Tag: Siddharth

  • DDB Mudra south brightens up Peter England

    DDB Mudra south brightens up Peter England

    MUMBAI: Peter England, the apparel brand of Madura Fashion & Lifestyle has launched a new campaign which features Siddharth in colourful denims and smart young formals and is aimed at the late university youth and early jobbers.

    The campaign was mounted on the insight that today’s youth thinks formal wear stands for boring office clothing. Given this context Peter England wanted to tell them that office wear can also be exciting and expressive. So the campaign idea was simple – ‘Brighten up’ in office with the new line of young formals from Peter England.

    DDB Mudra south strategic planning VP Rajesh Sharma said “Youngsters these days do not want to conform to existing codes, even if they are early jobbers in workplaces. It’s not about ‘rebelling’ but about the belief in ‘expressing’ themselves. The young formals campaign is a celebration of this spirit. The idea on the PE jeans campaign is to tie up the product innovation to something deeper and meaningful about the youth of today. The campaign has been executed with appealing non-office colours and off-the-trodden-path ensembles.  The campaign was shot with Siddharth, who’s been Peter England’s brand ambassador for the past three years.”

    Peter England’s jeans business has taken different route in this segment with innovation in the product. The innovation story has been a recurring theme for the brand. The objective this season was to take the innovation story forward and to bring out the functional features of the product. 

    Peter England chief operating officer Kedar Apshankar said, “Formals has always been considered to be ‘boring/conformist’ by the younger generation today. The challenge was to, catch their imagination by portraying “formals” in a new light. This campaign is a significant step in that direction. Denim has a very crowded brand landscape, with multitude of brands positioned across various platforms. PE Jeans, in this context is attempting to carve out its own niche by focusing its offering on meaningful consumer benefits and a communication which provides an inescapable focus on the merchandise and the much needed cut-through in the cluttered ad-space.”

    For both young formals and PE Jeans, print & OOH campaign have been created and released across all major markets in India.

    On the new segment, DDB Mudra south creative director Ajesh N said, “What one wears has a great influence on one’s mood and how one performs in office. Peter England’s young formals collection reflects the youthful spirit through vibrant colours and young cuts. Clothes make the work atmosphere lively and brightens you up.  That is precisely what we tried to capture in the campaign.”

    Added, the agency’s creative director Saurabh Doke said, “Simplicity and fashion always goes hand in hand. In today’s cluttered ‘wallpaper fashion advertising’ especially where every other denim brand uses the grunge look to showcase denim attitude, the new PE Denim campaign stands out. Perfect balance between product innovations and core brand values.”

  • Disney UTV to produce Tamil film Theeyaa Vela Seiyyanum Kumaru

    Disney UTV to produce Tamil film Theeyaa Vela Seiyyanum Kumaru

    MUMBAI: Disney UTV Studio has said that its next Tamil film would be titled Theeyaa Vela Seiyyanum Kumaru (Kumar! You‘ve Gotta Work Really Hard, Yaar!).

    Written and directed by Sundar C who had earlier directed the studio‘s superhit Kalakalappu, the film stars popular south stars Siddharth, Santhanam, Hansika, Ganesh Venkatraman and many others. The shooting for the film is currently in progress and it is scheduled to release in June 2013.

    Commented Disney UTV, Chief – South Business, Studios G. Dhananjayan, “Our association with Sundar C has been hugely successful with Kalakalappu in 2012 and we are glad to continue this with Vela Seiyyanum Kumaru this year.

    Comedy films have found a wide audience in South with many recent successes and we are hopeful to create another good film in this genre. We are working towards an eclectic slate for this year and this project is yet another step in that direction.”

    Sundar C, known as a ‘Genius of Comedy‘ in South Cinema, is presenting Siddharth in an interesting lead role for the first time along with Comedy Super Star‘ Santhanam and one of the top actresses of South Hansika. Ganesh Venkatraman in a pivotal role adds strength to the cast of the film.

    The film is to be shot at Kumbakonam, Hyderabad and Chennai.

    While Settai will be UTV‘s first film in Tamil this year; it will release in April. It will be followed by Theeyaa Vela Seiyyanum Kumaru that is to open in June. This will be later followed by the Gaurav and Vikram Prabhu starrer Sigaram Thodu in December 2013.

  • Anil Ambani plans foray into TV channel business

    Anil Ambani plans foray into TV channel business

    MUMBAI: Anil Ambani is planning to make an entry into the broadcasting business, the final piece in the media chain where he had so far stayed out.

    On his radar is the launch of an entertainment business channel through Adlabs Films, the listed company where he acquired a majority stake in mid-2005.
    “We are considering it and have given the proposal for the launch of an entertainment business channel. But the board has to approve of it,” Adlabs chairman and managing director Manmohan Shetty tells Indiantelevision.com.

    The idea is to capitalise on the contacts that Shetty has with the film industry and synergise content with Adlabs’ film production business. The channel would also provide information on the gross earnings from box office collections and other financial data.

    Shetty, however, did not wish to talk on the content front, saying “it was too early to talk about anything” till the go-ahead signal was given for launching the channel.

    Adlabs already has a presence in film processing, production and distribution business. The company is also stepping into TV content production and has bought out majority stake in Siddharth and Anita Basu’s production house Synergy Communications Pvt Ltd. Ambani has ventured into the FM radio sector with aggressive bids for stations.

    “The acquisition process is not completed yet. We would be pumping money into the content business after that. We will be making content for other TV channels through this company,” says Shetty. Synergy has produced popular shows like Kaun Banega Crorepati or KBC (an Indian version of the popular western game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire) for Star and Jhalak Dikhla Jaa (a local adaption of Dancing With The Stars) for Sony.

    Adlabs has ambitious plans for animation. In the pipeline is a 3D feature film, Superstar, with Southern actor Rajnikanth’s Ochre Studios which is slated for release in April 2008. The second animation project is a feature based on the characters Gini & Jony, who represent one of the top brands in children apparel in India.

    “The first film will cost Rs 310 million and we will have a worldwide release. We haven’t finalised the budget for the second film as we are not ready with the script yet,” says Shetty.

    Rounding up the media cycle will be the foray into the broadcasting space. Ambani has already announced his plans for IPTV and a direct-to-home (DTH) service.

  • Adlabs Films finds Synergy in equity deal

    MUMBAI: The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG)-backed Adlabs Films is set to formally make a foray into the television business.

    According to capital market sources, Adlabs Films is poised to pick up a sizeable equity stake in Siddharth and Anita Basu’s production house Synergy Communications Pvt Ltd.

    Sources close to the development, however, said that it is still not clear whether the stake being picked up is 51 per cent or higher.
    While Adlabs expressed ignorance of the deal when contacted by Indiantelevision.com, Synergy Communications refused to entertain any query on the issue.

    However, market sources said that a valuation of Synergy Communications has been pegged between Rs 470 million to Rs 500 million.

    The scrip of Adlabs Films Ltd closed on 6 September at Rs 332.10 after opening at Rs 332 on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The scrip reached an intra-day high of Rs 337.50, probably riding on the information of its radio division slated to roll-out FM operations in about four to six weeks time.

    It must be reiterated here that Adlabs Films CMD Manmohan Shetty had earlier confirmed to Indiantelevision.com that the company was looking at taking a controlling equity stake in a production house.

    Though Shetty had refused to divulge any names at that time, he had admitted, “All that I can say is that it (the targeted production house) is not a listed company and produces three to four shows with a good balance sheet.”
    Adlabs has been funding a few TV production companies and has chalked out eight projects with various producers who will be making programmes for TV channels.

    Synergy Communications, producers of Kaun Banega Crorepati or KBC (an Indian version of the popular western game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire), is presently working on Jhalak Dikhla Jaa (a local adaption of Dancing With The Stars) for Sony.

    KBC, hosted by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, first started airing in 2000 on Star Plus and created such a national hysteria that it changed the fortunes of Star India and put it in a leadership position that’s still being maintained.

    Synergy was started by ace quizmaster Basu and his wife after the gentleman became a household name in India by hosting the very popular Quiz Time on Doordarshan in the pre-cable television days.