ITV

Tag: Sakshi Tanwar

  • Enjoy Alt Balaji entertainment as you ride in Ola

    MUMBAI: Alt Balaji and Ola’s connected car platform for ridesharing Ola Play have joined hands to provide entertainment on the go.

    Through this collaboration, a preview of Alt Balaji’s original and exclusive shows will be available to Ola Play customers across the country. The users will be able to access a vast collection of original shows produced and curated by Alt Balaji through an immersive and personalized experience which customers can seamlessly control through their smartphones as well as a device mounted at the back of the seat.

    Present in cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, Ola Play presents Alt Balaji with the opportunity to engage with hundreds and thousands of Ola customers. Alt Balaji aims to create 250+ hrs of original content this year for its viewers all over the world.

    Alt Balaji CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “Oia is the only ridesharing app in India that links mobility to an unparalleled in-cab experience, providing a great platform for content creators like us with a unique opportunity to reach out to a wide customer base. With an average ride time of 45 minutes or more, travellers are usually deprived of options. But through Ola’s unique connected experience for travellers, Ola Play users can now access an assortment of Alt Balaji’s shows from multiple genres, and beat traffic woes. All new shows will be available on Play, and for more content, users can download the Alt Balaji app through Ola’s free in-cab Wi-Fi connectivity. We look forward to our continued association with Ola Play to create the best possible experience for Ola customers.”

    Ola Play Head and senior director Ankit Jain said, “Content partnerships such as Alt Balaji play a huge role in enhancing the unique customer experience that 0/a Play as a pioneering innovation has to offer. The strategic tie-up aims to provide fresh and exclusive content to our customers who can control the entire experience and engage with the content. With partnerships such as these, Ola is well on its way to transform the consumer’s ride experience, building an experience that is intelligent, contextual, and unique.”

    Alt Balaji was launched on 16 April 2017 with five original shows and the app will unveil shows every fortnight for its viewers to binge watch. The platform recently launched The Test Case’ directed by Nagesh Kukunoor starring Nimrat Kaur as the first female officer in a combat role. The content has been created by some of the best talent in the Indian entertainment industry, including critically acclaimed directors and actors.

    The illustrious list of artistes also comprises Juhi Chawla,Rajkumar Rao, Hansal Mehta,Sakshi Tanwar,Ram Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Sameer Soni, Yudhishtar Urs, Dipannita Sharma Atwal, and many more. Alt Balaji now has the widest payment options amongst SVOD on services in India.

  • ALTBalaji claims its exclusive content has global reach, regional shows in pipeline

    MUMBAI: ALTBalaji, the digital platform of Balaji Telefilms which launched on 16th April 2017, now has an audience in over 70 countries with 10 days of the service going live. ALTBalaji was made available globally and the shows have found an audience not just with the South Asian Diaspora but also with regions where Indian entertainment content has been popular.

    The countries include US, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Far East and UAE which have large pockets of Indian communities and places like Suriname, Curaco, Armenia, Ghana, Kyrgystan and Aruba which have PIOs in significant numbers.

    ALTBalaji’s launch line up of shows include Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat -starring Ram Kapoor and Sakshi Tanwar, in a story of two opposite attracts, DevDD -a show depicting a female Devdas who is wilder than the imagination, Boygiri – a tale about 6 men who refuse to grow up, Bewafaa Sii Wafaa- a show on married couple finding their soulmates after marriage and Romil and Jugal- a passionate tale of Romeo and Juliet with a twist. These original stories have been lapped up by the audiences that have been starved of well-made and interesting stories.

    ALT Digital Media Entertainment CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya said – “We have created a platform for original and exclusive Indian content that fills the gap between what Indian TV shows and Western shows have to offer. We are showcasing original and exclusive content in languages like Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil and Gujarati that will appeal to a broad spectrum of South Asian audiences globally and we are happy to discover that even non-Indian audiences subscribed to our shows and are enjoying them.”

    ALTBalaji will release new shows every fortnight for its viewers to binge watch. The content is created by some of the best talent of the Indian entertainment industry, including critically acclaimed directors and actors.

    The long illustrious list of artistes comprises of Nagesh Kukunoor, Juhi Chawla, Nimrat Kaur, Rajkumar Rao, Hansal Mehta, Sakshi Tanwar, Ram Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Sameer Soni, Yudhishtar Urs, Dipannita Sharma Atwal, and more.

    ALTBalaji’s 250+ hours of original and exclusive content offer a wide range of genres; the package has something for every viewer.

    Shows in regional language are also in pipeline for the platform, Maya Thirrai- a Tamil thriller drama will soon be available to viewers. ALTBalaji offers an extensive range of shows in various languages and genres to all age groups and regions, both in India and abroad.

  • Colors to showcase darkest stories through ‘Code Red’

    Colors to showcase darkest stories through ‘Code Red’

    MUMBAI: After a year of successful non-fiction properties in 2014, Colors is back with some more action in 2015.

     

    Taking the premise of showcasing meaningful entertainment and shows that are a reflection of our society, the channel is all set to launch a new show titled Code Red, which is a beacon of hope addressing issues of human frailty. It will depict the inner conflict a human being goes through when faced with a crisis of conscience.

     
    Each week, six episodes featuring stories based on various human frailties, will be presented through three prominent themes under the brand umbrella of Code Red.

     

    1) ‘Umeed’ – focusing on stories who are on the verge of ending their lives.

    2) ‘Awaaz’ – focusing on violence against women and children.

    3) ‘Chakravyuh’ – focusing on various forms of entrapment – physical and psychological.

     

    Each theme will be brought to life by a different production house and the stories will be presented by Sakshi Tanwar who will embody the inner voice and be the voice of reason. The episodes will be produced by FremantleMedia India, Sun Shine Rise Productions and Optimystix India.

     

    Actors Manish Chaudhari, in the role of an NGO representative, and Yash Sinha, as a crime reporter, will take the viewers through various instances where circumstances and conditions pushed a person to the wall. The series will attempt, not only to showcase these stories but to make people believe that there is hope, only if they choose to break the silence.

     

    Colors CEO Raj Nayak believes that it’s not just a show but a movement to get people to believe that hope can be found, even in the darkest of times, if only one reaches out and breaks the silence. “At Colors, we have always emphasised on creating shows that are meaningful and which can bring about some kind of a conceivable change in the society. With Code Red, we are going a step further by showcasing stories of human frailties and urging people to break their silence on issues that are disturbing them and the people around them. In order to drive home this message, it gives me immense pleasure to announce that we have a prominent face from the world of TV – Sakshi Tanwar – who I believe has the right blend of empathy and sensitivity that is required for a show such as Code Red. I hope we are able to make a positive difference to peoples’ lives through this humble effort of ours,” Nayak said.

     

    Colors programming head Manisha Sharma added, “This is a genre on television that needs to be explored a lot more where stories inspired by real instances are mounted to create a show relatable to audiences. As human beings we all face dilemmas in life while choosing between right and wrong. Code Red is a show that explores these dilemmas and gives voice to the conscience of the people facing them. It’s a journey through their mind and their decisions and how their choices affect their lives. I hope our audiences find the show and these stories riveting.”

     

    The show will air from 19 January every Monday to Saturday at 10.30 pm.

     

  • ‘Code Red’, a darker shade of humanity

    ‘Code Red’, a darker shade of humanity

    MUMBAI: A crime thriller has always been sold like hotcakes. And it stands true to television as well. The genre has been a potboiler for the general entertainment space for a long time now.

    While serials like Byomkesh Bakshi (1993), Karamchand (1980s) and Tehkikat (1994) on Doordarshan laid the ground for fictional crime shows, a more advanced form appeared in the reproduction of real life crime incidents in shows like India’s Most Wanted (Zee TV, 1999) and Crime Patrol (Sony, 2003).

    Along with a plethora of fictional crime series, a dramatised real life crime depiction has also gained traction over the years; CID’s run on Sony for 17 years justifies the popularity of the genre.

    Following the trend set by the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs), youth channels too took the same route. Channel V got Gumraah to focus on youth-based crime incidents in 2012.

    The only channel which hadn’t dabbled in the genre was Colors. Realising the importance, after six years of existence, it is finally launching a finite reality series christened Code Red with a tagline ‘Andhere me Umeed Ki Ek Nayi Kiran’.

    The first promo hit the television screens on 13 December and showed popular actress Sakshi Tanwar advising people to raise voice rather than suffer in silence.

    The show will focus on social issues like suicide and crime against women and children. Sources close to the development say, “The motto of the show is to spread awareness and bring to forefront the crime against women and children in the society.”

    Though the channel tags it as not a crime series, sources say that it will give a broader outlook that would deal with crime and its different components. “It is going to be a very different show than what viewers have seen on television till now. It is a reality show where every episode is going to give out a message of not giving up and to fight back,” says a source from the channel.

    The show is a joint venture of Fremantle India, Optimystix and Shlok Entertainment, a production house helmed by three eminent people – directors of Crime Patrol, Subramanian S Iyer and Neeraj Naik along with prominent actor and anchor Anup Soni.

    Launched as a daily format, it will air for six days a week. The three production houses will helm two episodes each every week.

    Penned for a limited number of episodes, it is set to launch in January 2015.

     

  • Kellogg’s lauches new campaign with a breakfast pledge

    Kellogg’s lauches new campaign with a breakfast pledge

    MUMBAI: Kellogg – the world’s leading cereal company has announced a new initiative in India – “Kellogg’s Breakfast Pledge” to build nation-wide awareness on the importance of eating breakfast every day. This initiative comes soon after the company launched the ‘India Breakfast Habits Study’ as part of the Power of Breakfast initiative in August 2013, which revealed that one in four Indians claim to skip and a whopping 72% skimp or have an inadequate breakfast. Embarking on the “Kellogg’s Breakfast Pledge” initiative, Kellogg endeavours to create a new generation of breakfast eaters in India by encouraging more Indian consumers to understand the importance of eating a balanced breakfast.

    Kellogg has helped spread the message regarding the importance of breakfast by reaching out to a large number of key stakeholders through dissemination of the findings of the ‘India Breakfast Habits Study’ to consumers, media and healthcare professionals. Additionally through a series of programs like the school nutrition education program and gifting breakfast to busy commuters in air-lines and radio-cabs, Kellogg has already begun the journey. As the next step in the journey towards creating the next generation of breakfast eaters, Kellogg’s Breakfast Pledge initiative provides a platform to help people discover the power of breakfast. This initiative encourages people to take a pledge to have breakfast everyday. By doing so, every person will gift a breakfast to a child to help him or her discover the power of breakfast. Kellogg seeks to empower one Indian to influence or impact another Indian to discover the power of breakfast.

    Through each pledge, every person will gift a breakfast to a child to help him or her discover the power of breakfast. Kellogg has partnered with United Way of Mumbai, to reach out to children in schools for gifting breakfasts. Several children today go to schools with an empty stomach and therefore through this initiative Kellogg would like them to discover the power of breakfast.

    Given that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, Kellogg’s felt it necessary to help ‘create the habit’ with the Kellogg’s Breakfast Pledge. Brand ambassadors Juhi Chawla and Sakshi Tanwar actively supported the initiative and invited people to take the Breakfast Pledge along with them.

    Speaking on this, SangeetaPendurkar, Managing Director, Kellogg India, says, “Kellogg India is committed to nurturing a healthy India through consumer education, consumer relevant innovation and a strong nutrition agenda. The Kellogg’s Breakfast Pledge is the next step in our journey towardsimproving the breakfast eating habits of Indian consumers. While we have already begun the journey with half a million people; through the Kellogg’s Breakfast Pledge, we seek to encourage many more Indians to recognize the importance of breakfast and to partner Kellogg in this journey and empower them to influence many more to discover the power of breakfast. The ‘India Breakfast Habits Study’ revealed that several people today either skip or skimp breakfast and several children are going to school on an empty stomach and therefore miss on the much needed nutrients. Through the Breakfast Pledge initiative, Kellogg would like to address this and create a generation of breakfast eaters in India. We simply want to encourage more Indians to take one pledge and gift one breakfast.”

    JayantiShukla, Executive Director, United Way of Mumbai, said, “We constructively engage the corporate sector into meaningful social responsibility structures enabling a positive and lasting change in the communities they operate in. We are delighted to partner with Kellogg’s on the Breakfast Pledge initiative. We are working very closely with the teams to ensure the gifting of breakfast is carried out in an effective manner.”

    Reaching out directly to 200,000 children in schools, consumers at retail touch points and through an integrated print, radio and digital strategy, Kellogg aims to drive home the importance of breakfast while also creating the habit through this impactful initiative.  

  • TV’s leading ladies get into the CAF act

    TV’s leading ladies get into the CAF act

    MUMBAI: In an attempt to speed up the filling of consumer application forms (CAFs), the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), along with major broadcasters, has relaunched its on-air promo campaign urging cable TV subscribers to fill them at the earliest as mandated by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

     

    The campaign features television’s leading ladies like Sakshi Tanwar, Toral Rasputra, Rubina Dilaik and Nia Sharma. It urges consumers to fill their details and hand over the CAFs to their cable TV operators, failing which they will have their cable TV connection snipped off.  The deadline for the submission for the forms was 15 December which again wasn’t met and extended to 31 December.

     

    Says an IBF official, “From the time the campaign was launched first, we have been playing it across channels. And for a few weeks that it was taken off the screens, a scroll/ticker ran, reminding subscribers about the imperative to fill up CAFs.  We have started airing it again so that concerned parties take a note of it and help us achieve the goal.”

     

    However, he isn’t optimistic about the procedure winding up by the end of the year as well. “And if MSOc and LCOs don’t do it, they will get in trouble, this time,” he says firmly.

     

    The channels have been told to show the campaign as many times as possible throughout the day.

     

    In the earlier phase of the campaign in 2012, actresses (Shweta Tiwari, Pooja Gaur, Ragini Khanna) educated and sensitised DAS subscribers about the issue. As per the Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems Regulations, 2012, the MSOs can transmit digital signals and activate the set top boxes only after receiving the CAF from the consumer with his/her preference. If there is no form, the MSOs were obliged under law not to transmit the signals and deactivate the cable connection. However, no such switch off took place in the first phase of digitisation. On the contrary, the deadlines of various phases have been extended time and again.

     

    So what is the reason for this delay? The official feels that the delay in the process is either from the consumers’ side or the local cable operators who have not taken the form collection seriously.  “We still can’t figure out what is the reason for this blockage?,” he says.

     

    The agenda is that by end-2014, India’s 100 million-odd cable TV homes will phase out the analog version, and switch on digital TV.

     

  • Stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma is in Forbes India celebrity 100 list

    Stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma is in Forbes India celebrity 100 list

    MUMBAI: In a short span of time, stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma has made a place for himself in the industry and in the hearts of many Indians. Now, it is time for him to celebrate his success as the artiste whose show Comedy Nights With Kapil has kind of become a phenomenon in the country, has been listed in Forbes India’s “celebrity 100” list.

     

    Sharma has secured the 93rd position in the list while other popular TV stars like Ram Kapoor, Ronit Roy and Sakshi Tanwar have been placed below him, said the magazine’s official website.

     

    Kapil came in to the limelight after winning season three of the reality show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. He has also featured in various seasons of Comedy Circus before starting his own production house K9 Productions under which he produces Comedy Nights with Kapil, aired on Colors.

     

    He has also been nominated alongside Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone for CNN IBN’s Indian of the Year (Entertainment).

     

    “Thank you god and my fans for making it possible…” Kapil posted on Twitter after the announcement.

     

    The show is India’s highest rated serial in the non-fiction category garnering viewership rating greater than reality flicks like KBC and Big Boss.

  • Balajis bright new sparks

    Balajis bright new sparks

    MUMBAI: Even as television channels churn out soap operas in a bid to outdo each other, more and more youngsters are finding themselves dreaming of making it big in films and television.
    Glamour struck as these young guns are, more often than not, they are not really equipped to deal with the big, bad world that lurks beneath the shiny surface.

    This is where companies like Balaji Spark aim to step in to handhold and nurture the new talent. “Our philosophy is about nurturing. We want to do everything a parent does for a child,” exults Balaji Motion Pictures CEO Tanuj Garg about Balaji’s new talent management arm.

    With its mission to identify and manage new talent, Spark will represent both on-screen and directorial talent discovered and launched by BMPL and Balaji Telefilms in films and television, respectively. The unit will be under BMPL, and will be helmed by Firoz Engineer, who will report into Garg.

    Spark’s job will also be about guiding new talent, managing their image and PR among other things. Garg clarifies that among the hundreds of applications Balaji receives every day, its casting directors single out only such talent that they feel is worth grooming. “We are not looking at 100 people or so. It is just going to be a handful of them, who we will oversee so that there is some kind of class and pedigree involved,” he says.

    With the likes of Yash Raj Films and Viacom18 Media too having established units offering similar services, what would differentiate Spark from the rest? “We clearly don’t look at ourselves as agencies or brokers because we don’t think that’s the way talent is managed or launched. Some of the biggest names in the industry have been launched by us, and we continue to do so. It is our responsibility to help them and not use them as commodities,” quips Garg.

    Spark is all about about parenting and not deal making like others, says Tanuj Garg
    Indeed, actors such as Smriti Malhotra-Irani, Sakshi Tanwar, Ram Kapoor, Prachi Desai, Rajeev Khandelwal, Shweta Tiwari, Sushant Singh Rajput, Ronit Roy, Hiten Tejwani, Urvashi Dholakia and more recently, Rajat Tokas and Paridhi Sharma of Jodha Akbar fame, rose from the Balaji stable to achieve iconic status. Garg points out that currently, Spark will focus on the selected lot of actors instead of searching for newer faces. “We don’t want to disturb the applecart and lure people to come to us. We might do that later but as of now, our immediate plans are to nurture the talent we want to launch in TV or films,” he says.

    Spark will have a simple fee structure where it gets management fee, which is a certain price of the deal. All value-added services like paperwork, PR etc. will be part of the deal. Spark will get anything between 10-25 per cent of the deal, which is in keeping with industry standards. The contract timeframe will be a minimum of three years, though it may vary from deal to deal.
    Elaborating on Spark’s low intensive business model, Garg says: “Consumers don’t have to know about us. What matters is people in the industry know us for they will consume our talent.”

    Hats Off Production’s JD Majethia agrees. “Take the example of Sushant Singh Rajput; if he didn’t have the push of Balaji, do you think he would have been where he is today? Balaji has launched so many faces and since there are so many opportunities, it is bound to set new limits,” he says.

    Beyond Dreamz’s Yash Patnaik too feels Spark will only benefit the industry as new talent will get an umbrella where they can get groomed and hone their skills.

    Not just budding youngsters, Spark will also be managing Balaji head honcho Ekta Kapoor. “People want her for shows, as speaker or to host them. She is a brand to reckon with, and she has realised it is high time she came out if there is an interesting and exciting offer. So we will be handling her,” says Garg excitedly.

    Spark plans to partner with other entities across the nation to work with its artists to recognise the right opportunities for them in terms of brand and cause endorsements, performances and appearances on various shows and events.

    With a record-breaking career graph thus far, we are sure, Balaji will only forge ahead with this venture…

  • Actress Sakshi Tanwar starrer Bawra Mann to open 2nd Bangalore Shorts Film Festival

    Actress Sakshi Tanwar starrer Bawra Mann to open 2nd Bangalore Shorts Film Festival

    NEW DELHI: A total of 45 films will be screened in the Bangalore Shorts Film Festival to be held in the garden city on 22 June.

    The film Bawra Mann; directed by Mitu staring Sakshi Tanwar (of Bade Achhe Lagte Hain fame) which tells the story of women desire will open the day-long Festival organised by Miniboxoffice.

    This festival received a total of 187 films this year. The dilemma directed by Sushil Bhati shows the inner conflict of a person who is doing something but wants something else, while Sando Da directed by Abhirup Ghosh is about an aspiring detective, and Tales of the Road tell a road story in very exciting.

    The aim of the Festival is to popularise the work of young & experienced filmmakers from across the India and the world.

    Films from Spain, Germany, Brazil, Russia, US and from almost every region of India are being screened. The festival jury includes national award winning director Unni Vijayan and documentary filmmaker Amit Mitra.

    This is the second edition of this festival, which began last year to mark 100 years of Indian cinema and salute the contribution of the Kannada film industry towards the development of cinema in India.

    The festival provides a platform to aspiring and professional filmmakers for showcasing their talent with networking and marketing opportunities in film industry.

    The festival objective is to create a short films culture in India, promotion of upcoming filmmakers, developing sources of revenue generation for short films and to make short film making a commercial enterprise.

    This year, the festival will introduce more workshops and master classes. The Miniboxoffice HL meet will be the highlight for those filmmakers who want to venture into feature film production, conducted by Festival director Rambhul Singh

    BSFF-13 is organised by India‘s only independent film festival organising company Miniboxoffice. BSFF-13 provides networking and contact building opportunities to filmmakers. BSFF-13 gives marketing and distribution facility for filmmakers which no other festival in India is providing.

    Miniboxoffice has established festivals in Delhi, Noida, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bhopal and a few more festivals are coming up. All Miniboxoffice festivals have completed one or two editions.

  • DDB Mudra executes campaign for Big Bazar’s IMSH

    MUMBAI: DDB Mudra has created a campaign for retail chain Big Bazar‘s India‘s Most Stylish Homes contest. The idea was to drive sales around the month of December which in India is not traditionally the ‘holiday season‘. Unlike the western countries, it is not a very ‘active consumption period‘ for Indian retail. The campaign aims to promote the affordability of stylish decor, and also attract new customers to its stores.

    It suffers with festive fatigue after the Pujo, Diwali and Id period. Also in India with every region celebrating its own new year; the date holds little cultural significance apart from being a fun, westernized concept. Though people are embracing the idea of New Year, it is still not seen as a strong enough reason to spend.

    The idea was to capitalise on the increasing demand for style in the consumers‘ shopping criteria. People want to look, feel, live and project style in everything that they do. Extending this concept to stylish homes and to attract home makeovers, Big Bazaar spanned the entire space of furniture, appliances, storage, kitchen ware, home décor, crockery to create an exciting range with best offers and roped in Ram Kapoor and Sakshi Tanwar for a two-week long contest ‘India‘s most stylish homes‘ is a pan India contest, where the winners can play host for the famous couple for a day. To take part, customers must shop for a minimum of Rs 300 and send in pictures of their homes.

    The individual 106 store winners and 31 city winners are chosen by a team of interior designers. However, in the final stage, a national winner will be selected based on the decisions of judges as well as the brand ambassadors.

    DDB Mudra Mumbai group creative director Anand Karir said, “Big Bazaar is the last word on best deals in daily home essentials in every Indian household. So when the client came to us with an idea of an event where they wanted to showcase their vast range of trendy home fashion products, something they had never highlighted hitherto, we decided to also communicate it in a new way that‘s completely different from what we usually do for the brand.”