ITV

Tag: Pahlaj Nihalani

  • Mirror Now turns One

    Mirror Now turns One

    Mumbai: Mirror Now, a channel that fights for you and channelizes its focus on issues that impact you every day, celebrates its first anniversary. Following the launch last year, Mirror Now has successfully attained No. 3* position in Mega cities and increased its reach and viewership by 93%* and 137%* respectively.

    Fiercely pursuing pertinent issues and creating desired impact, Mirror Now raised the bar in the English news genre highlighting women’s safety issues in Delhi, the dangers of childlock in radio taxis, questioning the rationale behind the frequent fuel price hikes, the Rs. 400 crores rice scam in Karnataka that exposed corruption and the relentless stand against Pahlaj Nihalani’s regressive decisions as CBFC Chief, amongst many others.

    MK Anand, MD & CEO, Times Network, said, “I am glad we acted on our instinct and conviction in giving life to this platform. Almost all English News channels were pursuing a somewhat similar worldview and strategy, mostly imitating the leader Times Now, in pursuing a Nation First approach. This had left the space open for a voice that speaks for the citizen and her everyday issues. Mirror Now made a departure and puts Indians (You) First and shines the spotlight on matters closer to the individual. It’s our mission to contribute in improving Urban Indian life and push services and conditions closer to global standards which we believe hard working Indians deserve. We are glad that we have been able to create strong resonance with our viewers in such a short time and believe that Mirror Now will be a worthy partner to Times Now and together rule the English News market as the top 2 players.”

    Faye D’Souza, Executive Editor – Mirror Now added, “It’s been a great one year at Mirror Now. The aim with every show is to focus on the issues faced by citizens, to decentralize news from the National capital Delhi and to turn the spotlight on the rest of India and this outlook has been successful. We are looking forward to bringing to the fore many more issues that are important to our audience. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our viewers for their continuous support.”

    With its primetime show ‘The Urban Debate’ hosted by Faye D’Souza, Mirror Now has made dedicated efforts to bring credibility back to journalism, with focus on making everyday life better for Indians. On its first anniversary, Mirror Now has announced a consumer initiative #YouFirst where citizens will get an opportunity to be on the panel of the primetime show, ‘The Urban Debate’ to demand the answers they seek. Viewers have to use the #YouFirst and send a video voicing their issues or a topic that they would like to discuss on the flagship show, ‘The Urban Debate’ via the Mirror Now Whatsapp number 829-199-5633 or social handles (Facebook: @mirrornow, Twitter: @mirrornow, Instagram: @MirrorNow_in). The channel will select issues and call the consumer who have voiced the issues to be a part of the panel on viewer special episodes.

    By being the voice of India’s everyday issues like crime, corruption, women’s safety, traffic woes and civic issues such as cleanliness, health, environment, power, water, etc., Mirror Now has been disruptive in more ways than one. The channel has launched a series on on-ground and digital led consumer engagement properties like TicTalkwithFaye, ‘Young India Debates’ and ‘Verified’ that were all designed to provide an open platform for citizens to voice their opinion and help them be a part of the change they want to see. The channel has also successfully taken its online strategy of being the voice of India offline as well.

  • CBFC reconstituted, majority from film & theatre fraternity

    NEW DELHI: After bringing in the adman and lyricist Prasoon Joshi and showing filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani the door, the Central Board of Film Certification has been reconstituted — with the entry of the actress Vidya Balan and the renowned filmmaker T S Nagabharana, among other.

    The 12 members brought in include — the filmmaker and Padma Shri recipient Naresh Chandra Lal from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, known for his film ‘Gandhi – the Mahatma’ — which spread the message of clean environment and cleanliness, and the renowned director Vivek Agnihotri.

    An official announcement said the Board was being reconstituted under section 3(1) of the Cinematograph Act 1952 read with rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules 1983.
    The new members join with immediate effect for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

    Other members include the Tamil and Telugu actresses Gautami Tadimalla and Jeevitha Rajasekhar, the Bharatya Janata Party activist and actress Vani Tripati Tikoo, the theatre director Waman Kendre who headed the National School of Drama in Delhi, and the film and television dialogue writer Mihir Bhuta.

    The renowned Shillong-based author and concert pianist Neil Herbert Nongkynrih, Padma Shri awardee and Hindi author Narendra Kohli, and the ideologue of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Ramesh Patange who edits the Marathi weekly ‘Vivek’ have also been appointed to the Board.

  • Awarded adman Prasoon Joshi is new CBFC chief, Pahlaj Nihalani exits

    NEW DELHI: Renowned lyricist and senior adman Prasoon Joshi has been appointed chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification with immediate effect.

    An official order said Joshi was being appointed chairperson of the CBFC in an honorary capacity from 11 August 2017 for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Cinematograph Act 1952 read with rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules 1983.

    This marks the exit of filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani who was embroiled in several controversies during his tenure.

    Joshi is the CEO of McCann World group India and Chairman (Asia Pacific), a subsidiary of global marketing firm McCann Erickson.

    Prasoon has received the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award three times, in 2007 and 2008 and again in 2014 for the Hindi movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. He has also received the National Film Award for Best Lyrics twice, for his work in Taare Zameen Par (2007), and Chittagong (2013).He was awarded Padma Shri by the Government in 2015 for his contributions towards the field of Arts, Literature and Advertising.

    Born on 16 September 1971, he started his career with Ogilvy & Mather in Delhi. He worked there for 10 years and eventually became the executive creative director of the Mumbai office. In early 2002, he joined McCann-Erickson as executive vice-president and national creative director. By 2006, he was regional creative director for South and South East Asia. In December 2006 he was promoted to executive chairman for McCann Worldgroup India and regional creative director for Asia Pacific

    Joshi created advertising campaigns for NDTV India (Sach dikhate hain hum), Saffola (Abhi to main Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.jawan hoon) LG, Marico, Perfetti (Alpenliebe, Chlormint), and the Cannes-winning Thanda matlab Coca-Cola campaign with Aamir Khan. His Happydent television commercial was listed by Bob Garfield of AdvertisingAge as one of his personal choices for the Cannes Gold in 2007, and it was chosen by a Gunn Report poll as one of the 20 best ads of the 21st century.

    He also wrote the lyrics for CNN IBN’s advertising jingle “India Rising’ and Coke’s Ummeed wali dhoop.

    In cinema, he made his debut as film lyricist with Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lajja, a critical and commercial success, and this soon led to Yash Chopra’s Hum Tum and a string of highly successful Bollywood films like Fanaa, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Black and Delhi 6. With Rang De Basanti (2006), he also became a dialogue writer.

    He won the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award for “Chand Sifarish” from the film Fanaa in 2007 and for “Maa” from Taare Zameen Par in 2008. He has won the prestigious National Award twice. The first for his work in Taare Zameen Par and the second one in 2013 for Chittagong.

    He had also written the script for the award-winning 2014 film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

    He started writing early in life and published his first book at age 17, Main Aur Woh, a ‘conversation with himself’, inspired by Frederich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra. Two more books followed, establishing him as an author.

    His latest book, Sunshine Lanes, a collection of his songs, was launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2013.

  • CBFC won’t ‘chill’; Pan Bahar ‘Bond’ ad banned

    CBFC won’t ‘chill’; Pan Bahar ‘Bond’ ad banned

    MUMBAI: CBFC has refused to ‘chill’ as per the wishes of the ad agency that conceived the Bond ad for a pan product. The Pierce Brosnan aka James Bond ad for the mouth freshener Pan Bahar has been banned from national and satellite television by the Central Board of Film Certification.

    Brosnan, as reported by indiantelevision.com, shocked everyone when social media got flooded with trolls and jokes around an advertisement flashing his picture holding a box of Pan Bahar instead of a gun!  The man who once defined style using his charm had now taken to Pan Bahar to look cool. Twitter, needless to say, had a field day, Indian Express reported.

    All tobacco, paan masala, alcohol ads are automatically and unconditionally banned, CBFC head Pahlaj Nihalani said. Even the liquor ads showing big stars like Saif Ali Khan and Shah Rukh, which play surrogate to sell alcohol products are illegal.

    When India woke up to a white haired Brosnan, peering intensely out from a full page ad on The Times of India, holding a jar of Pan Bahar, the nation did a double take. Soon enough, Twitter and Facebook was flooded with a wide range of mostly polarized reactions — from mildly amused to some outright offended.

    Also read:

    ‘Chill,’ says DDB Mudra to Pan Bahar-Pierce Brosnan ‘bond’

  • CBFC won’t ‘chill’; Pan Bahar ‘Bond’ ad banned

    CBFC won’t ‘chill’; Pan Bahar ‘Bond’ ad banned

    MUMBAI: CBFC has refused to ‘chill’ as per the wishes of the ad agency that conceived the Bond ad for a pan product. The Pierce Brosnan aka James Bond ad for the mouth freshener Pan Bahar has been banned from national and satellite television by the Central Board of Film Certification.

    Brosnan, as reported by indiantelevision.com, shocked everyone when social media got flooded with trolls and jokes around an advertisement flashing his picture holding a box of Pan Bahar instead of a gun!  The man who once defined style using his charm had now taken to Pan Bahar to look cool. Twitter, needless to say, had a field day, Indian Express reported.

    All tobacco, paan masala, alcohol ads are automatically and unconditionally banned, CBFC head Pahlaj Nihalani said. Even the liquor ads showing big stars like Saif Ali Khan and Shah Rukh, which play surrogate to sell alcohol products are illegal.

    When India woke up to a white haired Brosnan, peering intensely out from a full page ad on The Times of India, holding a jar of Pan Bahar, the nation did a double take. Soon enough, Twitter and Facebook was flooded with a wide range of mostly polarized reactions — from mildly amused to some outright offended.

    Also read:

    ‘Chill,’ says DDB Mudra to Pan Bahar-Pierce Brosnan ‘bond’

  • No stay, but CBFC asked to hear Sikh community leaders on Bollywood film “Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd.’

    No stay, but CBFC asked to hear Sikh community leaders on Bollywood film “Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd.’

    NEW DELHI: Even as the The Bombay High Court refused the stay the screening of the Bollywood film “Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd.”, the Delhi High Court has asked the the Central Board of Film Certification to give a hearing to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

    The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government, the CBFC and the producers to given their affidavits in reply to a petition filed against the film which the Punjab Cultural Heritage Board president Charan Singh Sapra and others claimed depicts the Sikh community in poor light and it could pose a threat to public order.

    A division bench of Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi  listed the matter for 27 April. Advocate B.A. Desai said the film was a mockery of the high principles of the Sikh faith and portrays a community member as “a dumb, unreasonable person who is an obvious idiot”.

    (It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had earlier in another case issued an order banning websites that carry jokes about the Sikh community.)

    Earlier on 29 March, a bench led by Delhi High Court Chief Justice G Rohini had advised the CBFC to reconsider a U/A certificate to the film.

    Justice J R Midha was later informed that by the government that the DSGMC’s member could have a meeting at the CBFC chairman’s office in Mumbai regarding the film scheduled to be released on 22 April.

    The issue was also brought up before the Supreme Court, which said the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) counsel could file a petition and challenge whichever aspect his client felt aggrieved by.

    The Delhi High Court hearing was on a plea filed by the DSGMC and two others against CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani and its CEO Anurag Shrivastava in which it was alleged that they had not complied with the 29 March directions given by the court.

    In the plea which came up for hearing yesterday, the DSGMC alleged that CBFC had “clandestinely” passed an order on 7 April without hearing them on the issue about certification of the movie despite the court’s direction.But the government’s standing counsel Anil Soni told the court that proper messages were sent to them but they did not appear before the CBFC for a discussion.

  • No stay, but CBFC asked to hear Sikh community leaders on Bollywood film “Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd.’

    No stay, but CBFC asked to hear Sikh community leaders on Bollywood film “Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd.’

    NEW DELHI: Even as the The Bombay High Court refused the stay the screening of the Bollywood film “Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd.”, the Delhi High Court has asked the the Central Board of Film Certification to give a hearing to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

    The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government, the CBFC and the producers to given their affidavits in reply to a petition filed against the film which the Punjab Cultural Heritage Board president Charan Singh Sapra and others claimed depicts the Sikh community in poor light and it could pose a threat to public order.

    A division bench of Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi  listed the matter for 27 April. Advocate B.A. Desai said the film was a mockery of the high principles of the Sikh faith and portrays a community member as “a dumb, unreasonable person who is an obvious idiot”.

    (It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had earlier in another case issued an order banning websites that carry jokes about the Sikh community.)

    Earlier on 29 March, a bench led by Delhi High Court Chief Justice G Rohini had advised the CBFC to reconsider a U/A certificate to the film.

    Justice J R Midha was later informed that by the government that the DSGMC’s member could have a meeting at the CBFC chairman’s office in Mumbai regarding the film scheduled to be released on 22 April.

    The issue was also brought up before the Supreme Court, which said the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) counsel could file a petition and challenge whichever aspect his client felt aggrieved by.

    The Delhi High Court hearing was on a plea filed by the DSGMC and two others against CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani and its CEO Anurag Shrivastava in which it was alleged that they had not complied with the 29 March directions given by the court.

    In the plea which came up for hearing yesterday, the DSGMC alleged that CBFC had “clandestinely” passed an order on 7 April without hearing them on the issue about certification of the movie despite the court’s direction.But the government’s standing counsel Anil Soni told the court that proper messages were sent to them but they did not appear before the CBFC for a discussion.

  • CBFC gets Rs 7.12 crore during 2014-15, even as Govt stresses on its autonomy

    CBFC gets Rs 7.12 crore during 2014-15, even as Govt stresses on its autonomy

    NEW DELHI: Even as the government says that the independence of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is guaranteed in the Cinematograph Act, 1952 and it will not interfere in its working, the CBFC is totally dependent on the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry as far as its budget goes.

     

    The I&B Ministry provides funds to the Board under Non-Plan and Plan allocations.

     

    During 2014-15, the CBFC’S Non-Plan estimated budget allocation was Rs 7.01 crore, which was revised to Rs 7.12 crore. The estimated Plan allocation was Rs 2 crore, which was revised to Rs 70 lakh.

     

    With the recent differences between CBFC members and its chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani, the members are looking at the Ministry for help as they and the chairperson are appointed Section 3 of the Cinematograph Act, 1952.

     

    Interestingly, the Section also says in clause (3) that the other terms and conditions of service of the members of the Board shall be such as may be prescribed. 

     

    The other sections are clear that the Board will consist of a chairman and not less than 12 and not more than 25 other members appointed by the Central Government.

     

    Furthermore, the Section says, “Chairman of the Board shall receive such salary and allowances as may be determined by the Central Government, and the other members shall receive such allowances or fees for attending the meetings of the Board as may be prescribed.”

  • Pahlaj Nihalani defends postponement of CBFC meet

    Pahlaj Nihalani defends postponement of CBFC meet

    NEW DELHI: A meeting of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) slated to take place in Delhi was postponed because the agenda had not yet been decided upon, Board chairman Pahlaj Nihalani said.

     

    Nihalani told Indiantelevision.com that it was erroneous to say that the meeting had been cancelled. He also said that the format of the workshop normally held when new members join had not yet been worked out.

     

    Reacting to media reports, he denied that there was anything ‘crucial’ about the meeting as it was to be a normal meeting, which discussed routine matters and the way forward. “It would be wrong to read meanings into the postponement,” he added.

     

    He also said that it was felt that a workshop worked better in Mumbai as the infrastructure needed for this was available in the CBFC headquarters in the western metropolis.

     

    Earlier, reports said that some members were upset at the sudden manner in which the meeting was put off through what they called a ‘curt notice’ from the chairman.

     

    Members felt that the meeting would have been important as it was slated to be held in Delhi in the presence of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials and Minister of State Rajyavardhan Rathore.

     

    Nihalani had informed Board members on 5 June of his decision to postpone the 9 June meeting. However, some members felt that a meeting had to be called soon, regardless of Nihalani’s absence.

     

    Some members had also hoped to draw the attention of the Ministry to what they considered the “authoritarian manner” of the chairman.

     

    Nihalani’s note said, “The 139th Board Meeting-cum-workshop, which was likely to be held on 9 June 2015 at Delhi has been postponed. The new date and time will be intimated to you shortly.”

     

    In a telephonic chat with this correspondent, Nihalani said, “The agenda was not fixed and circulated. Neither was the venue fixed. Under such circumstances, I had to call this off.”

     

    When reminded that the meeting had been fixed three weeks in advance, he said Board members required sufficient time to gather together.

     

    “The new Board members appointed by the BJP government and that includes me, have met once and the Board meets four times a year,” Nihalani added.

     

    As the Board is a statutory body, a Ministry official said the Ministry would not like to interfere in its affairs.

  • CBFC to take film certification process online to bring transparency

    CBFC to take film certification process online to bring transparency

    NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is planning to adopt an online system for the certification process of films in India.

     

    Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources tell Indiantelevision.com that the CBFC is presently adopting a partial online certification process.

     

    CBFC is implementing a Plan component under the 12th Plan Scheme with a view to upgrade and modernize its infrastructure as well as making certification process online. On completion of the scheme, the complete end-to-end process from application to issue of certificate will be online.

     

    It may be recalled that earlier this year, CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani had told Indiantelevision.com that one of the major tasks that he faced before him was to ensure speedy clearances of films submitted to the Board. “We will be looking at using more online methods to expedite this process with the least interference in the work of the film’s producer. The process will include introduction of an online ‘tatkal’ system to expedite the process of clearing films. The online system will be adapted to ensure that the board functions in a completely transparent manner and films can get certificates without much hassles,” he had then said.

     

    Meanwhile, the Parliament was told in the recent session that the Government had no plans to promote establishment of Film Development Corporation in each State.

     

    Ministry sources said that cinema was currently a subject under the State List. It may be recalled that the last National Democratic Alliance Government had made an attempt – an utter failure – to bring cinema into the Concurrent List.

     

    At the same time, the Government said periodical interactions with representatives of film industry are held at different levels from time to time.