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Tag: NDTV’s

  • Trendz’ new show zooms in on urban Indian nightlife

    MUMBAI: Till now it was NDTV’s Night Out which focussed on the hip n’ happening parties in Mumbai and Delhi. Now Zee’s fashion channel Trendz has also ventured into the same arena with their new half hour weekly show called Diabolical.

    Diabolical will be a guide to the best hangouts in cities all over the country and will showcase food, fashion, décor, music, celeb clientele with a hope to capture the pulse of urban nightlife – and sometimes daylife too. The show will be anchored by ex-Grasim Mr India Vivan Bhathena.

     

    The word ‘diabolical’ has negative connotations by the book, but could, in contemporary parlance, mean anything from different, dynamic and dangerously cool, to rocking, trendy and bravely hip, and that’s just what the show promises.

    Diabolical will be all about partying style and will encase success sagas, stories of small beginnings-happy endings, anecdotes of lucked-out but persevering young entrepreneurs, glimpses of glamour, beauty, passion, grandeur, the good life, the pursuit of pleasure, and the grit behind the gloss!

     

    The show combines a spirit of query with a gathering momentum of fun and is targetted at anyone in the age group of 16-45 years falling in the middle and upper-middle class strata of the society.

     

    The show will feature the likes of club owners, celebrity chefs, restaurateurs, DJ’s, musicians, live acts, architects and designers and will be peppered with trends, critiques, information and style checks.

     

    Diabolic will be presented in segments comprising the profile of a Hot spot, Easy steps, easy learn (‘learn a trade in five to seven easy steps’), Hot event of the week, Style tip, Pan-India trend story and Stylish one. Each episode will be of 22 minutes and has been produced by SOL.

     

  • India scoops lion’s share of C’wealth Broadcasting awards

    NEW DELHI: India has carried off the lion’s share of prizes awarded by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) this year. Infact, the country dominated all other Commonwealth countries to such an extent that the British Council in Delhi hosted a significant prize-giving event today.
    The CBA Award for Exceptional News Feature went to NDTV’s senior editor Barkha Dutt and Ajmal Jami (camera) for their vivid and daring report on the communal riots in Gujarat.
    The CBA Unicef Award for Outstanding Local Children’s Broadcasting has been awarded to BBC World Service Trust/Doordarshan and Naco, the Indian AIDS organisation, for a vigorous and pioneering TV campaign on AIDS aimed at young people, which challenged minds and changed behaviour. The eight-member team led by series producer Sonia Chowdhry was honoured.
    The Commonwealth Short Story Competition 2003 has been won by Madhulika Liddle of Delhi, whose story A Morning Swim triumphed over 3,741 entries from around the Commonwealth. She won ?2,000. Her story was inspired by an obscure newspaper report about a small boy who makes a living by diving for coins in the Yamuna River.
    India has four other successful short story winners, Usha Rajagopalan from Manipal, Amara Bhavani Dev from Bangalore, Sriparna Saha from Kolkota, and Suchitra Ramadurai from Chennai, all of whom received Highly Commended Prizes of ?100, and all of whom travelled to Delhi for the prize-giving.
    The Commonwealth Photographic Awards received more entries from India than any other nation. Although the top prize went to a Canadian, John Lehmann, who won ?2,000 for his photograph of a newly born baby in the arms of its ecstatic parents – interpreting the competition’s theme of ‘Celebration’ – there were eight Highly Commended Winners from India.
    M L Barai, Binode Kumar Das, Rajib De, Ashok Nath De, Swapan Mahapatra, Dines Mukherjee, Indranil Sarkar and Debashis Sawoo are mostly from Kolkota, and several of them travelled to Delhi to receive their ?100 prizes.
    The Commonwealth Short Story Competition began in 1996 and is funded by the Commonwealth Foundation and administered by CBA.
    The Commonwealth Photographic Awards is an open competition for all Commonwealth residents and included both colour and black and white photographs. They are organised by the CBA and the Commonwealth Press Union, supported by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation and sponsored by The Commonwealth Foundation.

  • Five new launches on tube this week

    MUMBAI: Good news for couch potatoes. With five new shows slated for a launch this week, there is something for absolutely everybody.
    Already, with the ‘guess who’s Jassi’ drama tickling the viewers’ curiosity, the serial Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi , — an Indianised version of the Hispanic Yo Soy Betty La Fea — has become one of the most awaited launches in the coming weeks. The show will be telecast in Sony.


    Also airing next week is Sahara’s Arzoo Hai Tu, Star Worlds’s new season of That 70’s Show, MTV’s Khamosh and NDTV’s World This Week..
    Sony’s Jassi…, a drama on life in the fashion world, is a story of a plain Jane with an extraordinarily good sense of humour, who learns to deal with and triumph over the glitzy world of fashion.


    The show targeted at the average female audience launches on 1 September at 9:30 pm. A special one hour preview show has been scheduled for 31 August.
    According to the Sony sources, Jasmeet ‘Jassi’ Walia’s strong values will appeal to the middle class while her career goals will draw the modern Indian woman. The reworked Cinderella is likely to offer tough competition to the Sahara’s big ticket Karishma – The Miracles of Destiny, which airs in the same time band.
    Meanwhile, Sahara Manoranjan is ready with its next launch Arzoo Hai Tu. The show, produced by Sahara India Mass Communication Ltd in association with Sagar Entertainment, will launch on 1 September at 10 pm.


    This daily boasts of big names in the television industry like Mohnish Behl, Aman Verma, Mrinal Kulkarni, Lata Sabharwal, Uday Tikikar, Sheetal Thankkar and Suddha Shivpuri. Based on a story about family values, conflicts of ideals, ambitions, aspirations, jealousy and hate, Arzoo… is essentially a dramatic love story.
    Next in the pipeline is Star World new season of That 70’s Show. Set in the era of Led Zeppelin 8-tracks, Tab colas, and Farrah Fawcett posters, the nostalgic and funny flashback to the “Me” decade, starts on 1 September at 8 pm.
    Set in the Wisconsin suburbs, That 70s Show is about 18 year old Eric Forman (Topher Grace), who lives with his parents — Red (Kurtwood Smith) and Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp) and yearns for his independence. Also in the frame is Eric’s ex-girlfriend and neighbour, Donna (Laura Prepon), a knock-out who’s been forced to deal with her parents’ recent split and her dad Bob’s (Don Stark) new life as a swinging single.


    Beside there are his friends, who spend most of their time hanging out in the Forman basement and pondering their lives, their parents and their future.
    The gang includes Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), a good-looking but gullible guy, especially when it comes to dealing with his controlling on-again, off-again girlfriend Jackie (Mila Kunis); Hyde (Danny Masterson), a conspiracy theorist who thinks Xerox will take over the world; and Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), a foreign exchange student who’s soaking up American culture like a sponge.
    This season finds the gang maturing during their senior year of high school as they prepare to graduate and head off to college. Eric and Donna are back together again, while Jackie and Kelso have finally split up for good.
    Kelso meets a new California girl, played by guest star and pop singer Jessica Simpson, while Jackie finds comfort in the arms of Hyde, much to the gang’s dismay. Fez even finds true love when he shifts into high gear and falls for an older woman who works at the DMV.


    As for MTV Roadies , they are still roaring on the road, making some good television coverage. Viacom’s music arm has dished out yet another music band to their programming line up Khamosh , which launches on 1 September. Khamosh will replace MTV Bolti bund from Monday to Friday at 9 pm.
    Last on the list is NDTV’s flagship show The World This Week, which was previously scheduled to launch on 29 August at 9:30 pm. After exactly a week’s delay, it will finally be out on 5 September in the same time slot.
    Voted as one of the five all-time best shows in India, the original anchor Dr Prannoy Roy will make a comeback on NDTV 24×7. The show, back on popular demand, will take a look at international events from a clearly Indian perspective.

  • Star the focus as IMG petitions Vajpayee to crack down

    NEW DELHI: Star dabao, desh bachao (suppress Star and save the country). This seems to be the clarion call of the Indian Media Group (IMG), an organisation made up of various Indian media companies claiming to be fighting for a “level playing field” for domestic players vis-?-vis foreign companies.
    The ante was upped today as the message was conveyed in no uncertain terms to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is reported to have told the 15-strong IMG delegation that the law of the land would be kept in mind, in a meeting held at his residence.
    The other ministers met by the delegation included deputy prime minister LK Advani, finance minister Jaswant Singh, law and commerce minister Arun Jaitley and information and broadcasting minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. 
    “Nobody should be allowed to make a monkey of rules,” N Ram, editor of The Hindu group of publications told journalists, after the meeting with Vajpayee where among other media issues Star News’ case was also discussed.
    While Times of India group MD Vineet Jain and Sri Adhikari Brothers Vice-Chairman and MD Markand Adhikari named Star and Rupert Murdoch as “flouting” rules after a meeting with Prasad, India Today Group’s promoter Aroon Purie told indiantelevision.com, “We want parity in rules for the print and electronic media. Let the norms, including 51 per cent shareholding with a single Indian entity (as in the print medium FDI guidelines), for both the media be the same.” 
    The company in the eye of storm, the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star, however, was cautious in reacting to today’s high-pitched developments in the Capital. “We are not aware of what transpired at the meeting with the PM. But we would always abide by the rules set by the government,” a senior executive of Star India said.
    PM COMFORTING, NO ASSURANCES
    Prominent members of the IMG demanded a “uniform approach” and a “level-playing field” for all media organisations competing in the field of information and broadcasting. Though the prime minister is not prone to blurt out his mind at such meetings, according to government sources, all that he told the visiting media team was that “Kanoon ka dhyaan rakhenge (the law will be kept in mind).” Vajpayee was told that the government’s rules pertaining to the media should be enforced uniformly and in “letter and spirit.”
    According to The Hindu’s Ram, “We have called for uniformity of all news media and the rules must be implemented in letter and spirit.” He also added that in other countries Murdoch was compelled to comply (with the local rules and regulations).
    After the meeting at 7, Race Course Road, Vajpayee’s residence, TOI’s Jain told reporters: “We are seeking a media policy without discrimination for all media.” Sahara Group’s MD Subrato Roy said, “The PM gave us a patient hearing. We told him that we are not worried about any particular channel or organisation, but we don’t want discrimination.”
    The group, comprising 15-odd persons, which met up with the PM included, amongst others, Zee Telefilms vice-chairman Jawahar Goel, India Today’s editor Prabhu Chawla, NDTV’s Prannoy Roy, Enadu’s I Venkat and representatives from powerful regional media groups like Dainik Bhaskar, Sun TV and Dainik Jagran.
    Yet again, absent from this group, was Hindustan Times group, Ananda Bazar Patrika that runs The Telegraph and Business World, The Pioneer, The Indian Express and Business Standard. Except HT, the other absentees had been in the forefront for lobbying with the government for liberalising the FDI guidelines relating to the print medium that barred any foreign investment— a rule that was reviewed last year and up to 26 per cent foreign investment has been allowed.
    I&B MINISTER REFUSES TO TAKE A STAND
    Though India Today’s Purie is reported to have conveyed to I&B minister Prasad that Star is treating India “as a soft state” (the example of Radio City was given), the minister left it to another IMG (inter-ministerial group) to finish taking a stand on the uplinking issue, aka Star News case and continued temporary extension, before he could voice his opinion. Pointing out that it would not be fair on his part to comment now, he told journalists after the meeting with the media team, “I had no problems with other issues raised by them, but on the uplinking issue, I told them that the matter is currently under investigation and we are trying to ensure a transparent and honest investigation without any bias.”
    According to sources in the team that met Prasad, NDTV’s Roy is reported to have told the minister, referring to Star, that “they are pushing you” and Purie is understood to have quipped that a scam is brewing where the backdoor entry of Star into various segments of media is concerned. The minister, caught between moral and professional obligations, is understood to have told the visiting personalities that the government cannot be rushed into taking decisions. “It (the examination of Star News case) may take some time. two weeks may be. You cannot rush it,” the minister told journalists, adding that “no view” has been taken by him at the moment on the financing and funding of Media Content Communications Services India Private Limited (MCCS), the company that has applied for uplinking news content from India for Star News channel.
    The media team, according to Prasad, also dwelt on other issues like conditional access system (“they support the government on this”: RSP) , a level playing field for domestic players and duty exemption on a whole range of machines for tech upgradation. However, according to a person who attended the meeting the media barons had with Prasad, Star was foremost on the minds of everybody and other issues were just mentioned in the passing. India Today Editor Chawla, at one point, asked directly as to why the government was giving temporary extensions to Star News for uplinking if the government had so many doubts! Everybody laughed at this and no reply came, of course.

  • Aaj Tak’s English sister news channel named Headlines Today

    NEW DELHI / MUMBAI: After much suspense and waiting, the TV Today Network has finally decided on a name for Aaj Tak’s sister English news channel.
    Headlines Today is the name that was chosen from a final list of three, industry sources say. News Today was another name that was in the reckoning.
    The sources add that all indications are that Headlines Today will launch before the week is out.
    Then it will only remain for NDTV’s two channels to launch on 14 April to complete the picture (for the present anyways) on the news channel front.

    Also Read:
    NDTV, Aaj Tak English ready launch plans