NEW DELHI: India TV, a Hindi language news channel, today announced the launch of Breaking News, a news show, by drumming up rare visuals of a Dubai-based don and his links with the Indian entertainment industry.
The lead story in the inaugural show on Wednesday aired first-ever video visuals of Dawood Ibrahim and his associates. Dawood is not only on India’s most -wanted list, but has been dubbed a global terrorist by the USA.
However, no Indian or US agencies have been able to procure Dawood's moving images and most Indian news channels use old photographs of Dawood, mostly snapped years back in Sharjah during cricket matches played there.
The sensational video was provided to India TV by one of its viewers and includes Dawood’s pictures with a leading Hindi film industry actor.
Breaking News, claimed by India TV to be the "biggest" such show, is about unveiling lesser known facts relating to subjects and issues of national and social importance.
Rajat Sharma and Sudhir Choudhary, two well-known faces of Indian TV industry, present the new show in a format that marries interactivity with live generation of news. The three-hour show from 9.00 pm to midnight airs from Monday to Friday, according to an official statement from India TV.
The statement quoted Rajat Sharma, editor-in-chief and chairman of India TV, as saying, “Astonishing as it is to see never-before pictures of Dawood, the video is a never-before opportunity to highlight Bollywood’s unholy nexus with the Dubai underworld. The D-Company video forces us to think deeper about an industry, which is the source of so much pleasure to us and our loved ones. It brings back on the national agenda, the urgent need to cleanse the funding that fuels one of the few world-class industries that we can boast of.
“Our intent has been to portray evidence never presented before, and not to cast aspersions on the individuals involved or their affiliates. People depicted as part of the (television) presentation are incidental. There is always more to life than what is visible to the eye, on both the good and the bad side and India TV understand this equation very well.”
Sharma added that by engaging experts from within the Indian film industry and opinion makers on the show, the thrust is to take the “debate to a higher level, capturing a wider view on underlying issues.”
Interestingly,India TV tied up with DTH service provider Dish TV, 20 per cent owned by Zee Telefilms, to drum up public support by airing the news channel between 9 p.m. and midnight on Wednesday at various places via Dish's mobile vans. Dish TV lent about six mobile vans to India TV on request.
