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  • Sony's Madhuri show launching 29 July as 'Kahin Naa Kahin Koi Hai'

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jul 09, 2002
    News Headline

    Almost 11 months to the day after Sony Entertainment announced plans to launch Shubh Vivaah with Bollywood queen bee Madhuri Dixit as host, the mega matchmaking show is finally set to have its day on television.

    Launching on 29 July under a new name, Kahin Naa Kahin Koi Hai, the show will air thrice a week.

    It has been a long wait mired in litigation for SET and the show‘s producer UTV (the original announcement was made on 28 August 2001) and the channel must be hoping the delay does not impact negatively on it. This might well be the reason for the change of name as there are too many "bad vibes" around it.

    Sony‘s problems started after Taal Communications, which had earlier announced its own weekly matchmaking show Swayamvar, slated for an October 2001 launch on national broadcaster Doordarshan, went to court charging copyright violation.

    In its suit, Taal, promoted by Anil Gupta, a former consultant with Zee, and actor politician Vinod Khanna, claimed that the original concept belonged to it and that it had made several presentations to the channel over the past three years without any response after which they approached DD and got approval.

    According to industry sources, Sony and Gupta reached an out-of-court agreement last week to "amicably resolve" the issue. Gupta will be an advisor on KNKKH for the time the show is on air and will get a fee per episode, sources say.

    With an estimated Rs 200 million sunk in and around 40 episodes in the can, the news comes as a big shot in the arm for Sony which has three other big ticket shows being readied for launch.

    Apart from KNKKH, the next two months is expected to see the launch of Russian Roulette, which is a licenced product from Sony Pictures International. The show has been a huge success wherever it has broadcast. There is also a musical format game show launching soon. Then there is the Balaji weekender series that is set to launch. It will run for thirteen weeks over 39 episodes.


    Read related story:    Court rules against Sony in Shubh Vivaah case; Taal gets some lead time

  • Chinese agency SINA piggybacks on soccer to bolster media services

    Jul 09, 2002

    SINA, which claims to be a leading Chinese Internet media and services company, has announced the successful conclusi

  • Switch-off scenario averted in Mumbai as Star, INCableNet agree to continue talking

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jul 08, 2002
    News Headline

    After a day of hard negotiations, Star India and Hinduja Group MSO INCableNet this evening appeared to have bought themselves some time to arrive at an agreement on the terms of a new contract after the current one expired on 30 June.

    Executive V-P distribution Tony D‘Silva said Star had given INCableNet a proposal and the MSO was supposed to revert back on it within 48 hours. D‘Silva was however, quick to point out the latest round of talks were not confrontationist in nature and that he felt reasonably confident that it would not come to a scenario of Star switching off the INCableNet feed. D‘Silva said the proposal Star had put forward was valid for a limited one-month period during which a final agreement would have to be arrived at.

    Rajiv Vyas, newly promoted COO of IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMC), of which INCableNet is the operations arm, spoke in a similar vein while stating the two sides had worked out a month-long bridge period in which to resolve all outstanding issues and come to an agreement which would be beneficial to both sides. Vyas added that Star had sent them a proposal in which they‘d sought a response in 48 hours. It was not an ultimatum, Vyas said.

    The scene was a sea change from the one existing at the beginning of the day where it had almost seemed as a certainty that there would be a confrontation between the two sides. Big ads in yesterday‘s edition of The Sunday Times of India and Sunday Mid-Day detailing INCableNet‘s litany of woes vis-୶is broadcasters, but with particular reference to Star, appeared to point to the fact that consumers could expect a switch-off any time in the next few days. The advertisement said Star had issued a notice to INCableNet that unless the MSO increased monthly payments, it would not be able to provide signals w.e.f. tomorrow, 9 July.

    The ad also made a strong plea for the introduction of conditional access systems (CAS) at the earliest as the only way to resolve this matter in the long term.

  • After 'SMS', Paresh Raval has three more shows in the pipeline

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jul 08, 2002
    News Headline

    Close on the heels of his much talked about comic role in Awara Pagal Deewana, Paresh Rawal has added another feather to his cap. The veteran actor has turned TV producer. His first offering as producer is a tri-weekly laugh riot-Shubh Mangal Savadhan that starts telecast from 15 July on Sahara TV.
    Apart from this sitcom, Rawal‘s Playtime Creation is also working on three other projects - a soap, a religious thriller and another comedy. All these projects are likely to be on air in the next one year, Rawal says. Gradually, the company also plans to foray into tele films and then films. But isn‘t the company being overly ambitious, given the state of the industry? "Well turning TV producer was no doubt, a tougher experience than my struggle to make it as an actor," Rawal says, only half in jest.

    A still from Shubh Mangal Savadhan

    At a press conference called to launch the serial, the veteran actor was at his witty best.

    Asked why he chose marriage as the topic of his first serial, Raval replied: "Shaadi has got maximum spice compared to any other event." But then why is he cautioning people - Savadhan - against marriage? "Well, I felt it was my responsibility to caution people against treading the path we took and suffered," Raval replied.

    Raval‘s fans will however be disappointed to know that he will not be starring in the serial as he feels his present movie commitments will not allow him sufficient time to act in TV serials.

    On his choice of Sahara TV, Raval said it was a rapidly growing channel that had been immensely receptive and supportive to them.

    Playtime also started a trend of sorts by also launching the website devoted exclusively to the serial - www.smsthecomedy.com

  • Paresh Rawal's 'SMS' buzzes with interactivity

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jul 08, 2002
    News Headline
    The flash intro to the site

    For acclaimed actor turned debutante producer Paresh Rawal, interactivity is not just a buzzword. He takes it to a whole new level in what is his first production for Sahara TV - Shubh Mangal Savadhan (SMS).

    In what is claimed to be a first, SMS has a website exclusively dedicated to the show. Created wholly in flash, yet quick to access, the website has a mix of information about the serial, insights into the cast, the usual freebie downloads, and a specially created videogame which can be played online. The idea of creating a website like this originally came to producer Hemal Thakkar (partner of Paresh Rawal), says Rawal

    The tri-weekly serial kicks off on Sahara on 15 July at 7:30 pm with the telecast days being Mondays through to Wednesdays.
    The video game
    The index page of www.smsthecomedy.com

    Click here to access www.smsthecomedy.com

  • Rajiv Vyas in sole charge at INCableNet

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jul 08, 2002
    News Headline

    There has been a major reorganisation at Hinduja Group MSO INCableNet in its senior management structure. INCableNet president Rajiv Vyas now has sole operational charge of INCableNet and has been promoted to COO IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMC). INCableNet is the operations arm of IMC. Out of the equation are the two other power centres in INCableNet ? CEO Ram Hingorani and CFO S Vardhan. Both have been transferred to Hinduja House. Hingorani is now vice-chairman IMC in a non-executive capacity (he was executive V-C IMC before the restructuring), while Vardhan has returned to parent company HTMT as executive director. Vardhan has been replaced by Srinivas Pala.
    Talk of internal feuding among these three has long been there in the industry and it may well have been to resolve this that the restructuring was done.

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