ITV

Tag: Madhubala

  • Asha Bhosle turns 81!

    Asha Bhosle turns 81!

    MUMBAI: Born on 8 September 1933, the evergreen Asha Bhosle is all set to embrace the 81st year of her life.

     

    The younger sister of legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar, has sung for Bollywood actresses like Madhubala, Helen and Asha Parekh as well as the new-age heroines like Kareena Kapoor.

     

    Celebrating her birthday and thanking her fans for supporting her in her journey, she tweeted, “Thank you for kind greetings. Without your support I wouldn’t have achieved my goals. Walk a bit longer with me & we’ll find the perfect note.”

     

    The Padma Vibhushan awardee is said to have crooned more than 12,000 songs in multiple languages. Apart from Hindi, she has also sung in over 20 Indian and foreign languages.

     

    In a career spanning over half a century filled with music and milestones, one of India’s most loved singers has faced a number of ups and downs in her professional as well as personal life.

     

    Asha Bhosle started her career as a playback singer with ‘Chala chala nav bala’ in the Marathi film Majha Bal (1943) at the age of 10 to support her family. But she first tasted success with BR Chopra’s Naya Daur (1957), in which she sang ‘Saathi haath badhana ‘and ‘Uden jab jab zulfein teri’.

     

    Some of her memorable numbers are, ‘Aaiye meherban’, ‘Jaaiye aap kahan’, ‘Raat akeli hai’, ‘Piya tu ab toh aaja’, ‘Dum maaro dum’, ‘Dil cheez kya hai’, ‘Yayi re yayi re’ and ‘Arre re arre’ among others.

     

    In September 2009, The World Records Academy, an international organisation which certifies world records, recognised her as the ‘Most Recorded Artist’ in the world.

     

    In 2011 she was officially acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded artist in music history. The Government of India honoured her with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2008.

     

    In 2013, she made her debut as an actress at the age of 79, in the film Mai, and received critical acclaim for her performance.

  • Eros International to offer top rated TV content on ErosNow

    Eros International to offer top rated TV content on ErosNow

    MUMBAI: Eros International plc (NYSE: EROS) (“Eros”), a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment industry, today announced that it is adding top Bollywood television content to its large selection of movies and music content on its online streaming platform, ErosNow (www.erosnow.com).

    Beginning in May, 2014, ErosNow free as well as paying subscribers will have access to the highly popular television programming ranging from top rated current serials and soaps to reality shows such as Balika Vadhu, Uttaran, Sasural Simar Ka, Beintehaa, Rangrasiya, Sanskaar (Season 2), Madhubala, Comedy Nights with Kapil and Khatronke Khiladi (Season 5). These programs will be available on ErosNow within 36 hours of their television premiere in India with thousands of hours of catch up episodes.

    Speaking on the development, Rishika Lulla Singh, Chief Executive Officer of ErosNow said, “ErosNow is the only unique online streaming service in the world to offer both current and classic Bollywood blockbusters, music videos and popular television shows. The addition of even more premium television content offers our subscribers the instant access they crave to today’s most compelling and highly rated TV shows and series in India.”

    ErosNow is available across multiple platforms and provides subscribers with thousands of hours of free content through their PC, smartphone or tablet just by signing up for an ErosNow account. Subscribers can also choose to purchase a premium ErosNow subscription that provides access to the latest online premieres, HD quality content, and offers downloading capabilities across multiple devices for quality entertainment on the go.

  • Making sense of the loss-making Bigg Boss

    Making sense of the loss-making Bigg Boss

    MUMBAI: Love it or hate it but you just can’t ignore it! Which is what not just viewers but also television channels have been doing ever since Endemol India introduced Bigg Boss.

     

    First presented by Sony Entertainment Channel in 2006 with Arshad Warsi as the host, the ever popular reality show started off with a bang only to end with a whimper when the channel was forced to relinquish the loss-making show.

     

    Though that didn’t stop a five-year-old Colors from taking up where Sony had left, the channel continued to lose a lot of money over Bigg Boss even as the show became more and more popular.

     

    Intrigued by Colors’ determination to hold on to such a loss-making property, indiantelevision.com posed the question to CEO Raj Nayak in an earlier interview, to which he answered: “I do it because it is a cult show. People wait for it. Advertisers want it. If you speak to ‘Streax’, the owner told me two containers were bought in Afghanistan because of Bigg Boss. That is Bigg Boss for you.”

     

    He further said: “We generate PR worth Rs 15-20 crore when Bigg Boss is about to start. That’s the kind of cult image the show has – 100 days of non-stop entertainment during prime time, like an IPL match. We will not stop doing those things as the viewers want it. So, as long as it matches my bottom P&L, I am able to manage it, I am fine.”

     

    Indeed, one of the reasons to continue investing nearly Rs 120 to Rs 130 crore in Bigg Boss is the kind of buzz it generates well ahead of the launch. The contestants, their choice of clothes, their language and mannerisms, the controversies around them – constitutes fodder for endless discussion and hence, nothing to be unhappy about.

     

    Also according to Nayak, Bigg Boss gets the best advertisers by virtue of it getting the best ratings. Fact is while fiction is Colors’ staple food, advertisement rates for non-fiction shows are higher. Then again, walking the tightrope between fiction and non-fiction is of essence.

     

    Yet another reason for continuing with Bigg Boss is the rub-off it has on ‘Brand Colors’. “When you go to a restaurant, there will be many dishes (Chef’s specials) that will be expensive. They don’t make money on that but they keep it because some people keep coming for those dishes. And yet, these people eat other stuff as well,” explained Nayak.

     

    The show was high on viewership throughout the season; however it was its finale episode that added a cherry on the cake. It had all the makings of a ‘masaledaar’ blockbuster including power-packed performances by the contestants and the host Salman Khan himself.

     

    “The season seven has been the most watched, most buzzed and most trended season of all times,” believed Colors’ weekend programming head Manisha Sharma.

     

    Bigg Boss seven debuted with 7,711 TVTs on its opening day and continued to have a successful run for several of weeks.

     

    The spill-over effect of the popularity of Bigg Boss was felt on shows Colors airs before and after Big Boss. For example, in week 44 of TAM TV ratings, viewership of Madhubala rose to 4,441 TVTs from 4,305 TVTs a week earlier and that of Uttaran jumped to 4,299 TVTs from 3,722 TVTs.

     

    For Lodestar UM vice-president Deepak Netram, Bigg Boss is the kind of show which is an investment for the long term for the channel.

     

    A senior media planner said while Colors is seeing a 10 to 15 per cent year-on-year increase in the cost of producing Bigg Boss, the show continues to have a loyal set of viewers and continues to deliver on ratings.

     

    “It’s like you are making a product but not getting the right price for it. But does that mean you will stop making the product? Obviously, you will continue making the product. The problem you have is in terms of sales,” he said.

     

    Yet another planner opined the channel wouldn’t give up on the show. “If the show is making losses, it does not mean it won’t happen. Some other channel will pick it up and make it. So, they will sell it to their competitors. And the show has its audience; they will lose the viewers.

     

    So, to not lose those viewers, Colors will have to make the show. To get the right value, you’ve got to get sales active,” he rounded off.

  • Colors to extend four weekday shows to Saturday from 1 Feb

    Colors to extend four weekday shows to Saturday from 1 Feb

    MUMBAI: The TV production community was agog with the news that leading Hindi general entertainment channel Star Plus is stretching its weekday fiction prime time programming lineup to Saturday. But no official announcement was a-coming from it. However, the other leading GEC Colors has gone ahead and announced that it is extending four of its weekday fiction shows to Saturdays. And promotions are already underway.

     

    Colors’ CEO Raj Nayak even went ahead and personally posted a promo on social networking sites – Facebook and Twitter – highlighting what was being planned.

     

    Come Saturday, 1 February viewers will get to engage with Sanskaar, Sasural Simar Ka, Balika Vadhu and Madhubala between 7 pm and 9 pm.

     

    “We implemented six days a week last year; we took a break as we needed to give our production teams and artistes a breather. Having taken a short interval, we are coming back six days a week,” remarks Nayak,  adding that the experiment had worked well for the channel in 2013 and that is why it is being repeated.

     

    Two promos are hammering this message out to viewers across all the channels of the Network 18 group.

     

    The reason for choosing these particular shows is not their popularity but the time band they air in, says Nayak. Colors has two popular non-fiction properties – India’s Got Talent and Comedy Nights with Kapil – being telecast on the weekend at 9 pm and 10 pm respectively. However, the channel had nothing else to fill the slot prior to 9 pm. In the earlier weeks of January, it chose to telecast the summaries of two of its newly launched shows – Rangrasiya and Beintehaa, while last Saturday a special programme – Mirchi Top 20 – ran. 

     

    In fact, it is win-win situation for all parties associated. The production houses associated with these shows think that telecast of the shows on four extra days in a month gives the shows more visibility, also resulting in good GRPs. However, since the number of episodes per month are increasing, so is the pressure to deliver.

     

    “But we try to balance that out by introducing parallel tracks and planning episodes much in advance,” says Saurabh Tewari from Nautanki Films  that produces Madhubala, who also adds that the remuneration of almost everyone associated  has also increased for the extra work.

     

    Putting fiction shows on the weekend is also cheaper for Hindi GECs. New Hindi movies are becoming more and more expensive; big ticket non-fiction shows cost a bomb, thanks to the fat cheques dished out to film stars for becoming a part of them. Additionally, in the case of Colors, it is most likely going to put aside expensive properties on its second GEC Rishtey to build a connect with audiences. Hence, fiction shows, with a tab of Rs 7 lakh to 10 lakh and episode on an average are less of a drain on resources.

     

    Advertisers have welcomed the weekend fiction deluge, says Nayak, adding.  “they put their money where there is good content. All our advertisers who buy advertising on these shows will extend their buys to the weekend as well.”

     

    Lodestar UM vice-president Deepak Netram – while accepting that moolah will be made – however, is more circumspect and cautious from the viewer’s viewpoint. 
     

    He says: “I am not too sure if the regular weekday fare would work during the weekend. Since the number of male audiences are more, non-fiction or special programmes work better.”

     

    Netram opines that reason for Colors to extend its programming till Saturday could be because rival Star Plus is also walking the same path. He remarks: “The core audience of any GEC is the one which consumes fiction. Colors is probably wanting to retain its fiction show fans; and not lose them to a rival channel which is extending its fiction content to the weekend also,” he says.

     

    Colors has already announced the D-day for its new programming tack: 1 February. Star Plus has not; but the buzz is that the date might well be 8 February. The battle for eyeballs on the weekend has just begun.

  • Nautanki Films Madhubala takes up a social cause

    Nautanki Films Madhubala takes up a social cause

    MUMBAI: One of the most watched soaps on Colors – Nautanki Films’ Madhubala – is using its popularity to draw attention to a serious social issue like forced abortions, the serial’s lead protagonist Madhubala (Dhrasti Dhami) is seen in a dilemma which many women in India can relate to.

     

    In present day society, though women’s rights are being spoken and fought for, their liberty to take decisions stands as a question mark. Forced abortions, a prevalent concern, is faced by most of the members of the fairer sex irrespective of their caste, class or creed.

     

    Madhubala has taken up the task of bringing this issue to the forefront. The past week saw the show’s protagonist, Madhu’s, dreams getting crushed when her husband RK tries to coerce her to abort their first child to suit his own agenda. Standing against her husband’s wishes, Madhu makes a firm decision to keep the child.

     

    Nautanki Films co-producer Abhinav Shukla said in a release: “Many times injustices done against women go unnoticed. With our show we will try to throw light on these issues, we are hopeful the gravity of this social issue will reach out and make an impact on the show’s many viewers.”

     

    Going by the promos, the upcoming episodes will see Madhu suffer a supposed ‘accidental miscarriage’, symbolising the often sad fate that befalls Indian women.

    Nautanki Films co-producer Saurabh Tewari added: “It is not the first time we have introduced a social cause in the story, and it is definitely not the last time we will do so. We are quite pleased to use our show as a platform to showcase issues which affect the general public”

     

    Coincidentally the show had previously dabbled with the grave issue of female foeticide, wherein Madhubala’s mother was forced to drop her girl child by her husband and family, against whom she strongly fought and won, managing to keep the baby. It must be said that Nautanki Films’ Madhubala is surely proving to be quite an inspiration for its female fan following.

  • Spuul joins hands with IndiaCast

    Spuul joins hands with IndiaCast

    MUMBAI: Spuul, an online streaming service for Indian cinema and television shows has joined hands with IndiaCast, a Viacom18 and TV18 venture, to offer shows from Colors, MTV India and the ETV bouquet of channels to its subscribers.

    The deal allows Spuul to showcase hits like Comedy Nights with Kapil, Balika Vadhu, Uttaran, Sanskaar, Bani, Madhubala and Sasural Simar Ka from Colors and Timeout with Imam and Webbed from MTV India.

    Reaffirming Spuul’s brand promise of providing premium entertainment anytime, anywhere, Spuul CEO India Prakash Ramchandani said, “Colors and MTV are leading channels across the general entertainment and youth space in the Indian television market. By bringing shows of Colors, MTV India and ETV channels to our platform, we plan to give our users an instant and continued access to their favourite shows at their convenience. This association with IndiaCast only highlights our proposition of providing entertainment on the go.”

    Spuul users can now have unrestricted access to shows of Colors, MTV India and ETV channel on their PCs, iOS and Android smart phones and tablets.

    IndiaCast Media Distribution group CEO Anuj Gandhi said, “Spuul makes popular Indian entertainment content available on internet-connected devices through its platform. We are pleased to partner with Spuul to offer consumers our premium TV content and movies at their convenience, anytime, anywhere.”

    Spuul has consistently been expanding its content offering by partnering with leading entertainment houses. The platform also has popular shows from Star Plus like Mahabharat, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai among others along with a premium library of movies, evergreen TV shows and the latest blockbusters.

  • Telly Talk India soars high on popularity

    Telly Talk India soars high on popularity

    MUMBAI: Telly Talk India, the brand new online channel, has its pulse on all the things that go on after the daily soap cameras stop rolling and reality TV gets real. Showcasing some of the most exclusive and sensational telly scoops, Telly Talk India is making heads turn. It has crossed one crore video views on YouTube within six months of its launch. The digital channel has been successful in establishing itself on the basis of its irresistible entertaining content. In fact, within two months of its launch, more than 10 videos from Telly Talk India were trending on YouTube charts.

     

    Telly Talk India is owned and operated by one of the leading Bollywood channels, Zoom, which is also India’s biggest TV brand in the digital space. Zoom has over 81 crore views and nearly 3.3 lakh subscribers on YouTube, over 52 lakh fans on Facebook, nearly 2.8 lakh followers on Twitter and over 12 lakh people in its circles on Google+. The basic idea of the online channel Telly Talk India emerged from Zoom’s weekly TV show “Telly Talk” that covers the off-screen lifestyles of the most popular TV celebrities.

     

    Telly Talk India has become the most sought after destination for the Indian television lovers, giving them an uncensored access to the life of their favourite telly stars. From identifying the “good-friends” in the industry, to RK from Madhubala (Colors) disclosing his real life romance and Saras from Saraswati Chandra (Star Plus) talking about the upcoming twists in the serial to revealing telly stars’ personal wardrobes to how they celebrate their anniversary and what goes on behind-the-scenes on the sets, this digital channel is not just good at sourcing the latest scoops from telly land, but has the distinction to uncover the in-depth stories first.

     

    Enthralling the viewers with some exciting content innovations, Telly Talk India has exceeded expectations and has constantly delivered engaging content. Telly View, a segment on Telly Talk India, is the only online review show that rates the Indian TV shows. From predicting the runaway successes to short on-air life of shows, Telly View has been bang-on in predicting the fate of the latest launches on television.

     

    Mashup – a fun series of mashed up star-conversations is a roaring success because of its highly addictive tongue-in-cheek humour. Telly Express is a spicy one-minute roundup of all the biggest stories in Television.

  • Its a full plate for IndiaCast/Viacom18

    Its a full plate for IndiaCast/Viacom18

    CANNES: It’s been a fruitful first day at Mipcom for IndiaCast/Viacom 18 (booth number 10.3, level 1), which met up with nearly 43 buyers from markets including France, Indonesia, Russia, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil and Jordon to name a few.

    The group expects to meet at least 120 companies from across the globe over the next three days of Mipcom.

    IndiaCast group COO Gaurav Gandhi says: “We have 15,000 hours of content in our library across the group and we add more than 2,000 hours of fresh programming each year.”

    The biggest draw according to Gandhi is: “Scripts of our famous drama series like Uttaran and Madhubala. That apart, formats like Roadies, Splitsvilla and Crunch aired on MTV are also in demand.”

    IndiaCast/Viacom18 has on offer about 40 shows including Na Ana Iss Des Lado, Ballika Vadhu and Comedy Nights with Kapil as also regional channel content and around 40 Bollywood films.

    “Mipcom is a good place for connecting with potential buyers from many smaller markets that we don’t have offices in or otherwise would never be able to reach out to. The discussions & negotiations begin here. It needs to be naturally followed up for things to materialise,” says Gandhi.

    The group is looking to monetise all its intellectual properties to the hilt. “For example Japan has a huge market for clips and looks for buying clips of many of our shows. East Europe wants drama series dubbed in their language. Africa wants script rights…” informs Gandhi.

    And yes, Colors’ recently launched series 24 is another property the group is betting on. “As regards 24, we are in the final stages of closing the deal with Pakistan,” reveals Gandhi.

    Apart from selling content, the group is also looking at acquiring content for its various channels. “We need to be sensitive towards what we choose. It should connect with our audiences. We are looking at acquiring family drama content and also non-fiction shows,” rounds off Viacom18 executive VP strategy and business development Anuj Poddar.  

  • Zee Muzic turns ‘Zee Lata’ on 28 September

    Zee Muzic turns ‘Zee Lata’ on 28 September

    MUMBAI: In an innovative way of paying tribute to melody queen Lata Mangeshkar as she turns another year younger on 28 September, Zee Muzic will dedicate the entire day to the nightingale of India.

    Viewers will experience Lata in all her myriad moods right from spiritual to cabaret, from solo to duets, ghazals to discos. The channel will take the viewer through a drive from black & white to colour days, from Madhubala, Nargis & Helen to Madhuri & Kareena Kapoor, dancing to Lata’s popular songs, informs an official release.

    Retro Parade will feature Lataji’s songs from the ’50s till the ’80s and Ek Ke Baad Ek will play her songs from 90s till the recent ones. Cinemascope anchor Roshni Chopra will talk about the legend and swing our moods with some fantastic songs. Bollywood Tonight will have a special segment on Lata Mangeshkar & Midnite Manual will light the dance floor with her peppy and fast paced numbers, the release adds.