The Hindu Business Line : NDTV Imagine to enter movie production

Line call
Has tied up with Excell for home videos.
Talks are on with PVR Cinemas for their theatrical release.
NDTV Imagine will also have its own new musical show.

Meera Mohanty

New Delhi, May 5 NDTV Imagine’s first movie production will go on the floors in two-three months’ time. “We are already going through scripts and will soon be actively involved in the movie business,” said Mr Sameer Nair, CEO, NDTV Imagine.

The budgets will depend on the casting and the script. “We are staying away from high, low, big, small, movies. We will make good movies, and the budget can start anywhere from Rs 3-4 crore, and go up to Rs 20-25 crore or more depending on the project,” said Mr Nair.

The company’s other new business — NDTV Lumiere — a distribution platform for world movies, will launch its television channel in June. With 300 titles — some so new that they are scheduled for screenings at Cannes this year — the company is targeting various platforms.

While it has tied up with Excell for home videos, talks are on with PVR Cinemas for their theatrical release. The idea is to make it into a movement of sorts, targeting not just hotels and corporate screenings, but film festivals, foreign language students and communities belonging to, for example, the advertising or media industry.

Quarter past

The general entertainment channel, which kicked off NDTV’s entertainment business, has completed a quarter and claims to have had the most successful launch. The channel says it has maintained its third position in the genre for ratings during prime time, if you excuse a week here and there.

“We are happy to have achieved what we set out to do — programming that was different and not ‘me too’,” said Mr Nair.

“It is quite commendable that we have managed to stick to our idea of original programming and haven’t gone and acquired a movie or replayed an event to spike up ratings, and have stuck to what we believe is quality populist programming,” he added.

Betting on fiction

The channel claims to have earned the loyalty of a slightly younger audience, which should help it win advertisers who have already committed more than Rs 100 crore since its launch. Mr Nair is betting on fiction programming.

“Reality programming is easily duplicated, the breakthrough will come when we can develop high quality fiction for prime time, and go beyond the daytime soaps that are currently aired at that hour.”

The success of its version of Ramayan during prime time can be appreciated from the mythological programmes that have popped up on other channels.

NDTV Imagine will also have its own new musical show which it insists is different.

Directed by Mr Gajendra Singh, ‘Junoon’ will pit music genres against one another and have Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Ila Arun and Anand Raj Anand mentoring contestants who will sing sufi, folk and Hindi film songs.

More Stories on : Diversification | Radio/TV | Cinema

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page