The Cartoon Network is gearing up for the festive season and how. It is organising a Dream Diwali contest which gives kids a chance to meet the biggest Toon stars like Popeye, Olive, Tom & Jerry, Fred & Wilma Flintstone and Dino.

Cartoon Network?s stars will be knocking on the doors of kids across India as part of the Dream Diwali contest. Kids can enter by writing in or logging on to www.cartoonnetworkindia.com and choosing which Cartoon Network toon star they would like to visit their home and why.

This contest is being sponsored by Kwality Walls Max and co-sponsored by Nestl? Munch and Sil Jam.

(Posted on 9 October 2001 9:00 pm)

If anyone thought the Zee Telefilms scrip had finally bottomed out better think again. Down is where it has been plummeting since yesterday. And there seems to be no end to it all. On the day of Zee‘s AGM, the share price was hovering between the range of Rs 90 and RS 92. But it seems that the AGM could only dampen the market sentiment, rather than supporting the price. The reasons attributed to the fall in price are many. The first is pessimistic picture painted by chairman Shubhash Chandra during the AGM. He warned investors that the overall negative market scenario prevailing was going to impact on financials as companies cut back on advertising. The search for a strategic investor for Zee Telefilms being put on hold only added to the sentiment. ‘Zee has always gone up or down on the ‘news‘ and not on fundamentals,‘ says an analyst with a foreign equity research firm. Short trading takes place in the script based on the same news, so players normally take positions for short periods of time and immediately exit when there are small fluctuation in the price. The price is simply not allowed to settle down. The market also seems to be very concerned about the huge outstanding the company has. Even though Chandra has categorically made clear that there will not be any further financial transactions between any Essel Group company and Zee Telefilms, the market does not believe that, opined one analyst. ‘Zee has always made such commitments which were later not kept. There are various items which are waived off in the financial statements at the end of the year. And this is possible in this case also.‘ The market is concerned about the amount (close to RS 900 million) that is still to be paid by Essel Group to Zee and the close to RS 1 billion to be received from Buddha Films. The recent relaunch exercise hasn‘t fetched much results. Apart from Baazi Kiski and Nilaam Ghar, which are game shows, other soaps are not doing that well. "It‘s been almost a month and half, and the shows are not yet picking up. Dailies should not take that long to show the results." As far as the new programmes go, most analysts were of the opinion that a few shows like Choti Maa, Sarhadein and Koi Apna Saa were really good and should be developed. As for the movement of the scrip on the bourses today, it (up 4.94% to RS 74.30) bounced back on renewed buying interest after Monday‘s fall. The stock shed 10% on Monday amid fears of a slowdown in earnings, and a possible delay in the induction of a strategic partner by the company.

Delhi‘s district court today ruled in favour of ESPN Software India Ltd in a case filed by Home Cable Network Ltd. ESPN Software India Ltd. had switched off the ESPN and STAR Sports services to the Delhi-based Home Cable Network last Friday on account of the unauthorised distribution of channels by Home Cable Network to hotels and the non-payment of monthly dues to ESPN Software.

The court summoned the managing director of Home Cable Network Ltd. Vikki Choudhary today and ordered him to give an undertaking to the court that he would stop the unauthorised distribution of ESPN, STAR Sports signals to hotels with immediate effect.

The case was originally slated to come up for hearing yesterday.

Sony Entertainment, the flagship channel of the SET network, celebrated its sixth 6th anniversary yesterday and CEO Kunal Dasgupta asserts it is as good a time as any to serve notice on rivals Star and Zee that the channel wars are by no means over.

He further states: "The new Friday starry launches could not shake our favourites, the all new Dil se Dosti, Boogie Woogie, Heena, CID & Aahat which have successfully seen off the backs of a rapidly weakening competition. I can sense the viewer boredom and fatigue from the leader and we will strike now. Coming up is a brand new exciting vibrant channel identity package."

"Ekta Kapoor‘s Kutumb will debut in October prime time (the daily soap debuts at the end of the month). By the end of the year we would have launched seven new pulsating shows crowning it with Shubh Vivaah, Madhuri Dixit‘s TV debut. This will be the point at which SET will lead again. The biggest blockbusters Kaho Na Pyar Hai, Mohabbatein & Mission Kashmir will premier in the Festival season. Divine blessings have come our way by our leadership on Sunday mornings through the grace of Sri Krishna, Sri Ganesh and Mahabharat. I am so enthused that every individual in SET is now working with renewed vigour. Our encryption was seamless and no viewer suffered."

Dasgupta also declared that the channel was being completely repackaged, the details of which would be unveiled shortly.

The shows Sony is launching in the next three months are - Kutumb, Achaanak, Kal, Dhadkan, Hubahu, Hum Hain Dilwale, Shubh Vivaah.

In Kutumb Ekta takes the intra-family feud out of the saas-bahu (mother-in-law vs daughter-in-law) feud format into the husband vs wife domain.

The storyline in a nutshell - hate begets marriage, marriage begets love. The protagonist is a spoilt rich brat from a Gujarati family who falls for a girl in his college. She spurns him as she is already engaged to someone else. To cut to the chase. He manages to get the engagement broken off and manoeuvres matters in such a way that ultimately the two get married hating each other‘s guts. Love triumphs in the end of course.

Kal - another Ekta production (naturally considering the K in the name) - is "inspired" by the life of Jack Nicholson. The hero is a teenager who when he turns 15 discovers that the person he thought was his sister is actually his mother. And his mom is actually his grandmother. Convoluted? The basic premise is from a true-life tale mind you. To continue, he is shattered when he learns the truth and leaves home. He becomes a wastrel but comes back to the fold when the father dies and he is left as the chief heir in the will.

Dhadkan (the title has not been finalised yet and may finally become Doctors) is modeled on such popular series set around hospitals as Chicago Hope and ER.

All in all quite an interesting line-up. The coming months should see how far Dasgupta is able to take Sony in its attempt to get on the channel leaderboard.