BBC World says it has registered a 16 per cent growth in its reach over last year‘s figures following a series of distribution agreements worldwide.

The 24-hour international news and information channel is now available in over 200 million homes, a company release states. The demand for the channel has grown in the past few months, particularly in the US, according to BBC world Sales & Distribution director Jeff Hazell. "This time last year we were in 173 million households worldwide and now we can boast over 200 million, 90 million of which receive the channel 24 hours a day," he claims.

In January 2002, BBC World entered into new agreements with PBS networks in the US, enabling the channel to assert its presence in 80 per cent (nearly 80 million) of US public service TV households. The channel already has an agreement with US public television provider, WLIW and other networks in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. According to the BBC, WLIW New York is the fourth most watched public television station in the US reaching a weekly cumulative audience of nearly two million households in the New York metropolitan area.

A two-part documentary aired on Aaj Tak in October 2001 has bagged the best film/video award in the national category at the recently concluded Mumbai International Film Festival.

Two Assassinations and An Accident was part of 25 Incredible Years - a 10 part TV mini series in Hindi and English, each of 25 minutes, commissioned by the India Today group to commemorate 25 years of its existence. The films were made by Moving Picture Company, the production house of documentarist-auteur Ramesh Sharma. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 1,00,000.

The Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films is a biennial competitive event in film and video format organised by the Films Division, an I& B department, in co-operation with the Maharashtra government. Outstanding films in various categories are selected by an International Jury, with cash prizes aggregating to 2.7 million Indian rupees (approx. US$ 60,000). The festival serves as a platform where the filmmakers of the world can meet, exchange ideas, explore the possibility of co-production and market their films.

Two Assassinations and An Accident is a collage of interviews and reconstructions through the days of the Emergency till the end of the Rajiv Gandhi era, focussing of the careers of the Gandhi family members and the Indian polity through the decades. The first two episodes go behind what really happened during the Emergency-and why it happened in the first place. Among those interviewed for these segments were former prime minster Chandra Shekhar, photographer Raghu Rai, journalist Khushwant Singh, union home minister L K Advani, former BBC India bureau chief Mark Tully and Nehru family member Arun Nehru.