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Tag: talks

  • K Sera Sera in talks with Jackie Chan on film project

    MUMBAI: K Sera Sera has an ambitious plan of getting into a co-production movie venture with international superstar Jackie Chan.

    In its business plan report (a copy of which is with indiantelevision.com), K Sera Sera has expressed intent to build a global audience play. Part of that drive will be to produce and distribute (in some territories) its first international project with Jackie Chan in the lead out of Hong Kong in early FY06.

    K Sera Sera chief executive officer Kacon Sethi admits talks with Chan were initiated about four months back. “But that will take its own time. It is not our focus area of action now. We are right now committed to completing the movies for Sahara this year. We also want to pump up our television content business,” she says.

    K Sera Sera’s second ambitious project is to produce a $20 million movie under the supervision of Ram Gopal Varma, stretching its funding sources. If turned into reality, it will be the costliest movie project in India.

    “It is in the script development stage and will be in the thriller genre. We will have it in both English and Hindi languages,” says Sethi.

    Where will the funding for such a huge budget movie come from? “The project development is in place. It is a big item movie and can take over a year,” says Sethi.

    Sahara has already committed about Rs 300 million to K Sera Sera for producing 10 Hindi movies. The new venture will be outside the deal with Sahara.

    For the ten movies, Sahara will have the satellite rights while K Sera Sera can exploit the theatrical business for a specified period. Varma will have a 50 per cent share of the profits with K Sera Sera.

  • Prasar Bharati in exploratory talks with telcos

    NEW DELHI: After having netted over Rs 1 billion in revenues for Doordarshan’s (DD) less hyped sister concern All India Radio (AIR) for the last financial year ended March 31, Prasar Bharati now wants to do better.
    According to Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma, Prasar Bharati is holding ‘exploratory talks’ with India’s telecom service providers – both fixed line and cellular – to have a revenue sharing arrangements for thousands of calls that are received by some AIR centres from listeners in the country and abroad for news updates.
    The news-over-telephone service has been made available by AIR at its centres in Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Patna. People can call up these centres at designated numbers and get news updates.
    To make this facility more user friendly and revenue yielding process, Prasar Bharati, which oversees the functioning of DD and AIR, is also mulling getting a four digit number that would be common for the whole country.
    “The AIR centres get thousands of calls daily from people in India and abroad for news. This would mean increased traffic for various telecom service providers. We are exploring ways wherein Prasar Bharati would ask the telecom companies to share part of the revenue they generate through such calls made to AIR for news,” Prasar Bharati CEO K.S. Sarma told indiantelevision.com.
    AIR’s Delhi centre alone receives about 3,000 calls per day, mostly from the US, Sarma said, pointing out that this plan would be put into effect after a board approval.
    According to him, talks would be opened up with state-run and private telecom companies, including Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (fixed and mobile service provider in Delhi and Mumbai), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. and the lies of Bharti Cellular Ltd and Hutchison Essar Telecom Ltd.

    Also read: 
    Three-pronged strategy for DD Sports: Prasar Bharati’s KS Sarma