ITV

Tag: Shah Rukh Khan

  • SRK meets Vicente Fox, discusses films, education and much more

    SRK meets Vicente Fox, discusses films, education and much more

    MUMBAI: Bollywood is becoming popular across the globe with every passing day and one of the harbingers is actor Shah Rukh Khan whose almost all the movies get good responses internationally.

     

    Recently, it was a moment of pride when former Mexican President Vicente Fox met SRK on the sets of Red Chillies Entertainment’ film Happy New Year. The film is being shot at RK Studios in Mumbai and Fox was accompanied there by his wife, Martha Fox and the current Mexican ambassador to India Jamie Nualart.

     

    They discussed everything from Bollywood films, to things about Mexico and the importance of education. The meeting was organised by KidZania, in whose Indian franchise SRK owns about 26 per cent stake. 

     

    Fox said, “We have been visiting many places, but meeting SRK and talking to him we feel he is a great person. The set is fabulous and the activity is just amazing. We hope that Mr Shah Rukh Khan would visit us at Mexico some day. India is a great country with great people, he has always admired India. Also proud that KidZania is Mexican and I am glad that it has SRK’s blessings and that he is looking into the Indian franchise of this wonderful way of educating kids with entertainment.”

  • Life OK rides on Screen Awards’ success

    Life OK rides on Screen Awards’ success

    MUMBAI: When one of television’s biggest properties – the Screen Awards – moved from Colors to Life OK, the second Hindi general entertainment channel from the Star stable, some feared there could be a drop in viewership for the Bollywood award show.

    Life OK proved the naysayers wrong. The awards ceremony this year had a whopping 9.0 million TVTs, 23 per cent more than the 6.9 million TVTs (ratings provided by Life OK) garnered by Colors for the last year’s edition of the awards show.

    The Screen Awards saw Life OK’s gross viewership rising sharply. The channel’s GVTs jumped to 375 million in Week 4 of TAM ratings from 347 million a week earlier. The show on Life OK had Kamla Pasand as the title sponsor and 13 other sponsors.

    Life OK officials chose to remain tight-lipped about the financial details of the show. Industry sources said the channel was expecting Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 1,50,000 for 10 seconds, but closed most deals between Rs 80,000-1,00,000.

    “The 20th Annual Life OK Screen Awards were the channel’s first big-ticket Bollywood event and we are delighted with the response from our viewers not only in India but all over the world. With a clear intent to disrupt both – how an event is programmed and marketed, with Screen properties, we managed to reach out to more viewers than the biggest events and movies on television (in this year so far) – to be precise 74 million people,” said Life OK general manager Ajit Thakur.

    “This is just the beginning of Life OK’s journey to the next level – watch out for more.”

    The 20th Annual Screen Awards themed ‘Commemorating heroes’ celebrated excellence in over 30 categories across the entire sweep of filmmaking in the Hindi and Marathi film industry.

     

    For Thakur, the success of the awards owes mainly to ‘content’ apart from extensive research and hard work.

    “We have always believed that when we pick up something new, we want to do it differently and in a Life OK way. This is why we picked up Screen Awards amongst all the awards. And even there, we did not go for regular humour which is associated with all the awards. We gave it a substantial meaning and that is where Shah Rukh Khan was very supportive and the event was a full family entertainer with the important theme of ‘Heroes integrated’ in the show,” he explained.

    Thakur said a lot of the content was personally driven by Khan as he took interest and invested time. SRK was leaving for Dubai for another award show when the Life OK scriptwriter accompanied him on the flight and improvised the script.

    The content was also repackaged. “When the Screen Awards shifted from Colors to our channel, everyone thought ratings will drop. But the reason why we partnered and Screen came on-board was they saw a match of content and intent where we believe entertainment must come with inspiration,” said Thakur. 

    A special awards category ‘Hero of the Year’ was introduced. There were special moments galore, what with SRK introducing heroes or Deepika Padukone performing on a giant nagada several feet above the ground – her act was an ode to the emotional journey of a woman.

    The actors, who performed in the show, started rehearsing 10 days prior to the shoot. The acts were choreographed by Geeta Kapoor and the set was designed by production designer and art director Omung Kumar. The set designing took five-six days. To capture the interesting moments, close to 20 fixed cameras were used.

    Apart from the content, Life OK’s marketing strategy worked well too. A month prior to the event, a huge outdoor campaign was held across Delhi, Mumbai and other cities in Maharashtra with SRK. Ads were released across major newspapers on the day of the telecast as well as a week before it was aired on the channel. Promos were aired across the Star Network and even outside of it. Digitally, #LifeOKScreenAwards was trending on Twitter on the day of the telecast.

    The post-production work was completed in less than 10 days. Shot on 14 January, the awards were telecast on Life OK on 25 January, a day prior to the telecast of the Filmfare Awards on Sony Entertainment Television.

  • SRK honoured with the ‘International Icon Of Indian Cinema’ by Asianet

    SRK honoured with the ‘International Icon Of Indian Cinema’ by Asianet

    MUMBAI: Millions of viewers of Asianet, Kerala’s number one channel, have selected Shah Rukh Khan as the ‘International Icon Of Indian Cinema’. This prestigious laurel was presented to SRK at the 16th edition of Asianet Film Awards by South Indian Cinema’s superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal. The award function was held at Medan, Dubai on Friday, 10 January, 2014.

     

    “It is a great honour for me to receive this award by Asianet.  And to be given the award and so much love by Mammootty and Mohanlal sir was an amazing feeling. They are the artistes who have inspired me as an actor always. I have always worked towards making or being a part of cinema that entertains all and is meant for all. It is humbling to know that it gets noticed in the same capacity. Awards always motivate me to work harder and make more cinema that brings a smile on everyone’s face. I wish Asianet many more glorious years of entertainment and success,” said Shah Rukh after receiving the award.

     

    At the awards ceremony, Mohanlal sang an entire song from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and SRK along with both the South film veterans danced on Chennai Express’ song, Lungi Dance.

  • Zee Cine Awards scales up for 2014

    Zee Cine Awards scales up for 2014

    MUMBAI: All roads and the biggest names in Indian cinema and television converge at Mumbai’s Film City on 8 February this year. Reason is the 14th edition of the Zee Cine Awards aka the ‘World’s Biggest Viewers’ Choice Awards’ to be held there.

     

    Among A-list acts, Shah Rukh Khan will perform to some of the hit numbers from his films including Lungi Dance, 1234 and so on. This year, Lux Cozi has been roped in as title sponsor. Additionally, the network is pitching for a special partner and looking for more sponsors across categories.

     

    The Zee Cine Awards, started in 1998, were the first ever awards to be introduced by a television network and have since grown into an institution of sorts.

     

    Exults Zeel managing director and CEO Punit Goenka: “Zee Cine Awards is a property with growing global reach and audience share. The success of this award over the years makes it an indispensable component of advertisers’ media mix and this year, they will further leverage it across the network’s varied channels.”

     

    This edition of the Zee Cine Awards will see a partnership with the Neeraj Pandey scripted film, Total Siyapaa, starring Ali Zafar and Yami Gautam and several initiatives on this front are to be announced shortly.

     

    Says Goenka: “Every year, the talent recognized by our viewers continues to inspire us with the depth and richness that the Hindi film fraternity represents. We will support extraordinary new films that need a platform like Zee Cine awards to showcase them to the industry, and that’s why we are pleased to support Total Siyapaa. We are looking forward to celebrating their achievements in a fittingly glamorous way at the awards.”

     

    What also makes the Zee Cine Awards unique is that viewers’ votes decide winners. For instance, last year’s awards drew an unprecedented over 4.5 million votes from across the globe. This year too, in keeping with its promise Haq Hai Aapka, the network will only declare nominees across popular categories and then pass the baton of selecting Best Actor, Best Film and so on to its loyal audience through a transparent and hassle-free voting mechanism.

     

    As Zeel chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal puts it: “We are amongst the first broadcasters to come up with an award like this. And secondly, we were the only ones to give them out as per viewers’ voting. Earlier, all the awards were constituted by film magazines – be it Screen or Filmfares.”

     

    Significantly, the Zee Cine Awards 2014 will be telecast on 23 February on multiple channels (Zee TV, Zee Anmol, Zee Tamizh, Zee Cafe etc.) across multiple geographies in different languages and genres, with a programming reach of over 700+ million viewers across 168 countries.

     

    So why are the Zee Cine Awards being held in Mumbai for the second consecutive year after creating a worldwide footprint across destinations like Singapore, London, Mauritius and Dubai?

     

    Replies Sehgal: “With almost all awards airing overseas, after a long period, we brought it back to India, thinking we should give a chance to Indian audiences also.”

     

    Zee Network is pulling out all stops to promote one of its biggest properties across platforms.

     

    Viewers can log onto www.zeecineawards.com for a visual treat that traces the journey of the awards from 1998 through 2000 and till date, complete with over 2000 exclusive photographs and over 500 videos showcasing some of the best performances, award acceptance speeches, Kodak moments and behind-the-scenes buzz.

     

    Apart from this, the awards will be promoted on all network channels, giving advertisers an opportunity to reach out to different audiences across categories. Digitally too, the awards will be promoted in a big way with SRK’s performance as one of the highlights.

     

    With the channel having achieved its targeted revenue of Rs 300 million last year, what is the target for this year, given there are restrictions on inventories unlike last time. Apparently, the network plans to make the extra moolah by showcasing the event on Zee’s HD channels as well (Zee HD, Zee Cinema HD and Zee Café HD). “Given the restrictions on inventories, the only thing that can go up is pricing,” says Sehgal.

     

    “This year, we are looking at kind of maintaining those revenues because we believe they are the highest revenues generated by an award show. The advantage we have this year is we can make extra money by showcasing these awards on our HD channels (Zee, Zee Cinema HD and also Zee Café). For evolved and discerning audiences, we are selling it separately. Though title and powered by will be common in both the channels, there will be more numbers of associate sponsors separately,” signs off Sehgal.

  • SRK plans a documentary on KKR

    SRK plans a documentary on KKR

    MUMBAI: The New Year is a start of many things new for the Badshah of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan. So while the poster of his new film Happy New Year was revealed yesterday, there’s news now about a documentary that SRK is making on the journey of his Indian Premiere League – Kolkata Knight Riders.

    In the previous years, the actor has ensured that the team becomes a name to reckon with and now with the film he is just taking a step ahead.

    The team has had its share of success and failure. After disappointments in many season, in 2012 the team rose from the ashes and claimed the trophy from Chennai Super Kings on their home turf in Chennai. The team’s theme Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (We will do, We will Fight, We will Win) seemed so apt at that time.

    In 2013, the team didn’t do any wonders and ended up being at the seventh position. However, it seems SRK is all kicked about the 2014 edition. The documentary is going to be released with much fanfare with a well-planned TV premiere. Reportedly, SRK will do the voiceover and talk about the journey and how the team emerged a winner after a shaky start.

  • Happy New Year’s poster out, trends on Twitter

    Happy New Year’s poster out, trends on Twitter

    MUMBAI: The year ended with a promise of a Happy New Year ahead. And literally so, the first poster of Red Chillies Entertainments Pvt Ltd’s next film directed by Farah Khan, Happy New Year (HNY) launched on 2 January. The poster was first sent to all fans and fan clubs on the social media sites as a gratification for their support. Interestingly, the hashtag #HNYposter started trending on Twitter soon after the poster was released.

     

    The film stars Deepika Padukone, Boman Irani, Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood and Vivaan Shah in lead roles. The film that will release during Diwali is under-production and has an interesting genre that of a Musical Heist.

     

    Farah said in a release, “My dream project Happy New Year takes another step towards realisation with the first poster being launched today. I believe in cinema that entertains and with a dream cast like this we hope it will be the most entertaining film of the year. Shah Rukh and I have had a dream partnership always and with this our third collaboration we hope it will be a very Happy New Year indeed!”

     

    The film has taken a step ahead in promoting the film by tying up with Digigraph that is a preferred technology/App partner of Twitter based in Los Angeles. Digigraph, on special request from Twitter India agreed to undertake this first of its kind initiative for any film ever across the globe. Any Twitter user who is a fan of the movie or the cast as well as the director has received a personalised poster signed by the artist of their choice addressed specifically to the fan in his name in the artist’s own handwriting as well as language delivered to each fan on his/her twitter handle.

     

    Digigraph.me co-founder & COO Tom Smart said, “We are humbled and honoured to help renowned Indian film studio, Red Chillies Entertainments Pvt. Ltd. in building awareness for the release of the poster of their new film, HNY fans from around the world will now be able to personally take part in the moment by requesting, claiming and sharing personalised, and collectable digital photos, digitally autographed by the stars in the movie and delivered instantly into Twitter newsfeeds and other social media networks.”

  • Tag Heuer on the race track

    Tag Heuer on the race track

    MUMBAI: It is the market leader when it comes to watches and chronographs and TAG Heuer continues to celebrate its success. The brand as a part of the celebration of ‘50th Anniversary of Carrera’ launched the Carrera Calibre 1887, ‘Jack Heuer Special Edition’.

    Launched in the 1960s, the avant-garde Carrera series was created by Jack Heuer, great grandson of the brand’s founder, for race car drivers and motor racing enthusiasts and his passion for racing has seen this collection grow and evolve over the last 50 years.
    MAM-2 SRK sharing a light moment with Franck Dardenne, GM , TAG Heuer India

    TAG Heuer Brand Ambassadors Shah Rukh Khan and Karun Chandhok unveiled the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887 Chronograph – Jack Heuer Special Edition, a tribute to honorary chairman Jack Heuer.

    Since 2013 marks the end of Jack Heuer’s journey with TAG Heuer, he has helped create a special edition Carrera timepiece – the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887 – Jack Heuer Edition, for this special occasion.

  • ‘Chennai Express’ halts on &pictures

    ‘Chennai Express’ halts on &pictures

    MUMBAI: Did you get a reminder call from Shah Rukh Khan to watch Chennai Express on &pictures? Following the success on Zee TV which garnered 19,541 TVTs, Shah Rukh Khan and Rohit Shetty’s gigantic blockbuster, Chennai Express will now halt on &pictures on 23 November at 8:00 pm.

    The new Hindi movie channel is pulling all stops to make this premiere an even a bigger success than Zee TV. The channel has devised an interesting digital mechanism to promote the premiere of this blockbuster film.

    “It is the first of its kind initiative on Hindi movie genre space,” asserts Zeel marketing head (national channels) Akash Chawla. “It is a challenge now for &pictures. When there is a platform as big as Zee TV and when there is a movie as big as Chennai Express and the ratings are as big as what they had come when it was last aired, it makes it that very important for the newly launched &pictures. The challenge for us it to come up with a strategy that is new and different from what was used the last time it was telecast on Zee TV.”

    “But in terms of the way in which we are building Chennai Express on the channel is aggressive and different. While we are very aggressive on the traditional medium, a lot of hoardings are up in Bombay and for print we are digging deep into the markets also. The brand &pictures is very different as compared to Zee TV so the tonality of the promotion is extremely different as compared to what you saw on Zee. A complete blend of mass media and digital in a big way.”

    The brand &pictures is very different as compared to Zee TV, says Akash Chawla

    So what are the innovations? Breaking new ground, a unique IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) model has been created. Through this, viewers can just give a missed call on this toll free number 18001035515 and get a reminder about the movie on their phones in Shah Rukh Khan’s own voice. It works like an alarm clock wherein one can set a reminder about the telecast of the movie and receive a call on the D-Day. The channel is promoting this number on-air as well as on social media.

    Interestingly, Brandlogist, a digital creative agency based in Delhi has been roped in for these innovations.

    There’s more good news for all movie bloggers and travel freaks! Tapping again into the digital media, the channel is sending four lucky bloggers on the actual Chennai Express train. The group of bloggers will take the train from Mumbai and will go to Chennai and while they travel, they will tweet and write on various forums with regards to their actual travel experience happening on the Chennai Express with the &pictures hashtag. This is another novel way that the movie is going to be promoted via blogging community. Actual experiences and pictures will also be uploaded real-time.

    With the help of the blogging community associated with Indi Bloggers, these bloggers from Mumbai and Delhi will get to win this experience on the Chennai Express train.  A page on Indi Blogger will track the entire journey from start to finish in real time. There will also be a live feed of their tweets, blogs and pictures on social media.

    Over and above the digital initiatives, an aggressive marketing strategy has been initiated on other mediums including TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor, OOH and Cable.

    At present, the new channel has its official Twitter page with twitter handle @AndPicturesIN and boasts of more than 4,300 followers. The page is buzzing with tweets and re-tweets related to Chennai Express with hashtags #chennaiexpressandyou. It has also launched its official Facebook page which has more than 57,000 likes.

  • KIFF opens amid glitz and glamour

    KIFF opens amid glitz and glamour

    KOLKATA: The 19th Kolkata International Film Festival kicked off with a bang on Sunday with actors including Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Mithun Chakraborty and Kamal Haasan gracing the show. The eight-day festival that paid tribute to 100-years of Indian cinema was inaugurated by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Netaji Indoor Stadium, who also announced that from its next edition, it will be a competitive affair.

     

    Other distinguished guests like filmmaker Sandip Ray, Bengali film actress Sabitri Chatterjee and Supriya Devi, Dipankar Dey and music director Dwijen Mukherjee, also participated in the lamp lighting ceremony that concluded with Big B releasing the fest’s brochure.

     

    Actors of the regional film industry Dev and Koel Mallick felicitated Big B with an uttariya (scarf) and a metal-cast memento. The other luminaries were welcomed subsequently in a similar manner.

     

    Over the next eight days, the festival will feature 189 films from 63 countries at 13 venues including Nandan-Rabindra Sadan complex, Inox City Centre 1 and Star Theatre. The festival will witness an estimated 3,000 delegates and 24 international guests. Noted Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai is also likely to attend the film festival and also conduct a workshop for film students.

     

    Others who are expected at the event include Bollywood actor Sharmila Tagore, director Madhur Bhandarkar and Shoojit Sarkar, National Award-winning Malayali filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, among others. Actors Sushmita Sen, Konkona Sen Sharma, Moushumi Chatterjee, Bipasha Basu and Rani Mukherjee will attend the closing ceremony on 17 November.

     

    “The film screening is going to be an enriching experience for cinema connoisseurs,” said experts present at the event.

     

    Shah Rukh Khan, who is also the brand ambassador of West Bengal, hopes that platforms like the KIFF will take Indian films to greater heights. “Creative interactions of this scale will help Indian films reach new heights, something that great filmmakers present tonight, and those who have passed away, like the wonderful Rituparno, dreamt for Indian cinema,” said Khan.

     

    Thousands of film lovers swarmed the venue to attend the glittering ceremony and get a glimpse of their favourite stars present at the event. They were mesmerised by the speech of the actors, especially Bachchan, who interspersed his speech with Bengali words and renditions of Bengali poems.

  • Social media hashtags work wonders for ‘Chennai Express’ premiere

    Social media hashtags work wonders for ‘Chennai Express’ premiere

    MUMBAI: Zee TV’s social media strategy to promote the world television premiere of Chennai Express on 20 October saw an unprecedented response on Twitter. The twitteratis went ga-ga rooting this year’s biggest blockbuster.

    It was a time for Shah Rukh Khan fans to show their loyalty and they were not disappointing at all. The fans received the contest with awe and excitement and supported all the hashtags – #ChennaiExpressAt8, #BiggestBlockbusteronZee, #ChennaiExpress #ThePowerOfACommanMan – created to endorse the premiere last Sunday. A first of its kind, this integrated promotional strategy on the digital platforms for the premiere of a movie on television, made people sit back and take notice.

    The well thought out integrated strategy by the team encompassed platforms like mobile, social media and TV to create an unparalleled and first of its kind campaign experience which took the digital platforms by storm. At the core of the campaign was a contest that started six days prior to the premiere of the film.

    The campaign had a virtual ticket window, which allowed all fans to ‘book’ tickets of Chennai Express. All the users after filling in a few details received a digital version of a ‘un-confirmed’ ticket. This was a contest whereby the fans received a PNR number (like the one received while booking a train ticket) and were asked to check the status of their tickets (whether confirmed or waitlisted) on television while the movie was on.

    A live ticker was run during the telecast of the movie where the winners PNR Numbers were flashed. This ensured that all participants watched the movie on the D-Day. Fifty lucky winners were given gift hampers autographed by Shah Rukh Khan as gratification.

    Right from its start and including the day of the telecast, the activity trended daily on social media. All activities and platforms converged resulting the following that were a first in India:

    Zeel head of marketing, national channels Akash Chawla exults: “We’re incredibly proud of this digital campaign that was built around the world television premiere of Chennai Express. Breaking all records is also the fact that #ChennaiExpressAt8 trended continuously for nine hours. This strengthens our belief to deliver path-breaking reach and resonance in an efficient and organic manner.”

    The campaign managed to reach out to more than three million Indians.