MUMBAI: Mukta Arts Ltd has has assigned music rights of five of their forthcoming films to Super Cassettes Industries Ltd (T Series) for a consideration of Rs 60 million.
The basket of films will include two films directed by noted filmmaker Subhash Ghai. While one will have a multi star cast, the other will be a small budget film.
The other three small budget movies will be from outside directors, the company has said.
MUMBAI: The last month of 2006 will see a competition brainstorm happen amongst existing Hindi movie channels, with the audience having a delightful array of choices.
The Christmas and New Year initiatives will not just be a matter of the best box office movie but the strategy of playing it through to attract the maximum viewership.
Keeping in mind the holiday mood, SET Max has a two-week comedy festival named Kahaani Poori Comedy Hai lined up from 11 to 22 December. The festival will run through Monday to Friday in the afternoon slot and showcase movies like Padamshree Laloo Prasad Yadav, Badhai Ho Badhai, Satte Pe Satta and Chal Mere Bhai being telecast. For the primetime they have Tom Dick and Harry lined-up for 22 December.
As a part of its existing initiatives Maha Movies and Sunday Housefull, Max has acquired the telecast rights for Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal and Subhash Ghai’s 36 China Town respectively.
To cater to mass appeal and a wider audience Max has come up with a special programme called Hollywood Hungama Nite under which viewers would see dubbed Hindi versions of some major Hollywood titles like Men in Black – 2 slotted for 17 December, Stuart Little for 24 December and Godzilla for 31 December respectively in the primetime slot.
Commenting on the Hollywood initiative SET Max head of marketing T Gangadhar said, “We always want to offer the best mix of content to our audience. The titles that we have acquired have always been in the top 15 at the box office. Our focus for the line-up this month will be comedy centric.”
While Max has acquired some big titles like Golmaal and set a comedy trend for the month , Sahara Filmy too has followed and acquired the rights for Khosla Ka Ghosla. Though a low-budget movie, it fared well at the box office and is slotted for a World TV Premiere on the 24 December.
Sahara Filmy head marketing and content Shailesh Kapoor said, ” Since our distribution has improved in the past two months, we are currently consolidating on growth. We plan to increase and stabilise growth on air as well as off air.”
As a part of the off-air promotions, Filmy has come up with Lallan Film Festival, with Sunil Grover in the character of Lallan. Filmy has also tied up with Ravi Chopra’s Baabul for a dual on ground promotion of Lallan and film Baabul in various cities.
Like every year, Filmy has a three-part special set for the last week of December called Filmy Flashback which will look at all the good, bad, gossip and the biggest events that have been witnessed by the film industry over the past one year.
There is also a 2006 special opinion poll for December end called Filmy Person of the Year. It is a single category award and has the likes of Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bacchan, Hrithik Roshan and Himmesh Reshammiya as nominees.
Now Ajay Devgan and Arshad Warsi will have a straight competition with Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal with Zee Cinema acquiring the satellite rights for film Phir Hera Pheri as a Premiere of the Month on 24 December.
Zee Cinema head marketing and programming Mohan Gopinath said, “Our focus is mainly on Phir Hera Pheri which we have acquired for the premiere as its a festive season which comedy is best suited for.”
From the basket of already existing movies with them, Zee Cinema would be showcasing Vaah Life Ho To Aisi as Christmas Klub Special and Amar Akbar Anthony as part of Shanivaar Ki Raat Amitabh Ke Saath.
With no blockbuster titles for New Year’s eve, Zee cinema will wrap the year with a vertical all day long festival called Welcome 2007.
To compare with all, Star Gold hasn’t acquired satellite rights for any new movie but is taking an old route that will be, celebrating Salman Khan’s birthday, on 27 December with its initiative Reliance Mobile Jabardast Movie Mela. It will showcase some of Salman’s movies like Hello Brother, Biwi No 1 and Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya.
Star Gold vice president marketing and communication Satya Raghavan said, “Jabardast Movie Mela is an initiative to celebrate a celebrities birthday in style so that the audience gets a good dose of their favourite celebs movies. We consciously go behind movies which set the trends and bring it alive on TV, just the way we did it for Rang De Basanti recently and would continue it in future.”
Apart from movies, Star Gold has an opinion poll called Savlon Sabsey Favourite Kaun International 2006 which will run through last two days of December 2006 as a part of their New Year Special offer.
“Savlon SFKI is the only opinion poll in the world on Bollywood and depends solely on the consumers. Though we have been doing this for three years, this year we’ve gone International covering Middle East, South East Asia, US, UK, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Australia and New Zealand, keeping in mind the kind of appeal and fans bollywood has internationally,” added Raghavan.
Hosted by actors Ranvir Shourey, Vinay Pathak and the likes, accompanied by Savlon SFKI ambassador Ayesha Takia. The show will air the Red Carpet and Grand Finale on the 30 December where the winners will be awarded. This will be followed by Favourites Zindabad on 31 December where the people from the industry will give their comments.
Though all the channels have set their best plans based on their strategies it is yet to be seen who attracts the maximum viewership.
MUMBAI: Filmmaker Subhash Ghai is planning to set up Whistling Woods, a film and media arts institute, in South Africa and Dubai through joint ventures with local partners.
“We see opportunity in Dubai and South Africa. We have signed an MoU with the provincial government of the Western Cape and are in talks with Dubai Media City,” says Mukta Arts CEO Ravi Gupta.
Whistling Woods International Ltd, a subsidiary company, will jointly conduct a feasibility report for each of these markets. “The cost of setting up each institute will be close to Rs 1 billion. We would want to do it along with local partners,” adds Gupta.
Ghai, has signed with Ibrahim Rasool, the premier of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape, Republic of South Africa, a declaration of intent to work out a collaborative strategy for establishment of a film and media institute in Cape Town. “We expect to complete the feability study in three to four months. We will take a decision only after that,” says Gupta.
Mukta Arts has already pumped in Rs 600 million to set up Asia’s biggest film, television, animation and media arts institute in Mumbai. The aim is to create a talent pool for the rapidly-growing Indian film and animation industry.
Whistling Woods, which is offering two-year courses, has tied up with technology majors including nVidia, Apple, Sony, AMD, Belden, Nortel, Seneca, DigiDesign, Recreate Solutions, ToonBoom and Sennheiser.
The institute provides specialisations in direction, ccreenwriting, editing, acting, business of film and television, cinematography, art and techniques of animation and sound recording and design.
MUMBAI: TV actor and producer Anuj Saxena has reasons to smile. He along with filmmaker and producer Subhash Ghai, will be the juror for the 34th International Emmy Awards.
As a juror Anuj will be judging the category of Best Performance by an Actor for the final round of judging. He will be judging 8 entries for this category.
This is the first time that Anuj will be a juror for the Emmy Awards. Elated by the news, he said, “It’s an honour to be a part of Emmys. I mean there cannot be anything bigger than this as far as international television goes. I mean if you compare the worldover there would be so many deserving candidates. Also on a personal level it will also be a learning experience to watch shows from across the world.”
“I hope to definitely benefit from being as a juror for the Emmies, both as an actor and as a producer. Afterall, the attempt is to match our programming worldclass,” added Anuj.
Subhash Ghai is judging the Television Movie/Mini Series category for the finale. This is the second consecutive year that the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has invited Subhash Ghai to be the juror for the Emmys.
The jury panel consists of television, producers, directors, performers, and executives from around the world to honour the best in international television production. The International Emmy Award is known worldwide for honoring excellence in programming produced outside the United States.
The award function, popularly called as, the 34th International Emmy Awards gala will be held this year on 20 November in New York City.
MUMBAI: Starting 11 June, Radio City will launch a series on autobiography of the stars by the stars. The series Meri Kahani will be aired across the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Lucknow on every Sunday at 1 pm.
The series kicks off with the autobiography of Nightingale of India, Lata Mangeshkar. In this one-hour show, the queen of the Indian melody reminisces her soulful moments and milestones of her extraordinary life and career that will strike a chord, leaving a lasting impression in the minds of millions of fans across the country, according to an official statement.
Besides, Lata Mangeshkar Radio City will feature Subhash Ghai, Jitendra, Shilpa Shetty, Tabu, Khayyam and many more through the series.
The show Meri Kahani incites the stars to talk about their lives, childhood stories, the backgrounds in which they have grown up, the start of their careers, struggling years, turning points and the important people who have been instrumental in shaping up their great lives. The stars also talk about their future plans and views on the Indian film and music industry.
“At Radio City, it has always been our aim to connect with our listeners and the experts of the entertainment industry in a unique way. The unique format of this new show will enable listeners to connect with some unforgettable and unheard aspects in the journey of their favourite stars as they relive their past,” says Radio City national programming head Vikas Verma. “
MUMBAI: Anil Ambani-controlled Adlabs Films Ltd is buying out Mukta Arts’ 50 per cent stake in the joint venture company, Mukta Adlabs Digital Exhibition.
As a step up in the plan, Adlabs is earmarking an investment of Rs two billion towards acquisition of 50 old cinema theatres for conversion into “twin screens.” Part of this investment will include the installation of digital projectors in these theatres.
“We are acquiring the entire stake of Mukta Arts. We will be investing Rs two billion to upgrade 50 cinema theatres and install digital delivery systems in them,” Adlabs Films chairman and managing director Manmohan Shetty tells Indiantelevision.com.
Adlabs and Subhash Ghai-promoted Mukta Arts had floated a joint venture company in 2003 for digital delivery of movies. Mukta Adlabs Digital Exhibition had invested around Rs 100 million but the company had been unable to make much headway with its technology which required a server and projectors to be installed in the theatres.
For buying out the stake, Adlabs has not paid any premium. “We have paid a little less than Rs 50 million which is the actual investments made by Mukta Arts. We didn’t want any partners as we were planning to integrate the twin-screen converted cinema threatres with the installation of digital projectors. We plan to have the 50 twin screen theatres in B-class stations over 3-4 years,” says Shetty.
Mukta Arts, however, is not abandoning the digital delivery of movies project. “We decided to part ways with Adlabs as our plans were different. Digital distribution of movies will be very much part of our plans as we are committed to technologies of the future,” says Mukta Arts CEO Ravi Gupta.
The new technology of digital projection through hard discs avoids the use of film prints, which costs between Rs 50,000 and Rs 60,000 to the distributor. It also enables audiences of “B” and “C” class centres to watch their favourite films on the first day itself, thereby making simultaneous worldwide release a possibility. The technology also combats against piracy.
Anil Ambani has big plans to deliver movies to cinema theatres through Reliance Infocomm’s fibre optic network. Having designs on launching a direct-to-home (DTH) service, he may also take the satellite delivery route for distribution of movies. “Even if the current delivery sytems are changed, digital projectors will be required in the fibre or the satellite system. Our plan is to aggressively install these projectors in the theatres which we are taking up for converting into twin screens,” says Shetty.