NEW DELHI: Bollywood star Salman Khan is to host the 8th Renault Star Guild Awards 2013, marking his debut in hosting an awards ceremony.

The awards are a joint initiative by the Film & Television Producers Guild and Wizcraft International Entertainment, sponsored by Renault, powered by Venus Soaps and associate sponsors ? Videocon and Nivea Deodorants.

To be aired exclusively on Star Plus, the awards on 16 February will see a distinctive sense of humour and Salman?s signature style.

The ceremony will also showcase performances and announce the winners of the 8th Renault Star Guild Awards.

MUMBAI: Star Plus is taking the third season of Masterchef Australia?s Indian adaptation, Masterchef India, to weekday prime time slot.

In the earlier two seasons, Masterchef India was part of Star Plus? weekend prime time programming. In the first season, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar hosted the show. Titled ?Masterchef Kitchen Ke Superstar? this time, the show, like in the second season, will be run by judges.

"The foremost difference is that this time ?Masterchef Kitchen Ke Superstar? will air as daily strip in prime time and not a weekend property. So viewers will get a chance to engage with the show every day and witness all the fun, excitement and tension every day," said Star Plus senior director- marketing and communications Nikhil Madhok.

The show will air in March. The date of telecast, however, is yet to be announced.

To be presented by Amul again, ?Masterchef Kitchen Ke Superstar? will be powered by Fortune.

Talking about why the time band has been changed this time, Madhok said, ?It is a conscious decision from Star to be innovative and clutter breaking. We want to break the convention of reality shows airing on weekends.?

The platform aims to acknowledge and encourage the culinary skills of passionate cooks and groom them to become the ultimate professionals of the art.

On the marketing activities around the show, Madhok said: ?We believe that food and cooking are extremely integral to every household in India. There is a masterchef in every house in our country, working hard in the kitchen. But their talent is not given the recognition it deserves. MasterChef is a national platform which gives them an opportunity to make a name for themselves and fulfill their dreams. It?s this thought that will form the basis of all our marketing for the show.?

?There will be a 360 degree campaign with a strong hold on the ground element - there will be mini master chef events all over the country where we will recognise and showcase the talent of many such people at a locality and city level as well. The other marketing activities are scheduled to start closer to the launch,? Madhok added.

Masterchef India went to 20 cities across India for auditions this year. In each city the participants had to bring with them a simple dish for auditions. They then went through various levels of selection. From all the selected participants, few have been on the basis of their food knowledge, food taste and presentation.

MUMBAI: Asian Television Network International (ATN), which serves Canada?s Asian community, has decided not to renew its licensing agreement for rights to Zee TV?2 Hindi programming when it expires on 31 January, 2013.

The licensing agreement would have automatically got renewed but ATN is not renewing it. The US affiliate of Zee was notified of the decision on 28 October, 2012.

ATN president, CEO Shan Chandrasekar said, "We felt that with programming content from both Star Plus and from Zee TV, we had a situation where we were unable to do justice to either one and from sheer lack of air time, had to miss out some very compelling programming contents".

Chandrasekar also observed that ATN?s positive relationship with Zee TV is still going to continue relating to the exclusive rights acquired by ATN in the programming content of ALPHA ETC PUNJABI channel.

ATN?s relationship with Star Plus continues and shall continue to grow going forward with more of Star Plus programming content aired on the ATN as well as with better exposure for shows such as ?Nach Baliye?, ?Veera?, ?Saathiya Saath Nibhaana?, ?Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai? and ?Pyar Ka Dard Meetha Meetha Pyara Pyara?.

ATN also plans to introduce Canadian television premieres of Indian movies and engage in production and exhibition of Canadian feature films based on South Asian themes; and produce and feature South Asian Canadian dramas in Hindi, Punjabi, English and Tamil and also invest in Canadian independent production.

ATN is rolling out more channels and expanding and upgrading its operations.