baati Hum’ has 2.34 million likes with 2,485 active followers on Twitter. ‘Diya Aur Baati Hum’ also leads the drama genre with more than 32,304 video views on YouTube in just two days. Another fiction show ‘Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai’ bagged 20,529 video views for one of its episodes. Reality shows such as ‘India’s Dancing SuperStar’ lead with 1,18,222 video views.

    Star Plus marketing vice-president Nikhil Madhok

    Star Plus marketing vice-president Nikhil Madhok states, “We are producing a lot of content exclusively for our digital assets, be it in the form of behind-the-scenes clips, rehearsal footage, bloopers, interviews and much more. We have even made special edits of the episode acts just for digital. For example, Chaavat Boys, which is a group of engineering students from a Mumbai college, have already become a rage online, and all their dance acts have gone viral. In fact, people have been uploading videos of their own version of Chaavatgiri.”

    Star Plus claims that ‘Nach Baliye’ generated one billion impressions online during the course of its telecast. Of these, a 100 million happened on the final episode itself, which not only trended at no 1 in India but also worldwide, it says.

    ‘Satyamev Jayate’, (SMJ) the first talk show produced by Aamir Khan Productions created a lot of buzz on social media platforms. It became the most searched query on Google immediately after its first episode. SMJ has 93,929 followers on Twitter and its official Facebook page has 1.69 million likes.

    SMJ has 93,929 followers on Twitter and its official Facebook page has 1.69 million likes

    Official pages of SMJ were launched on the big three of social media – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to provide a platform for fans to share their views and interact. Updates were posted at regular intervals. Video snippets and full episodes were uploaded on YouTube for fans to watch the show or a favourite segment at their convenience.

    Reports suggest that though initial conversations around SMJ were triggered by Aamir Khan’s popularity, conversations around the causes he espoused on the show took centre stage later. The reason for this trend can be assumed to be the content fed into social media platforms. The fever of the show became strong on digital as the show only aired once in a week for 1 hour on Sunday. For the rest days, they storm the viewers by different social messages by constantly updating videos and statuses and also by tweeting.

    “We at Star deeply cherish our relationship with consumers. Giving consumers a chance to engage and interact deeply with our brands and characters is no longer an option, but a necessity. It is something we value deeply and have set up a team, infrastructure and partners to enable us to interact meaningfully with consumers across the network,” concludes Yadav.

  • Sadda Haq to be dubbed in English and Hindi

    Sadda Haq to be dubbed in English and Hindi

    MUMBAI: Sadda Haq is a Punjabi historical drama movie based in the late 1980‘s and early 1990‘s which was a period of extreme turmoil in Punjab. Directed by Mandeep Benipal and produced by Kuljinder Singh Sidhu, the makers of the film are in the process of getting it dubbed in English and Hindi.

    The reason behind dubbing the movie in other two languages was as they got lot of demand from overseas as well as different parts of India. The dubbing of the movie has already started and is likely to be completed in a month, after recently getting a clearance from the supreme court. The translated edition may also be screened in a few cinema halls.

    Since the film was based on the Khalistan militancy period in Punjab, it involved a lot of controversy following the ban on its screening by the governments of Punjab, Delhi and the union territory Chandigarh.

    In this case, the controversy came to the highlight since the film was objected to two-three times by the censor board and once by the state governments.

    As per the media reports, the film has been successfully screened for the past three weeks in Mumbai and was the biggest Punjabi film in terms of gross collections in UK and US where it has been screened for almost one month now.

    The movie will hit theatres across the country on 10 May.

  • Vidya Balan set to play M S Subbulakshmi in biopic

    Vidya Balan set to play M S Subbulakshmi in biopic

    MUMBAI: Known to have directed critically acclaimed Tamil films like Minsara Kanavu and Kandukondain Kandukondain, cinematographer turned director Rajiv Menon has approached Vidya Balan to play noted vocalist and Bharat Ratna awardee M S Subbulakshmi in a biopic to be made on her.

    In a message from a distant land where he is currently shooting, Menon stated, “When I narrated the script to Vidya, she has approved of it. Next week, we would be taking the project to the next level after I return to India. At the moment, I am shooting in South Africa.”

    It is said that earlier Menon wanted to make a biopic on Lata Mangeshkar but later changed his mind to do the same of Subbulakshmi when he came to know that Vidya, being a keen student of music, would be able to carry out the role encompassing the songstress‘ age-span from 18 to 88 with ease.

    According to the director, the Subbulakshmi biopic would be the most costliest ever to be made at an estimated cost of Rs 70 crore in three languages Hindi, Tamil and English.

  • Fox Star Studios associates with 7 brands for Ice Age 4

    MUMBAI: Fox Star Studios, which has been co-promoting brands and its films, has now associated with seven big brands for the fourth installment of the Ice Age series, Ice Age 4: Continental Drift.

    The seven brands which have tied up with the animation film are MTR Milk Drinks, McDonalds, Crax Corn Rings, Perfetti Alpenliebe, Swirl and LG Electronics 3D TV.

    It may be recollected that the studio has had mutually beneficial associations with noted brands for their recent blockbusters such as Titanic 3D, X Men First Class, Avatar etc.

    Ice age 4: Continental Drift is releasing in 3D in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telegu on 27 July.

  • Hindi remake of Kaksparsh will have Amitabh Bachchan in lead

    Hindi remake of Kaksparsh will have Amitabh Bachchan in lead

    MUMBAI: Just last month it was announced that Amitabh Bachchan would play the role of an aging Shakespearean actor in the on-screen adaptation of Natsamrat, MaheshManjrekar’s literary masterpiece in Marathi.

    And now comes the news that Manjrekar is all set to roll his remake of his latest Marathi project Kaksparsh, soon with Bachchan playing the part that Sachin Khedekar had essayed of the fiercely protective patriarch.

    The film is about a young widow’s fight for her individual space in which she is helped by her dead husband’s elder brother.

    The remake of the film will be shot in the same village in Konkan where the original was shot.

    Said Manjrekar, “The film has to be shot in the Konkan village. I want to preserve the flavour and mood of the story. Amitji is the only actor who can do justice to the role of the patriarch who fights for the young widow’s rights.”

    Ketaki Mategaonkar and Priya Bapat play the character of the widow at different stages in the original. “As for finding the right actors to play the part, I am sure we’ll find them. It was difficult to find capable actors even in Kaksparsh but we did it,” added Manjrekar.

  • Piranha 3DD to release in India on 15 June

    Piranha 3DD to release in India on 15 June

    MUMBAI: Film distribution firm Multivision Multimedia is readying to release Piranha 3DD on 15 June across 350 screens in 3D in India.

    Produced by Mark Canton and Joel Soisson, Piranha 3DD is the sequel of the 2010 comic-horror Piranha 3D. Like its predecessor, Piranha 3DD not only will be equipped with bone-chilling scares, flesh-eating piranhas and sexy and young victims but it also promises to raise the bar with double the action and double the fun.

    The film also boasts of a lot of underwater sequences that will supposedly look more exciting as it comes in 3D.

    The film is set in a giant water park, where the blood-thirsty piranhas wreak havoc on the unassuming summer visitors. Piranha 3DD is directed by John Gulager who has earlier directed another horror film called Feast.

    Multivision Multimedia director Amit Jethani said, “The movie couldn‘t have been timed better. Piranha 3DD is a fun summer movie that the audiences have been waiting for. We plan to release this across India in English and three Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. We are quite hopeful that the response to the movie will be above our expectations.”

    Piranha 3DD stars Christopher Llyod, Katrina Bowden, Ving Rhames, David Koechner, Paul Scheer, Gary Busey, Danielle Panabaker, Matt Bush and Chris Zylka along with Baywatch fame David Hasselhoff.

  • Two Indian docus at Sheffield Intl Fest

    Two Indian docus at Sheffield Intl Fest

    MUMBAI: Sheffield International Documentary Festival 2012 will screen two Indian films this year.

    They are Anand Patwardhan‘s Jai Bhim Comrade and Dylan Mohan Gray‘s Fire in the Blood. The festival will be held from 13 to 17 June in Sheffield, UK.

    While Patwardhan‘s Jai Bhim Comrade is an epic eye-opener for those who are unfamiliar with India‘s severe caste discrimination, Fire in the Blood is an 84-minute documentary in English, Hindi, Manipuri and Xhosa. Fire in the Blood examines the battle that a number of inspiring players – including the government of India – waged to level the playing field for AIDS sufferers.

    Launched in 1994, it is one of the biggest international documentary festivals in the world.

  • The Avengers collects Rs 246.7 mn in first week

    The Avengers collects Rs 246.7 mn in first week

    MUMBAI: Having collected Rs 140 million in its opening weekend, Marvel Studio’s The Avengers grew through the week to net Rs 246.7million from its first week run, according to figures provided by UTV Motion Pictures.

    UTV Motion Pictures, part of Walt Disney, is distributing the film in India.

    With this, The Avengers has had an all-time third biggest opening for any Hollywood film in India and is the biggest Disney-Marvel movie in India ever.

    Incidentally, the film released in approximately 800 screens in English and was dubbed in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.