In what is a first for regional Indian cinema, Sony Pictures Entertainment has tied up with Kolkata city-based Planman Life and Deep Films to acquire rights of a Bengali film for India‘s first Hollywood distribution in language cinema.
SPE Films India, a company of the Hollywood-based group, would enter the Bengali film market through the acquisition of ‘Saanjhbatir Roopkatha‘ (Strokes and Silhouettes) based on author Joy Goswami‘s novel and directed by Anjan Das, the Press Trust of India. This was disclosed on Friday by the director of the Indian concern Uday Singh in Kolkata.

Starring Satyajit Ray‘s favourite actor, the legendary Soumitra Chatterjee and Indrani Haldar, the film is due to be released in September.

After television, www.perfectmonitoring.com has turned its attention to FM radio by introducing a reporting solution for the all the five FM Channels in Mumbai and those who advertise on them.
The channels being monitored are Radio Mirchi, GO92.5, Win94.6, RadioCity & Red in Mumbai. Apart from basic monitoring reports, the application offers online analytical options to generate information for decision-making, a company release states.

Pertaining to channels, the analysis emulates the needs of both the programming and ad sales. For advertisers, the analytical reports provide information on brand and category based activity across channels at the click of a mouse, the release says.

The reports are based on 24/7 monitoring data and the application provides real-time access to the database to purchase Reports dynamically on the net. Both the basic report and analytical report are available online with the latest data.

China said on Friday it had removed the BBC World television news channel from its airwaves for "infringing" broadcast rules, a move the corporation said was linked to a report on the banned Falungong spiritual movement.
BBC announced from London that Chinese authorities switched off the channel‘s encrypted signal through the Sinosat 1 satellite earlier this week, Agence France Presse reported.

The contentious story reportedly aired Sunday and was prepared by the BBC‘s Hong Kong office. It focused on the fifth anniversary of the return of the former British colony to Chinese rule. The story included information about the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which Chinese officials call an evil cult that is a threat to order and stability.

One of ESPN Star Sports? most successful on ground initiatives to get closer to the younger generation - ESPN School Quiz 2002 - has just completed a hugely successful run. DPS Farakka walked off with the coveted trophy. DPS Farakka won both the first and the second National finals respectively to emerge All-India winners of the ESPN School Quiz 2002. The team from DPS Farakka walked away with a grand cash prize of Rs 500,000.
While this cash prize will be used by the school to improve the sporting facilities in the school, the team members Suvojit Chakraborty and Rahul Mukherjee will enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from ESPN Star Sports in recognition of their quizzing talent. They will be flown to any major international sporting event of their choice from events featured on either ESPN or Star Sports!

In both the National finals DPS Farakka beat Loyola School from Trivandrum and Mt.St.Mary?s School from Delhi quite easily. In the first National final while Mt.St.Mary?s could muster a paltry 5-point tally, Loyola did not disturb the scorekeepers! In the second National final Mt.St.Mery?s scored 23 and Loyola scored 35.

Hosted by popular presenter Harsha Bhogle, The ESPN School Quiz 2002 showcased the best of sports quizzing talent from around the country. As many as 108 schools came through a tough selection process to feature on this unique TV show. To start with, over 2000 teams from 17 cities had to get past a written test. Cities and towns like Bhilai, Bhopal, Darjeeling, Dehradun, Farakka, Gangtok, Indore, Mangalore, Nasik, Siliguri, Shimla, Surat, Tezpur, Vijayawada and Udhagamandalam were represented for the first time. On-ground quizzes were also conducted in 6 cities in the search for the best.

The 27 top teams from each of the four zones - North, South, East and West - were selected for the final phase of ?On-Air,? quizzing, giving every one of the 216 students a chance to test their knowledge of sports against the best competition in the country.

Manu Sawhney, managing director, ESPN Software India Ltd, said: "We at ESPN Star Sports are committed to promoting sporting excellence in India and School Quiz 2002 further exemplifies our effort in this direction. This show provided a unique opportunity for the sports-loving students to pit their knowledge against the best talent across the country and bring pride and glory to their institution."

Apart from the Grand First Prize, the other prizes were as follows --

The teams winning the National Semi Finals won Rs. 200,000 each (Team Prize)

Zonal Final Winners from each zone won a Trophy (Team Prize) Both team members of all the 12 Zonal Semi-Final Winners received an ESPN Kit each (Individual Prize)

Winners of the Preliminary Rounds from each zone won a Milo wristwatch (Individual Prize)

All participants will received ESPN Certificates Of Excellence

After the World Cup what? That is the question that the naysayers have asked of Ten Sports on the programming frontThe "upstart" sports broadcaster has put car racing, boxing, beach volleyball... as some of the fare on its menu.

And it all starts Saturday, 6 July. Formula One, the FIVB Beach Volleyball International Circuit and a series on boxing legend Muhammad Ali is what is being showcased. On Sunday, Ten presents Indian car racing ace Narain Karthikeyan live & exclusive at the Telefonica World Series.

On 6 & 7 July, Ten will be airing the British Grand Prix from the Silverstone circuit, which comprises a fraction of the FIA Formula One World Championships. Ten will be telecasting the qualifying races as well as the championships all year long. The telecast is 5:30 pm onwards on both Saturday and Sunday.