The Hindu Business Line : Krishnaswamy Associates ties up with Rajshree Media

Chennai April 24 Documentary and television film maker Krishnaswamy Associates Private Ltd has entered into a tie-up with the Mumbai-based Rajshree Media to broadcast content on the Internet.

Free of charge

Rajshree Media will stream and promote Krishnaswamy Associates' content online that can be viewed free of charge. This includes documentaries and short films such as India 5555 (not released in India); I; Reality behind religion, and Who loses when India wins.

Films, documentaries

Initially, 10 short films and documentaries will be available for online viewing and the company plans to add others from its repertoire of 400 titles on an ongoing basis. Over the next fortnight, the four-hour long film Indus Valley to Indira Gandhi will be available online in two parts. A collection of short films based on Tamil writer and Jnanpith award winner Mr Jayakantan, made by Krishnaswamy Associates in Hindi, will also be added, besides Tamil content.

"We are in talks with organisations like Doordarshan and Singapore Television who own the copyrights for of some of our films. If they permit us, we can put our films such as Silappadhikaaram, Manimekalai, When the gods dance and others online," said Dr S. Krishnaswamy, Founder and Managing Director of the company, at a press conference.

When asked why there was no charge on viewing the films, he said "The films were made and released quite a while ago (some in 1970s) and we have made reasonable returns on our investment. Now we want people to see them for educative purposes such as research," he said. Under the revenue sharing agreement with Rajshree Media, the company will get about 10 paise for every rupee of content broadcast, he added.

Currently the company has finished producing `Indian Imprints', a historical encompassing the `Cholas', `Cheras', `Pallavas' and other dynasties in South India and is likely to broadcast it on television by July. It will soon start producing a television series on scientific thinking, funded by the Centre for Cooperation in Science and Technology among Developing Societies.