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Mr Shantonu Aditya

Meera Mohanty

New Delhi, Aug. 14 UTV’s World Movies is planning to host a film festival by the end of this year or early next year. According to UTV Global Broadcasting’s (UGBL) Executive Director Mr Shantonu Aditya, the company is also acquiring theatrical and DVD rights along with the telecast rights for films for its World Movies channel. “We are already doing special screening of some films for Mumbai’s Enlighten Film Society for example,” said Mr Aditya. Events like these, he hopes, will help popularise movies from over 35 countries that it showcases for the Indian audiences.

The channel will screen a line up of movies starting August 22. The films are to be introduced by filmmakers such as Manoj Night Shymalan, Anurag Kashap and Mahesh Bhat. According to Mr Aditya, who quotes TAM ratings, UTV’s six-month-old channel ranks third in the category of non-Hindi movie channels and reaches 20 million homes. UGBL is investing significantly in expanding its library of 650 titles. The gap between a theatre release and TV release is shrinking both for international and as well as Hindi releases, said Mr Aditya.

UGBL has lined up some of the big and successful films of this year for its Hindi movie channel including Jannat and the UTV-produced Jodhaa Akbar. The latter’s TV premiere will be supported by a contest that will offer the winner a chance to meet lead actors, Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. “Advertisers are very happy that we can offer them big hits at regular intervals,” said Mr Aditya. UGBL has already taken its movie channels to Sri Lanka, Nepal, Japan, Korea and Australia through distribution tie-ups; the US, Dubai and other West Asian countries are on its radar.

The company is currently focussed on consolidating the five channels it has launched in the last seven months, the most recent being the business channel UTVi. The youth channel, Bindaas, has established itself, said Mr Aditya, and will now extend its brand beyond television, with propositions for the Web and the mobile space.

The channel will also be conducting ground activities across 50 college campuses. UGBL has no plans for a General Entertainment Channel at the moment.

More Stories on : Promotions & Offers | Radio/TV | Cinema

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