ITV

Tag: UTV

  • Disney UTV to make screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Revolution 2020’

    Disney UTV to make screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Revolution 2020’

    MUMBAI: Disney UTV is all set to direct the screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Revolution 2020’. The studio has roped in Raj Kumar Gupta of Aamir, No One Killed Jessica and Ghanchakkar fame to direct a movie based on Bhagat’s novel ‘Revolution 2020’.

    This will be studios second adaptation of Bhagat’s novel, the first being Kai Po Che!, an adaptation of Bhagat’s ‘The 3 Mistakes of My Life’.

    It was during the pre-production of Kai Po Che! that Bhagat shared the draft of his latest book with the creative team at Disney UTV. The Studio saw the cinematic potential in the novel, which is high on drama and entertainment and at the same time hugely relevant to the youth of today.

    Disney UTV had snapped up the rights to the book, a few months before it was launched. The novel will be made into an epic drama with strong roles for the three main leads, who will play the characters of Gopal, Raghav and Aarti, whose destinies are intertwined.

    “We are really excited about working again with two incredibly talented individuals, with whom we’ve made some great movies. In the past, Raj Kumar Gupta directed powerful films like Aamir and No One Killed Jessica for us. And there’s Chetan Bhagat who we’ve had a great time working with on the immensely successful Kai Po Che! So we’re looking forward to bringing both of them together on ‘Revolution 2020’. Raj Kumar Gupta bringing his cinematic vision to Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Revolution 2020’ is something to look forward to,” Disney UTV senior creative director – Studios Rucha Pathak.

    “I am delighted to work with UTV again after Kai Po Che!, that not only did extremely well at the box office but also was considered one of the best films of the year. Raj Kumar Gupta is brilliant director, especially for a story like ‘Revolution 2020’, steeped in contemporary Indian realism with a strong emotional content. ‘Revolution 2020’ is an intense love story, in the backdrop of corruption in the education sector, which exists and affects millions of youth across the country. Set in Kota and Varanasi, the book has sold a million and half copies, and has held pan-Indian appeal, including in the smaller cities. I expect the film to do the same. I can’t wait for Gopal, Aarti and Raghav to be cast and come to life,” added author Chetan Bhagat.

    “I read Bhagat’s ‘Revolution 2020’ and was quite moved by it. It is a very simple and heartfelt story about being young, being confused, being in love, getting corrupt. I am looking forward to writing and directing this book for the screen,” said Raj Kumar Gupta
    The screenplay of the film is currently underway and it is expected to go on the floors mid 2014.

  • ‘The Pitch’ season 3 kicks off tomorrow

    ‘The Pitch’ season 3 kicks off tomorrow

    MUMBAI: After seeing two successful seasons of ‘The Pitch’, the third season is back with its set of ten entrepreneurs. About 5000 entries were received which finally boiled down to ten. The entries were selected by jury members- Mahesh Murty, Vishal Gondal and Neeraj Roy.

    Presented by Reliance Commercial Finance and powered by Hyundai, the show which kicks off tomorrow (27 September) will be aired at 10: 30 pm on Fridays. Big Daddy Productions are the concept partners. The winner will receive up to Rs five crore from Seedfund as a push to his venture. This amount is decided by the investors depending on the requirements of the business.

    The format this year has been slightly changed. According to a UTV official the past two seasons saw a huge number of entries from the entrepreneurs who had already started their ventures and were looking for funds to grow their businesses. The channel discussed this with the Seedfund team and a joint decision was taken to focus on entrepreneurs with existing businesses.

    This year, the contestants are established entrepreneurs who will compete to win the prize money that will assist their project. Some of them include CvBhejo.com founder Nilesh Tayal that helps recruit local talent for local jobs, Pandurang Taware who set up agriculture tourism and Sudeepa Sanyal who found The Blueberry Trail to help people travel to offbeat locations.

  • Now Download & Watch Movies Offline with BIGFLIX

    Now Download & Watch Movies Offline with BIGFLIX

    MUMBAI: Reliance Entertainment Digital’s movie-on-demand service BIGFLIX has taken a leap and rolled out the download facility for its large base of over 1 mn registered users and over 100k subscribers. This new service will now allow viewers to not just stream but also download their favourite movies and enjoy them offline as per their convenience of time and space, sans advertising and at no additional cost!

     

    In India, content consumption online, such as movie streaming, has always seen limitations such as inconsistent bandwidth & lower internet speeds that has kept masses away. As India’s largest movie streaming service, BIGFLIX has often received grievance from its users about persistent internet diffidence spoiling their movie watching experience.

     

    “It’s not exactly the launch of the download service, it’s the solution of a long standing, internet- connectivity related issue faced by most of our users across regions.  At BIGFLIX, our aim had always been to reach out to those movie lovers who shy away from a streaming service for the sheer lack of stable internet connectivity. So now our users need not worry about streaming their favourite films, they can download at their convenience and watch them offline anytime, anywhere without having to worry about the accessibility to internet. Internet connectivity is no longer a restraint to the movie watching experience to our subscribers -whether they are at home or on the go!”  said Mr. Shreyash Sigtia, Business Head, BIGFLIX.
    BIGFLIX has been consistently expanding its content offering by partnering with leading entertainment houses like Reliance Entertainment, UTV, Disney, Shemaroo Entertainment, IndiaCast, Unisys, AP International and many more to bring an assortment of films for the Indian consumers who prefer entertainment at their convenience of time and space. This entire catalogue of several thousands of movies on BIGFLIX can now be streamed or downloaded on desktops and laptops with plans starting Rs.99 onwards.

     

    Subscribers will be required to install ‘download manager’ to manage their download lists linked to their BIGFLIX account.

     

    (Steps to download a movie on BIGFLIX: http://bigflix.com/download-edu)

     

    Some key aspects of the download service are:

    In the case of interruption in download, users have the option to resume the download from where it was discontinued earlier.The download manager sits on the user’s machine and enables users to watch the movies which they have downloaded even when they are not connected to the internet i.e. films once downloaded can be watched offline
    Users can begin watching the movie as soon as 20% download is reached.
    All content on BIGFLIX is DRM protected and therefore the movies thus downloaded cannot be copied onto another devices.
    The download feature can be availed on the entire catalogue comprising over 2000 titles across genre and languages.

     

    No additional costs to avail download service; users can download and watch films offline so long as their subscription to BIGFLIX is active.

  • Disney’s blockbuster line-up for 2013-14 is all set to soar sky-high

    Disney’s blockbuster line-up for 2013-14 is all set to soar sky-high

    MUMBAI: The year 2013 is raking in the ‘moolah‘ for the Walt Disney group with its Indian arm, UTV Disney amassing nearly 48 per cent of the entire box office collections of all the 39 films released by various studios in India so far.

    Disney‘s worldwide footprint, having acquired major core brands like Marvel and ESPN, is all geared up with blockbuster releases in Hollywood in the coming few years.

    The studio is now organising its live action movies, having sorted its animation slate. Six movies, including two of the Stan Lee comic franchise ‘Marvel Studios‘ has been given new dates. It is reported that these two Marvel movies would be slated for a May release (May 6, 2016; May 5 2017), as it has become the franchises‘ trademark month of release.

    Amongst the list of movies slated, includes, Savings Mr. Banks which hits the theatres in mid December 2013, starring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson as the leading pair, portraying Sir Walt Disney and Mary Poppins.

    Following this would be Muppet Most Wanted, a sequel to 2011‘s The Muppets. The Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tine Fey movie will go on floors by 21 March 2014.

    While its animated movie, Planes is all set to go on the floors on 9 August this year, its sequel Planes: Fire and Rescue is already into production with its 3D release scheduled for 18 July 2014.

    Disney in collaboration with Dream Works has also planned The Hundred-Foot Journey, for an early August release in 2014. Steven Spielberg would be co-producing the big screen adaption of the international best-selling book by Rishard C. Morais along with Oprah Winfrey and Juliet Blake.

    The following October 2014 has been booked for the big screen adaption of the award winning children‘s book Judith Viorst. The movie starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner is titled Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
    The Brad Pitt directed Tomorrow Land staring veteran star George Clooney, HughLaurie, Raffey Cassidy and Thomas Robinson shall be hitting the theatres on 12 December 2014 and produced by Bird and Damon Lindelof.

    The final movie for 2014 and slated for a Christmas release, Into the Woods, would see Rob Marshall directing the epic based on the Tony-winning original musical by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim. It centers on a baker and his wife‘s quest to break a witch‘s curse in order to start a family. Along the way, they encounter several well-known fairy tale characters, and together they learn what happens after “happily ever after”.

  • UTV’s Barfi! is the first Indian film to get a mainstream theatrical release in Turkey

    UTV’s Barfi! is the first Indian film to get a mainstream theatrical release in Turkey

    MUMBAI: Barfi! has earned the distinction of being the first Indian movie to get a mainstream release in the Turkey market, in close to 40 screens on 10 May in the country.

    Directed by Anurag Basu, the film has award winning performances by Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Ileana D‘Cruz and music composed by Pritam.

    "Turkey is a place where my grandfather has a great following even today. To see my film getting a wide theatrical release in the same country is a huge compliment. I am very excited about this," said Ranbir Kapoor – lead actor and winner of Best Actor award at Filmfare, Screen, Zee Cine, Apsara Producer‘s Guild awards for his role in Barfi!

    "I am extremely happy that a story I have lived with over so many years, has in the last few months, received global recognition and now is geared towards greater opportunities including mainstream releases in non-traditional markets," says Anurag Basu, who has won several accolades at all major awards in the country for his direction of Barfi!.

    "At UTV, great stories are at the heart of everything we do. We believe that a memorable story finds resonance wherever it travels and Barfi! is one such story, which has appealed to a global audience much like its success in India, North America, UK, Middle East. After its screening at the prestigious Busan and Marrakech film festival last year, the film continues to receive accolades from all quarters including the Grand Jury Award at the prestigious Okinawa Film Festival in Japan. Barfi! is the widest release for any Hindi film in Turkey and we are thrilled at the prospect of around 40 theatres showcasing Barfi! This is as wide a release as Hindi movies get in one of our largest markets like Middle East", said Disney UTV international distribution, syndication and Disney media distribution executive director Amrita Pandey.

    Turkey‘s film exhibitors Cinemajestic Firat Dilbaz said, "The trailer was truly wonderful and the film an even more beautiful experience for us. For many years Turkish audiences have not watched Indian movies in theatres and we are excited to have a critical and commercial success such as Barfi! as the first on this scale. We are currently trailering the film in over 200 screens and the response from the audiences has been extremely encouraging. The story is truly heart-warming and we believe it will touch a chord with our audience irrespective of language and the location where it was created."

    The film witnessed immense success at the box office as well as critical acclaim in the form of top honours at all key awards in India this year and is expected to echo the same success in newer markets. The film was India‘s official entry to the Academy Awards 2012.

  • Vishal Gondal quits Disney UTV Digital; Sameer Ganapathy to replace

    Vishal Gondal quits Disney UTV Digital; Sameer Ganapathy to replace

    MUMBAI: UTV Disney managing director – digital Vishal Gondal has decided it is time he should be gone from India‘s premier gaming company. Gondal took over as digital MD of the company in August 2012, almost a year after Indiagames.com a company he founded was acquired by Disney in 2011, following the buyout of media company UTV by Disney. He is serving his notice period and his last working day will be 30 June.

    The Digital team of Disney UTV combines all mobile, video, audio, broadband, ITV, games and virtual world‘s initiatives. All digital content across all brands namely Disney, Marvel, UTV, Indiagames, bindass including original content for web, mobile and games will be developed and managed by this team.

    The gaming pioneer set up Indiagames when he was just 13 in 1999 and ran it for years before a majority stake in it was acquired by Chinese gaming company Tom Online. Tom Online later sold its holdings in Indiagames to UTV. Gondal was appointed as MD of Disney UTV Digital in August 2012 after The Walt Disney Company India restructured its digital assets under a new division, Disney UTV Digital. He took over the role to drive better growth in games, video and audio services for mobile, online and interactive TV.

    Gondal is believed to be quitting the company to concentrate on his investments in startups and also to pursue entrepreneurship. He has been part of the Nokia Advisory Council for Games and actively advices Nokia on wireless and gaming technologies.

    Disney UTV executive director movie channels and channel distribution Sameer Ganapathy will now take on the business function for the digital arm of Disney UTV.

    Disney UTV MD Ronnie Screwvala said, “Vishal has been a great founder and CEO for Indiagames. As we consolidate the digital, mobile and web play for Disney UTV in India, we plan to build on our creative prowess and transform the digital business to be a direct to consumer, yet working closely with all our partners, telecom operators, OEM‘s and others. This is similar to our approach in our other verticals of movies, broadcasting and consumer products. Sameer Ganapathy brings an astute business sense and high resourcefulness to this position, which is key to meet the ever growing trajectory of the digital business in India.”

    “Indiagames had small beginnings but a big dream. I cannot help but look back with a tremendous sense of fulfillment and pride, upon the long, eventful and exciting journey. I am really proud of what the team has accomplished. Excellent support from our early investors Infinity, IL&FS, TOM Online, Adobe, Cisco and UTV and the subsequent acquisition by Walt Disney provided us the opportunity to work towards our vision of making gaming big in India. Over the last 18 months, we have spent time integrating the teams and set a platform for continued growth. Consequently, I‘ve decided to move on to pursue my dreams and passion of being an entrepreneur,” said Gondal.

  • Disney UTV launches four freemium apps

    Disney UTV launches four freemium apps

    MUMBAI: Disney UTV Digital, the digital media arm of Disney UTV, has launched four freemium apps UTV, Disney, Comedy and Devotional, for Indian mobile subscribers. Nokia Asha series has pre-embedded the UTV App on more than 2.5 million devices.

    Content in the UTV app includes movie trailers, full length movies (Bollywood and Regional), Bollywood gossip and more. The Disney App includes short form content featuring Mickey and Friends, other Disney classics such as Big Bad Wolf and Santa‘s Workshop and celebrated Pixar short form animation such as Reds Dream and Adventures of Andre and Wally B.

    The Comedy App gives users access to humorous videos like MENtals, Baba Aur Baby, Chickipedia and more. The Devotional App includes stories of Indian deities like Maa Durga, Sai Baba, Sri Krishna, and it includes the mythological epic Ramayana as well.

    These apps, which feature the breadth and depth of Disney UTV‘s content across movies, television, Hollywood and English content along with aggregated content, have already crossed the 15 million download mark in their test phase itself. The apps provide a superior streaming experience for users, even on low-bandwidth GPRS networks.

    The apps support monetisation via both ads as well as paid subscriptions enabled through Digital Disney UTV‘s mobile operator billing platform. This allows regular mobile users to access both ad-supported content as well as premium content within the same app, through a seamless one-click transaction via their mobile operator.

    Disney UTV director, celebrity and video Sameer Pitalwalla said, “Feature phones are currently the dominant data consumption devices in India. While we have a robust smartphone strategy, we wanted to provide feature phone users with an excellent video experience. We combined our great catalogue with best in breed technology and have seen both download and engagement numbers catching fire. 15 million downloads, 1.5 million active users, terabytes in streaming and millions of ad impressions prove the power of our content and experience.”

    Nokia India director developer experience Gerard Rego said, “Engagement and innovation have emerged as one of the top deciding factors in the mobile phone industry with more and more youth accessing Apps that enhance their user experience. Our association with Disney UTV has been extremely successful and, together, we continue to add value to our consumers by offering superior on-the-go video streaming. The availability of Disney UTV Digital‘s new Freemium Apps is a great milestone as users can enjoy their favourite content through fast and seamless video streaming on their Nokia Asha devices.”

  • Disney renews deal with Mumbai Indians for merchandise

    MUMBAI: Disney has renewed its deal with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians through Marvel Entertainment to release merchandise targeting children.

    Last year, the two parties had entered into a one-year deal. The Marvel-Mumbai Indians collection range will include apparel and home solutions featuring Marvel superheroes.

    The target group is children between the age group of 4 to 14 years. The goods will be available at shopping destinations across the country, including online.

    The two parties had announced their association last year with the aim of building on their brand equity. The expectation is that the licensing and merchandising business for the Under 14 target group will only increase in the coming years.

    Disney UTV MD, Consumer Products and Retail, Roshini Bakshi said, “Last year we had tied up with Mumbai Indians for a Mickey Cricket range that gained a lot of popularity with the fans. This year we are extending the relationship by bringing Marvel Super Heroes merchandise range with Mumbai Indians and giving our India fans this amazing opportunity to experience the most celebrated sport in the country with their favourite Super Heroes”.

  • ‘We can monetise more in a digitised environment’ : Business Head of Sab Anooj Kapoor

    ‘We can monetise more in a digitised environment’ : Business Head of Sab Anooj Kapoor

    A product manager at Colgate Palmolive, a copywriter at JWT, an ad producer, a sitcom writer and director, and finally a television channel head. Anooj Kapoor has successfully worn different hats in his career spread over two decades. And why not? He follows what is dear to his heart, so much so that he quit Colgate to join JWT at half the salary that he used to earn at the FMCG major. Reason: he could pursue his creative instincts.

     

    His urge to write and direct ads made him launch his own production house called Creative Compass in 1999, which he ran successfully for three years.

     

    Kapoor joined UTV to head its comedy cell in 2004 and made shows like Sharaarat for Star Plus. He went on to write many shows for Indian television. In 2007, he moved to Sab and what followed was a change in positioning to a family entertainment channel. Since then, Sab has shown remarkable growth. 

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Prachi Srivastava, the business head of Sab talks about the channel‘s growth and how it can benefit from digitisation.

     

    Excerpts:

    How has Sab performed after the first phase of digitisation?

    Sab has grown from 130 GRPs pre-digitisation to around the 150 GRP mark on a consistent basis. Two factors have contributed to this growth. The shows that we had launched in the digitisation phase have been received well, be it Balveer, Jennie Juju or Waah Waah Kya Baat Hai. We had set a target of 151 GRPs for March 2014 which we have achieved in January. So we are more than a year ahead in achieving our targets.

     

    Apart from content, what has also worked for us is the fact that we are now placed in the Hindi GEC cluster on the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) in Mumbai and Delhi market because of which the sampling of the channel has gone up. With increased sampling, the time spent on the channel has also increased and, therefore, the growth in viewership.

    Do you see any change in viewership patterns?

    There is no such change. Our channel is for the entire family and is fairly divided between Males, Females and Kids. The representation of viewership has remained unaltered. It’s just that more families have sampled the channel; the composition remains the same.

    The 6-8 pm slot is generally for youth TV viewers. Are you looking at cracking this time slot?

    Our focus remains the family, and not just youth. Previously, we were a youth entertainment channel with shows like Left Right Left and Love Story. At that time we could collect only 20-22 GRPs. So we realised that the youth positioning is not really helping us. We, thus, changed the positioning to a family-led comedy channel.

    There was a time when Hindi GECs were having original programming on the afternoon slot. Do you have any plans to revive this slot?

    Despite our budgetary limits, we have extended our prime time programming to seven days now. We don’t have the bandwidth or interest to revive the afternoon slot as our primary TG is family and not just the female audience. Our channel has a male skew and 51 per cent of this segment constitute our audience profile.
    ‘Comedy is a very nascent genre but is bound to grow. If there are five channels that are showing the same kind of shows and there is just one channel which is showing comedy, it is obvious that people will watch us‘

    Max has a vast library. Do you plan to air movies from their library?

    Over the last four years, we have been able to build the slot of classic titles on our channel because these are the films that people are not able to watch on regular basis and there is a definite audience that we have managed to create over the last four years. They don’t get to see those titles on any other Hindi GEC. So we get undiluted audience coming to watch the classic films.

    Which are the weak slots that you would like to strengthen?

    We recently launched two shows, Hum Aapke Hain in Laws (HAHIL) and Tota Aur Maina at the 10-11 pm slot. Tota Aur Maina, which airs at 10.30 pm, is struggling a bit. We would like to strengthen that slot.

    Are there any new shows that you are planning to launch?

    We have nothing pre-IPL. We have just launched Safar Filmy Comedy Ka, which is a tribute to 100 years of cinema in India.

    How do you plan to expand geographically?

    We don’t make shows for a particular market. However, characterisation can be from a certain state. For example, HAHIL and Tota Aur Maina are both based in UP.

    Was 2012 a forgettable year for Hindi GECs as few of the new shows worked with audiences?

    The industry is indulging and over-indulging in permutations and combinations of the Saas-Bahu formula. Either the people have run out of formulas or the audience has run out of patience. The year 2012 was no different. They have the same Saas-Bahu drama and the same reality shows.

    The digital media has been growing in leaps and bounds. Any plans there?

    We are launching an app- Sab Ke Comics for iOS and Android with over a 100 Comic Strips of six shows to entertain fans on the go (on smartphones and Tablets) with short jokes from Sab shows and characters. This app is an adaptation of the successful print ads in comic strip formats in leading newspapers. These are for shows like Jeannie aur Juju, Chidiya Ghar, FIR, Lapataganj, R.K. Laxman and Golmaal.

     

    We have also launched Sab’s popular characters: Gadha, Gopi, Mama, and Gulgule as 3D animated talking character which repeats whatever the user speaks. The characters also react to gestures like tickling and punches.

     

    There is also an augmented reality app where one can scan images on a Sab TV Dairy or Calendar and see the character coming to life in a video format. Besides, one can also have their pictures clicked with popular Sab characters.

     

    We recently launched SABurbia which has been extended to apps. Here players can visit and interact with different show worlds and characters in a quest to help the Sab characters and become the mayor of SABurbia.

    Will Sab be able to monetise more in the digitised environment?

    Yes, the point is that we have moved into the EPG and we are in the vicinity of the other Hindi GECs, which was not the case earlier. Earlier, it was difficult for consumers to come across our channel on a consistent basis in various areas. Now the availability of Sab will be easier and, hence, there will be more trial and sampling for the channel. We believe that once the sampling increases, the retention of the audience will also increase. If there is more retention, there is more ratings. This increases the monetization scope.

    What is the future of comedy as a genre on Indian television?

    It is a very nascent genre but is bound to grow. If there are five channels that are showing the same kind of shows and there is just one channel which is showing comedy, it is obvious that people will watch us.
  • BoxTV partners Sony Pictures & Disney UTV for content

    BoxTV partners Sony Pictures & Disney UTV for content

    MUMBAI: Times Internet Ltd‘s BoxTV has entered into content agreement deals with Sony Pictures Television and Disney UTV in order to provide premium titles on its video streaming service.

    Other content providers that the online video/content streaming platform has associations with include UTV Motion Pictures, Shemaroo Entertainment, Rajshri Entertainment and Everymedia Technologies for Bollywood and regional content in addition to international studios like Celestial Entertainment – for Hollywood content.

    Times Internet CEO Satyan Gajwani said, “With these partnerships, we provide our users access to a vast content library of popular choices to watch.”

    BoxTV is a provider of premium video service that offers a large bouquet of entertainment, including blockbuster movies, TV shows, short films, documentaries and more, which users can watch on a regular web browser or through the device of their choice.

    Sony Pictures Television Asia Pacific executive vice president distribution Angel Orengo said, “The Indian digital media industry has grown rapidly in the last few years and we support BoxTV‘s efforts to launch this service and another exciting medium for content consumption in this evolving digital landscape.”

    Disney UTV Studios executive director – syndication, international distribution and Disney UTV Media distribution Amrita Pandey added, “We are excited to offer some of our best content from ABC Studios, Disney Pixar, Disney UTV and Disney UTV Studios to the consumer at one destination. We believe that BoxTV will be a great platform for us to showcase our wide breadth of entertaining and world class content.”

    BoxTV has developed an India-centric media experience, which includes bandwidth meters, dynamic streaming and video chapters, along with metadata and search. The portal allows users to access BoxTV via a wide range of apps on the platform of their choice. It will be available across iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets; Kindle Fire, EvoTV, Woxi Pod and Roku. Apps for Windows 8, J2ME and Blackberry platforms are currently in the pipeline.