ITV

Tag: Yoga

  • Habuild creates Guinness world record by bringing together 2, 46,252 people for Yoga without quitting

    Habuild creates Guinness world record by bringing together 2, 46,252 people for Yoga without quitting

    Mumbai: Owing to the rising enthusiasm to make fitness a priority in the New Year, Nagpur-based startup, Habuild, witnessed yet another feat on Friday, 12 January 2024. The brand which is also one of the most reliable Yoga platforms has set a new world record of having the largest number of people doing yoga free of cost with them without giving up for 21 days. Through their initiative, the 21 day challenge, they brought together over 2, 46,252 people from all across the globe to participate in their live Yoga sessions and keep their fitness New Year goals intact.

    Health & Wellness Startup Habuild Sets Guinness World Record

    The habit building and holistic wellness brand, Habuild, conducted the online event to inspire people from different walks of life to do something about fitness in the New Year and not give up on their resolutions within the first two weeks. The free yoga option is only to encourage people to be motivated to work out and decide to go in for a subscription only once they are sure about not quitting.

    Referring to the remarkable achievement Habuild CEO & certified yoga instructor Saurabh Bothra said, “It is a matter of immense pride for Habuild and the entire community that committed to health and wellness over the past few weeks to attain such a remarkable achievement. On January 12th, we celebrate Swami Vivekananda Jayanti. He strongly believed in ‘Charaiveti’ which means “Keep going”. He passionately travelled the world, sharing India’s values and culture to the world. He just kept going in his pursuit. ‘Charaiveti Charaiveti’ encourages us to persist. Hence, we purposely chose the 12 of January or the Quitters Day to celebrate this huge success and announce to the world that if one decides to commit to the power of yoga, then there’s nothing that can stop them, and not everyone is a Quitter.  I am grateful to all participants who understood the essence of Yoga and it was an honour to see the footfall increase from the previous challenges too.”

    The ongoing 21 day Yoga challenge is witnessing hundreds of yoga enthusiasts from diverse realms of life. We are especially happy to see the rise in numbers from tier 2 and tier 3 cities such as Indore, Lucknow, Jaipur from the North, Bhubaneshwar from East, Coimbatore and Kochi from the south, Surat and Nashik from the western part of India apart from the metros like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore. The participants in the historic event came from 92 different countries across the globe, while there was representation from all the states of India. This ongoing yoga challenge commenced on 2 January 2024 and it remains open to all participants, free of cost, until 22 January, 2024.

    The official team of Guinness world records invigilated the prestigious event. The officials declared that 2, 46,252 participants were part of the event and celebrated the importance of Yoga and well-being on a global scale.  

  • Volunteers gear up for the 37 National Games Goa 2023

    Volunteers gear up for the 37 National Games Goa 2023

    Mumbai: The excitement is palpable as Goa prepares to host the 37 National Games from 25 October to 9 November 2023. This multi-discipline sporting extravaganza promises to be a momentous event, with 43 sports disciplines including five indigenous sports – Mallakhamb, Kalaripayattu, Gatka, Lagori and yoga; and over 8000 athletes set to captivate the nation. The National Games Organising Committee (NGOC) and  The Sports Authority of Goa are leaving no stone unturned to ensure the success of this grand spectacle. At the heart of this preparation is the recruitment of dedicated volunteers who will play a pivotal role in making history at the Goa Premier Sporting Event.

    The Countdown Begins

    As the clock ticks down to the start of the 37 National Games, the National Games Organising Committee (NGOC) is actively recruiting volunteers. These individuals, drawn from the vibrant youth of Goa, will not only represent the state but also contribute to Goa’s reputation as a world-famous tourist destination.

    The role of these volunteers is indispensable, as they will be the backbone of the National Games, ensuring its smooth execution. With numerous milestones already achieved, the NGOC is now launching an online application form for volunteers. This digital platform will allow those who previously registered offline to verify and update their information, eliminating any potential anonymity issues.

    A Strong Youth Presence

    A staggering over 3,000 volunteers from Goa are expected to participate in this historic event. The NGOC, with active support from the Department of Higher Education Goa, has opened volunteer registration to higher education institutions across the state. The response from Goa’s youth has been overwhelming, showcasing their enthusiasm and commitment to the success of the 37 National Games Goa 2023.

    The director of Higher Education Goa has assured complete support to the NGOC, recognising the significance of this event. These selected volunteers will be deployed across all venues throughout the duration of the games, ensuring that every aspect runs seamlessly.

    A National Showcase

    The 37 National Games Goa 2023 will witness athletes from every corner of India competing in a diverse range of sporting disciplines. It’s not just a regional event; it’s a national showcase of talent and unity. The Sports Authority of Goa extends an open invitation to all to join in celebrating the spirit of sportsmanship and unity that this event represents.

    A Grateful Acknowledgment

    The organising committee acknowledges the immense contribution that volunteers make to the success of the National Games. Their dedication and passion for sports and community service are invaluable. The Sports Authority of Goa looks forward to working closely with these volunteers to create a memorable National Games Goa 2023.

    How to Register as a Volunteer

    To be part of this historic event and contribute to its success, please visit the official National Games Goa 2023 website at https://37nationalgamesgoa.in to register as a volunteer. In this section, individuals can access all the essential information, including the event schedule and the volunteer registration portal, by visiting https://37nationalgamesgoa.in/general-volunteer-registration.

    A Grand Endeavor

    This monumental sporting extravaganza would not be possible without the tireless efforts of our dedicated volunteers. Comprising individuals from diverse backgrounds and age groups, these volunteers have come forward to contribute their time, energy, and expertise to make the 37 National Games Goa 2023 a grand success.

    The organising committee extends its heartfelt gratitude to these passionate individuals who are generously donating their time and energy to ensure that the 37 National Games Goa 2023 is a resounding success. Their enthusiasm and dedication will undoubtedly leave a legacy for Indian sports.

  • Wellness platform Mindhouse rebrands to Shyft

    Wellness platform Mindhouse rebrands to Shyft

    Mumbai: Wellness platform Mindhouse on Tuesday announced its rebrand to Shyft, indicating a shift in its focus towards offering a variety of wellness solutions for a broader spectrum of health conditions and issues.

    According to a statement, the rebrand aims to reflect the scope of the company’s services, helping customers in reversal, remission, and management of their health conditions.

    “While we started Mindhouse with a focus on mental wellness as the name suggests, over the last year we’ve become a leading provider of curative wellness solutions for a large number of health conditions,” said Shyft co-founder Pooja Khanna. “Our shift away from mental wellness started as many of our customers approached us for solutions targeted towards specific health conditions. We realised the role and importance of lifestyle management for chronic health conditions & how underserved the market is – and decided to do something about it,” she added.

    The Shyft platform will allow customers to enroll in programmes to reverse and manage specific health conditions. “Customers will be able to access a range of services spanning nutrition, yoga, counseling, meditation, aerobics, lamaze and more. Shyft is planning to cater to people suffering from conditions such as PCOS, hypertension, diabetes, thyroid, digestive issues, or women in need of natal care,” said the company in a statement.

    With the recent commitment to invest resources into growth, Shyft aims to expand rapidly in India and globally, it further said.

  • Colors Tamil on their initiative for International Yoga Day.

    Colors Tamil on their initiative for International Yoga Day.

    Colors Tamil has planned an initiative titled “Yoga for World Health” in association with Rotary Club of Madras Central. This virtual event will bring experts, talent and fans all on one platform, and will stress on the importance of practicing yoga in our everyday lives for mental and emotional wellbeing.

    This virtual-yoga meet which will be held on International Yoga Day which is on Sunday, June 21 at 6 30 a.m. on Zoom, will be led by well-known ayurvedic medicine and sports therapy consultant, Dr. Dharmesh Kubendiran, physiotherapist and yoga instructor, Dr. Simranjeet Kaur, musculoskeletal physiotherapist, Dr. Krishna Shah and Mr. Sagar Pujari, a celebrity sports therapy specialist.

    Joining these experts will be the leading artists from Colors Tamil’s shows, namely Sidhu, Shreya, Teena and Ryesha from Thirumanam, Nilani, Naveen and Bindhu from Idhyatahai Thirudathe, Arun, Lakshmi and Keerthi from Mangalaya Dosham, Surendhar and Harshala Honey from Oviya, Amaljith, Pavithra, Naren Balaji and Sai Lakshmi from Ammanand and Amruth Kalam from Uyire.

    Fans of Colors Tamil can join on the zoom link and practice yoga along with these experts and favorite artists for a duration of one hour, from the comfort and safety of their own homes. 

  • Yoga in the palm of your hand by SonyLIV

    Yoga in the palm of your hand by SonyLIV

    MUMBAI: SonyLIV is all set to celebrate Yoga Day on 21st June with LIVFIT- India’s first-ever health and wellness segment on a digital platform. Together with associate sponsor HAVELL’S Water Purifier, LIVFIT will provide inspiration to yoga and wellness aficionados through a special selection of expert yoga sessions this week.

    LIVFIT’s yoga segment caters to the rising demand for high-quality advice and tips to maintain optimal levels of wellness amongst Indians. This Yoga Week viewers can tune in to LIVFIT on SonyLIV and choose from Ashtanga Yoga with Deepika Mehta, Full Body Yoga with Komal Sodhi, Ashtanga Vinyasa with Sunaina Rekhi amongst many other options.

    With carefully curated content that features some of the country’s most celebrated fitness enthusiasts and trainers, viewers can now renew their fitness vows and choose to live healthy with SonyLIV. The platform’s LIVFIT section offers a variety of enriching health and fitness content, which can be accessed by users as and when they prefer, in the most convenient formats on any device of their choice. Experts like Deepika Mehta, Lamya Arsiwala, Anshuka Parwani and Shraddha Vora encourage and help fitness enthusiasts meet their diet and exercise goals.

  • MIB categorises all non-Hindi and non-Eng TV channels as regional

    MIB categorises all non-Hindi and non-Eng TV channels as regional

    MUMBAI: In its latest order, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has sought to clear some of the confusion around its recent order on processing fees that broadcasters will have to bear in the event of a change in satellite or channel name, among other things.

    In an order released today, the ministry has sought to define what a regional channel is. According to it, any channel which is not in Hindi or English will be considered as being regional in nature. Moreover, spiritual and yoga channels will fall under the purview of this definition when it comes to calculating fees that they have to pay the MIB.

    On 13th December, the MIB had issued an order that sharply increased the processing fee for TV channels in supersession of an order dated 1 January 2009. Under the revision, national channels will now have to cough up Rs 100,000 while regional ones will shell out Rs 50,000 as processing fee for any change, including change of satellite, channel name/logo, language of channel, category of channel, mode of transmission, teleport, teleport location, and category of channel from general entertainment channel to news channel for temporary uplinking of a live event.

    The order had introduced two new categories for channels—regional and national—which had caused confusion in broadcasters’ minds. According to the television uplinking and downlinking guidelines, there are only two categories of channels—news and current affairs and non-news and current affairs channels.

    While the order has clarified what a regional channel is, the definition of a national channel remains to be seen. Until today, there was no clarification on which channels will be treated as regional.

    Also Read: Trai paper seeks to streamline uplinking, downlinking norms

    MIB bumps up TV channel processing fee

  • We focus on employee learning & development: Rohit Suri, GroupM

    We focus on employee learning & development: Rohit Suri, GroupM

    We care about you: that’s the message GroupM sends to its employees. While most others are scrambling to get out of the office on Friday, you will see GroupM employees dancing to Zumba or meditating away their worries through Yoga. What others may term ‘indulgence’ is an ‘investment’ for the media agency that revels in its employees’ holistic well-being.

    It is not surprising then that GroupM bagged the silver medal at the HR Excellence Awards 2017, which awards companies for outstanding human capital strategy and execution. Its efforts in nurturing and maintaining a high-calibre talent pool entail keeping the retention rate higher than the industry benchmark.

    Over the last few years, GroupM India has created a standard of excellence for several tangible and intangible employee benefits. The mAdvantage programme of 2015 has since rolled out several initiatives designed around employee healthcare and holistic wellness. Flexible timings and work-from-home policies allow employees to manage their career and personal lives.

    IndianTelevision caught up with GroupM chief HR and talent officer at South Asia Rohit Suri to understand what makes the network a winner year after year, how do they ensure a healthy work-life balance and much more. Excerpts:

    Another year, another Award! How does it feel to get recognised globally for your work done here in India?

    This is a validation of how employees feel about us internally within our system in India and the global team and how India is performing and what India is doing for its employees. This is one external validation for us. Our endeavour has been to maintain a positive work-life balance and move towards work-life integration. We make continuous changes to our policies and practices in line with the changing social and business realities. With the help of technology and a stellar team of thorough professionals, we are today one of the most preferred employers in our industry.

    What do you do to ensure a happy work place?

    We believe in total rewards, where we know compensation alone cannot keep employees happy in the company and we cannot rely on it to retain them as there will always be someone who is willing to pay more in the market. The benefits, engagement programmes, growth and development opportunities that a company provides contributes largely to make any workplace a happy workplace. We have an internal online system called as, Jobfy, where any employee at GroupM can apply for any position internally in India, Asia pacific or globally.  In today’s time, people want to change roles every 2-3 years and since we have so many diverse roles in the organisation, they can move internally. We have seen a lot of our employees move from India to Singapore, Vietnam, China and the US.

    We are deeply focussed on our employees’ learning and development. In the first 6 months of 2017, we have trained around 500 people in office hours and 1700 people on varying hours since we started using digital. We also undertake several employee welfare and engagement programmes, where an entire week is dedicated to wellness and there are doctors and dieticians on site. 

    We have recently launched an AI-based online platform where employees can chat with each other, giving us an insight as to how they feel at work and if we see a concerning message, we address it immediately.

    What are your leave policies and work from home policies?

    We have flexible timings and those who want to work from home can do so once every two weeks. If the employees want to come in late and leave early, they can do that too, because we want people to spend time with their families and loved ones. As CVL Srinivas says, ‘everyone should be able to see the sunset with their family.’

    Do you have certain special policies rolled out for female employees?

    GroupM is a gender-neutral organisation but we do have specific programmes for women employees. Maxus Media organises Work the Talk initiative, where women are trained globally to make sure they break the glass ceiling in the organisation. From a safety perspective, if a woman employee has to stay back in the office until late hours, we have cabs to drop them home. In a city like Delhi, which is not considered safe, we ensure our security personnel drop them at home safely. If she is flying in late in the night, we make sure she is provided with a cab and reaches home safely.

    What are the challenges one has to face in the changing dynamics of the industry? 

    It is more of being ahead of the curve and being proactive rather than a challenge. GroupM has an open-door culture where anyone can reach out to anyone. We encourage speaking out and having a conversation with each other and counsellors. One might often see CVL Srinivas having lunch with the team in the cafeteria and having a conversation with them. We are very transparent in nature and want people to know our business agendas, our challenges, our focus and everything else.

    Is it difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance with changing social and business realities?

    There are two ways to look at it. One has to be innovative in terms of how they manage it. Digital has caused disruption and the pace of change is quick. Technology can make our life easier now. The social fabric is changing and with millennials coming into force, their thought process is very different. A lot of people are very ambitious in India and they just need the right direction.

    What more needs to be done in the Indian media environment to make sure there is a healthy work-life balance?

    At the end of the day, polices are just frameworks and you have to continue to look at best practices followed globally and see if they can work in India. An organisation must also come up with newer practices that will work in their company and it is an ongoing process.

    The recent allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein have sparked a global conversation about the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. What precautionary measures does GroupM take to ensure women safety?

    We have established the Vishakha committee (Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace) across all our offices, which are headed by women. GroupM has Zero tolerance for harassment at any level. If any such act is seen happening, the conversation will happen immediately and we would not want it to be encouraged.  There has to be mutual respect and you need a very healthy environment to work in but some things are unacceptable and we don’t shy away from taking immediate actions. That could mean suspension or termination but we will never shy away from taking stringent and strict actions against any kind of sexual harassment.

    What more does the industry need to do to help sustain a healthy work environment?

    I can only speak for GroupM and as of today, the way we work is very simple. If we think there is need to change this, we will change that. Period! We constantly get feedback from employees on what more could be done and we do that. If in Delhi, a woman needs to be accompanied while going back home it will be implemented and when we felt that people should not stay back till late, that was also implemented.

    What makes employees stay back at GroupM?

    Everything depends on the culture of the organisation. Culture could be defined by the policies of the organisation, people you hire, how you interact with one another, how quick you deliver, delivery of output and passion.

  • Alif & Kung Fu Yoga go unnoticed

    Alif & Kung Fu Yoga go unnoticed

    In their unmindful head to head clash, and their un-businesslike decisions to release their films bang during a midweek, on 25 January, a day before the Republic Day national holiday, both the films, Kaabil and Raees, seemed to be harming their own prospects. And, that is how the results at the box office of both the films show.

    While the opening of the films was below par, the only day they really peaked was on the national holiday of 26 January. The next day, both dropped by almost 50 per cent. The figures thereafter took only downward trend.

    Since the films lacked in content department. Raees, glorified an anti-national as a do-gooder while the other, Kaabil, tried to sell an age-old story of revenge for a raped woman, with a different angle. Both failed to draw crowds — Raees failed or find appreciation, Kaabil, though, liked by a section of moviegoers, was not enough to fill the coffers. The collection figures issued by the production houses don’t stand the scrutiny.

    *Raees collected Rs 111.9 crore (nine days) and, despite an open week as no major film has released this week, there is no benefit for the film to reap.

    *Kaabil, though, remained on the lower side through rest of the week as the film could add just about 14 crore for the remaining four days taking its first week (nine days) total to Rs 71.6 crore.

    *Dangal keeps adding bit by bit to its total as the film seems to enjoy some repeat audience. The film collected Rs 1.8 crore in its sixth week to take its six week tally to Rs 386.86 crore.

  • Kannada infotainment channel Saral Jeevan to launch on 19 February

    Kannada infotainment channel Saral Jeevan to launch on 19 February

    BENGALURU: A first glance at the channel’s brief, and one could be excused if he or she thought that it was another ‘bhakti’ or religious channel. The intro reads – Saral Jeevan telecasts non-fiction programming with a focus on mythology, Ayurveda, yoga, vaastu as a science and insights from Indian heritage and culture. But that is not the case, at least not so far.

    CG Parivar Global Vision (CGPGV) will be launching a Kannada infotainment channel on 19 February.

    CGPGV founder and vaastu specialist Dr Chandrasekhar Guruji is a familiar face to most viewers of Kannada news channels – this includes Suvarna News on which he has been on air once a week since the past five years or so, Public TV, Samay and BTV. Guruji says that he will continue with his shows on other channels, while having a one-hour daily show on his own channel. He also has plans to start a similar Hindi channel over the next one year, and expand to eleven languages over time. The channel’s content will be graphics, animation and special effects heavy.

    Company speak

    “Our channel philosophy is to present inspiring, motivational and historic content, which is positive in nature. Our positioning ‘Betterment of mankind’ is a true summary of our channel objectives. Our commitment to influence positive vibes among the masses is the single biggest reason for the launch of Saral Jeevan,” says Guruji.

    “With unique and first of its kind blend of tradition and modernity in the content, the channel will surely be the dynamic face of mythology and infotainment genre among Kannada viewers. Known as world’s oldest civilisation and cultural capital of the world, India has ample legacy that deserve to be presented to today’s generation in an interesting way. Of course, we had to deploy chunk of our energies in to research and graphics. But it’s totally worth it,” adds Saral Jeevan editor MS Raghavendra.

    Saral Jeevan business head Raghunatha Reddy said, “Getting into infotainment, that is ‘very Indian’ in nature, is a strategic experiment. And we never wanted to be one more player in any given space of television. Today, we are happy with the content design; as Saral Jeevan will be filling in the biggest gap by providing knowledge that is entertaining. And the USP of such programming is that it cuts across all age groups of viewers. What’s more, Saral Jeevan has no straight competition; rather it gains from all genres of channels.”

    How is it different?

    Reddy explained how Jeevan Saral was different from the conventional religious, news or GECs, citing one of the shows Mahapayna as an example. “This is the story of Ram’s journey from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka, via of course Nepal. We retrace the steps that he made then today. So if he visited a temple, we show the temple as it is now. Of course, we can’t go into the past shoot images from there, so we have a strong in-house graphics and special effects team that creates the images of the characters in the Ramayana (and all our other shows) and intertwine them within the story as we retrace Rama’s steps across locations as they are in modern days. This is a daily and we already have three months’ content with us,” he said.

    “At present all our content is produced in-house. We have a number of teams that create the content for us. Our total strength is in excess of 100, and our graphics team is 15 strong. I think we are probably the first channel in India with this concept. We are not a religious channel, we are an infotainment channel,” informs Reddy.

    Marketing

    “We will wait and see how we perform, before we can freeze a rate card. Our marketing teams have approached agencies, clients and local advertisers,” revealed Reddy.

    As far as branding and capturing viewers’ eyeballs is concerned, Reddy said that an advertising campaign across Kannada news and GECs is in the final stages of completion. Around 15 to 20 mobile vans have started moving around Bengaluru to promote the channel. Over the next two days, stickers will be pasted on 500 – 600 auto rickshaws, and about 100 local BMTC will carry Saral Jeevan branding.

    For OOH, the channel has planned over 100 hoardings in 15 major cities of Karnataka, besides almost 3,000 of Guruji’s followers across the state will be putting up self-funded hoardings. “So many of Guruji’s followers have volunteered to put up his hoardings, that we have had no option but to give them general creative guidelines and imagery for hoardings that they want to put up about the channel outside their homes and places of work,” said Reddy.

    Carriage

    “Test signals are on e-Digital and will commence today on ACT and Siti Cable. We are in advanced stages of discussion with other players, including Hathway and Den (Amogh). We should be on their networks by the launch date. It will be two to three months before we launch on the DTH platform,” said Reddy.

    Programming

    Saral Jeevan’s key shows include the following:

    Mahapayana: The epic journey of Rama to be aired Monday – Saturday at 9 pm.

    Manakulada Olathigagi (Betterment of Mankind): Live program with Chandrasekhar Guruji to be aired Monday -Sunday at 8 pm.

    Jnanapada: A compilation of motivating and inspiring folk songs in Kannada to be aired from Monday – Saturday at 7 pm and 10.30 pm.

    History: A biography on historical legends that include kings, warriors and freedom fighters to be aired from Monday – Saturday at 9.30 pm.

    Sadhuparampara: The Himalayan Yogis have many faces in the spiritual sub-continent. Each group has its own characteristics and significance. Sadhuparampara decodes the mystery behind the extreme tribes and will be aired from Monday – Saturday at 10 pm.

    Mannina Maga: Dedicated to farmers the show intends to present information and knowledge for planned and effective agriculture leading to better productivity to be aired from Monday – Saturday at 7.30 pm.

    Ajjihelida Kathe (The grandmother storybook): To be aired from Monday – Saturday at 6.15 pm and on Sunday at 1 pm, this insightful moral story series will feature Zen and Akbar-Birbal stories with fully animated and graphic supported episodes. According to the channel, live caricatures are sure to bring back the magic of great moral stories on TV.

    Punyakshethra: Program series on famous places of spiritual and historical significance and will be aired from Monday – Saturday at 6.30 pm.

    Other important programs include Sakhi and Achara Vichara with the afternoon programs focusing on women, arogya yoga and Jatakaphala.

  • Kannada infotainment channel Saral Jeevan to launch on 19 February

    Kannada infotainment channel Saral Jeevan to launch on 19 February

    BENGALURU: A first glance at the channel’s brief, and one could be excused if he or she thought that it was another ‘bhakti’ or religious channel. The intro reads – Saral Jeevan telecasts non-fiction programming with a focus on mythology, Ayurveda, yoga, vaastu as a science and insights from Indian heritage and culture. But that is not the case, at least not so far.

    CG Parivar Global Vision (CGPGV) will be launching a Kannada infotainment channel on 19 February.

    CGPGV founder and vaastu specialist Dr Chandrasekhar Guruji is a familiar face to most viewers of Kannada news channels – this includes Suvarna News on which he has been on air once a week since the past five years or so, Public TV, Samay and BTV. Guruji says that he will continue with his shows on other channels, while having a one-hour daily show on his own channel. He also has plans to start a similar Hindi channel over the next one year, and expand to eleven languages over time. The channel’s content will be graphics, animation and special effects heavy.

    Company speak

    “Our channel philosophy is to present inspiring, motivational and historic content, which is positive in nature. Our positioning ‘Betterment of mankind’ is a true summary of our channel objectives. Our commitment to influence positive vibes among the masses is the single biggest reason for the launch of Saral Jeevan,” says Guruji.

    “With unique and first of its kind blend of tradition and modernity in the content, the channel will surely be the dynamic face of mythology and infotainment genre among Kannada viewers. Known as world’s oldest civilisation and cultural capital of the world, India has ample legacy that deserve to be presented to today’s generation in an interesting way. Of course, we had to deploy chunk of our energies in to research and graphics. But it’s totally worth it,” adds Saral Jeevan editor MS Raghavendra.

    Saral Jeevan business head Raghunatha Reddy said, “Getting into infotainment, that is ‘very Indian’ in nature, is a strategic experiment. And we never wanted to be one more player in any given space of television. Today, we are happy with the content design; as Saral Jeevan will be filling in the biggest gap by providing knowledge that is entertaining. And the USP of such programming is that it cuts across all age groups of viewers. What’s more, Saral Jeevan has no straight competition; rather it gains from all genres of channels.”

    How is it different?

    Reddy explained how Jeevan Saral was different from the conventional religious, news or GECs, citing one of the shows Mahapayna as an example. “This is the story of Ram’s journey from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka, via of course Nepal. We retrace the steps that he made then today. So if he visited a temple, we show the temple as it is now. Of course, we can’t go into the past shoot images from there, so we have a strong in-house graphics and special effects team that creates the images of the characters in the Ramayana (and all our other shows) and intertwine them within the story as we retrace Rama’s steps across locations as they are in modern days. This is a daily and we already have three months’ content with us,” he said.

    “At present all our content is produced in-house. We have a number of teams that create the content for us. Our total strength is in excess of 100, and our graphics team is 15 strong. I think we are probably the first channel in India with this concept. We are not a religious channel, we are an infotainment channel,” informs Reddy.

    Marketing

    “We will wait and see how we perform, before we can freeze a rate card. Our marketing teams have approached agencies, clients and local advertisers,” revealed Reddy.

    As far as branding and capturing viewers’ eyeballs is concerned, Reddy said that an advertising campaign across Kannada news and GECs is in the final stages of completion. Around 15 to 20 mobile vans have started moving around Bengaluru to promote the channel. Over the next two days, stickers will be pasted on 500 – 600 auto rickshaws, and about 100 local BMTC will carry Saral Jeevan branding.

    For OOH, the channel has planned over 100 hoardings in 15 major cities of Karnataka, besides almost 3,000 of Guruji’s followers across the state will be putting up self-funded hoardings. “So many of Guruji’s followers have volunteered to put up his hoardings, that we have had no option but to give them general creative guidelines and imagery for hoardings that they want to put up about the channel outside their homes and places of work,” said Reddy.

    Carriage

    “Test signals are on e-Digital and will commence today on ACT and Siti Cable. We are in advanced stages of discussion with other players, including Hathway and Den (Amogh). We should be on their networks by the launch date. It will be two to three months before we launch on the DTH platform,” said Reddy.

    Programming

    Saral Jeevan’s key shows include the following:

    Mahapayana: The epic journey of Rama to be aired Monday – Saturday at 9 pm.

    Manakulada Olathigagi (Betterment of Mankind): Live program with Chandrasekhar Guruji to be aired Monday -Sunday at 8 pm.

    Jnanapada: A compilation of motivating and inspiring folk songs in Kannada to be aired from Monday – Saturday at 7 pm and 10.30 pm.

    History: A biography on historical legends that include kings, warriors and freedom fighters to be aired from Monday – Saturday at 9.30 pm.

    Sadhuparampara: The Himalayan Yogis have many faces in the spiritual sub-continent. Each group has its own characteristics and significance. Sadhuparampara decodes the mystery behind the extreme tribes and will be aired from Monday – Saturday at 10 pm.

    Mannina Maga: Dedicated to farmers the show intends to present information and knowledge for planned and effective agriculture leading to better productivity to be aired from Monday – Saturday at 7.30 pm.

    Ajjihelida Kathe (The grandmother storybook): To be aired from Monday – Saturday at 6.15 pm and on Sunday at 1 pm, this insightful moral story series will feature Zen and Akbar-Birbal stories with fully animated and graphic supported episodes. According to the channel, live caricatures are sure to bring back the magic of great moral stories on TV.

    Punyakshethra: Program series on famous places of spiritual and historical significance and will be aired from Monday – Saturday at 6.30 pm.

    Other important programs include Sakhi and Achara Vichara with the afternoon programs focusing on women, arogya yoga and Jatakaphala.