ITV

Tag: Hrithik Roshan

  • Tata Sky to pump in Rs 20 billion, expects break even in 5-7 years

    Tata Sky to pump in Rs 20 billion, expects break even in 5-7 years

     MUMBAI: Tata Sky will take 5-7 years to break even and plans to further invest Rs 20 billion to ramp up its direct-to-home (DTH) business.

    “We have already invested close to Rs 10 billion. We will pump in a further Rs 20 billion,” says Tata Sky CEO and MD Vikram Kaushik.

    There is a hardware and content subsidy and it will take us 5-7 years to break even, he adds. Tata Sky charges Rs 3999 for hardware and installation cost while the subscription fee is Rs 300 per month.

    The DTH service provider has a subscriber base of half a million and expects to benefit largely from the ICC cricket World Cup with its free subscription promotional scheme for the next three months.

    It has roped in actor Hrithik Roshan for its new marketing campaign where select viewers would get to watch the World Cup final match with him.

    “We are on course to achieve our target of one million subscribers in our first year of operations. We have activated half a million boxes. The World Cup should give us a spurt as we have interesting value-added features. In the Cas (conditional access system) areas, we have also seen a rise in demand for our service,” says Kaushik.

    Tata Sky hopes to add on the Sun network channels soon. “There was a hearing in the court today. The final hearing will be before the first half of March,” says Kaushik.

  • Prasad EFX delivers VFX for Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Krrish’

    Prasad EFX delivers VFX for Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Krrish’

    MUMBAI: Prasad EFX, one of the largest Digital Post Production Studios in India, has executed more than 1200 VFX shots for the upcoming Hrithik Roshan starrer Krrish.

    The movie, produced and directed by Rakesh Roshan, is loaded with spectacular VFX and is all set to catapult Indian VFX to Hollywood standards, says the company in an official release.

    VFX Supervisors from Hollywood Craig Mumma and Marc Kolbe, worked with a team of more than 100 VFX specialists in Prasad EFX to come out with the VFX sequences.

    Prasad EFX senior team leader Himakumar says, “We have done very high end 3D modeling and animation including whole body scans. A lot of 3D models of cars, bikes, helicopter, birds and animals were created and animated to match live action footage. Fire sequences are always a challenge and we have used it to great effect in Krrish. Very complicated wire removals and compositing work were minutely executed, so were critical special effects that add intensity to images and action shots. A whole futuristic set was designed and implemented by the team at Prasad EFX in 3D.”

    Rakesh Roshan says, “Prasad EFX has exceeded my expectations because they’ve done a fantastic job – unbelievable! I was a bit tense as to whether it will be to the standard of Hollywood but I think they have lifted the status of the film to a very high level. It is not like Hollywood. It is Hollywood. I salute the entire EFX team.”

    Craig Mumma, who has to his credit films including Independence Day and Godzilla, says, “One of the reasons I was approached by Rakesh Roshan to work on Krrish was because we wanted to do some mind blowing, world standard VFX. We had to keep various things in mind, budgets, capability, infrastructure and so on. We looked at many studios and all our efforts pointed to Prasad EFX. I wanted to work with a company that will get involved with the project to a very deep level. EFX in my past couple of years of experience with other projects has delivered the goods well above my expectations.”

    Adds Craig, “Working with the people at Prasad EFX has been a great experience. They understand films, they understand VFX and that way I was able to get the most out of them. The VFX will be a trendsetter. We will see more of this happening in the future.”

    Prasad EFX also provided the Digital Intermediate service for Krrish. Senior line producer, DI, Rajiv Raghunathan says, “DI is catching on fast. Right now it is the big budget and special effects intensive movies that use this service. Once filmmakers understand the advantages of having a Digital Master at 2K/4K resolution, then only the full potential of DI will be realized. Digital Cinema, DVD masters, HD/Sd outputs, Mobile/PDA delivery, web and other future media can be served content from a single digital master resulting in consistency, cost & time savings and flexibility. Very soon DI will be part of the planning for all movies. One obvious change noticed in the past one year is that DI is being used more towards enhancing the look and feel of the film as opposed to correcting shooting flaws.”

    Prasad Film Labs made over 700 prints for Krrish for national and global distribution form the DI negatives, according to the official release.

  • Star One plans revival in Mumbai

    Star One plans revival in Mumbai

    MUMBAI: After striking a truce with Mumbai’s cable operators and gaining prime band occupancy on their networks, Star One is making all efforts to regain lost ground.

    In order to refresh the memories of the Mumbai viewer, Star One has slotted a series of marathons and re-cap episodes of its key properties including The Great Indian Laughter Challenge Dwitiya (TGILCD), India Calling, D.O.N, Yeh Dil Chahe More and Kya Hoga Nimmo Ka.

    “Due to a disagreement with the cable trade in Mumbai, we were absent from the prime band. It crippled the channel’s growth in a big way. Now we have reached a settlement and are back on the prime band. Mumbai has always been an important market for the channel, delivering almost 30 per cent of the Hindi Speaking Market (HSM) ratings. Now we look forward to regaining our position,” states Star India EVP marketing Ajay Vidyasagar.

    Speaking on the impact that Mumbai’s absence from the picture made on the newly launched shows such as Kya Hoga… and Heart Beat, Vidyasagar says, “Those brands didn’t get an opportunity to connect with the Mumbai viewers.” On the revival of the channel, he counts on TGILCD to play a key role. “This property will be the lead vehicle for us to drive audiences in Mumbai back to the channel.”

    On the marketing and promotion front, the channel will be triggering a multimedia campaign covering print, radio, outdoors and internet. “We will begin with a print campaign tomorrow (1 June) leading up to the finals of TGILCD. This will be followed by a series of radio activities. Celebrities such as Hrithik Roshan and Diya Mirza will also come on board for promotions. We are planning extensive ground events to promote TGILCD,” says Vidyasagar.

    On the latest introduction Heart Beat not figuring in the recap exercise, Vidyasagar explains, “It is a bit tough to get into a wild bunch of repeats. We don’t want to offer an over dose of the strategy.”

    When queried on the fate of those upcoming shows including Sixer, which were put on hold post the cable disturbance, Vidyasagar said they were put on hold due to creative reasons. “There weren’t too many shows, which we put on hold. Yes, due to certain creative reasons, we have delayed certain shows. It will require certain time to recraft those shows,” he says.

    As already reported by Indiantelevision.com, Star One was pushed into the hyper band since January as Star India was asking for an increase in payout from cable TV operators. Star was blamed by the association of distributors and last mile operators in Mumbai for forcing the second bouquet comprising channels like Star One and Walt Disney on cable operators.

    Opposition was also against Tata Sky, in which Star is a 20 per cent joint venture partner, for approaching housing societies with the proposal of offering residents a central dish antenna through which it could connect individual installations and offer direct-to-home (DTH) service.