Big FM Bangalore launches ‘Bitti Harusha Idi Varusha’

Big FM Bangalore has embarked on an initiative to ease the financial burden through a contest christened as ‘Bitti Harusha Idi Varusha’. The contest, which commenced on January 8 and will continue till January 14, is aimed at giving listeners the opportunity to win something for free for an entire year this Sankranti.

A combination of on and off-air events, the campaign is essentially a simple fun quiz, aimed at testing the knowledge of Big FM listeners around recession and jobs. The Big Ticket shall entitle winners to an annual free supply of groceries, gym memberships, gold jewellery, apparels and sarees, fitness and beauty vouchers, and much more.

While six winners will be declared each day, the grand finale is something to be looked forward to, which is scheduled to be held on January 13, 2009 at a popular mall, where 10 shortlisted listeners would be quizzed and fight for big prizes to last them an entire year.

Sunil Kumaran, head, Big FM – Karnataka & Kerala, said, “We are committed to creating superlative content and entertaining our listeners by providing them wholesome entertainment while addressing their need requirements.”

“‘Bitti Harusha Idi Varusha’ has been conceptualised keeping in mind the prevailing mood of the listeners, and we are confident of receiving packed participation from our listeners, who have made us the No. 1 station in the city.” Sunil adds.

SFM to host Kalaa Awards for Kannada film industry

In a first of its kind initiative, the Sun Network promoted FM venture, SFM plans to host the Kalaa Awards 2009, felicitating the best of the Kannada film industry on 24 January 2009 in Bangalore.

The Kalaa Awards are the first such to be held by any radio channel for the film music industry. The uniqueness of the awards lies in that there were no nominations for the awards. Listeners from Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore and Gulbarga were requested to vote for the best lyricist, singers, music composers and others via SMS.

The categories for the awards include best music composer, lyricist, female singer, male singer, song etc. A special award and a Music Icon of the year 2008 award would be given to wellknown names in the industry for their significant contribution to the Kannada film and music industry, it is learnt.

Says SFM Programming Director (Karnataka) Sathish Chandra, “Radio stations mainly depend on the music industry and nothing has been done in the past to acknowledge its contribution. Kalaa awards is our way of giving back to the industry for their support over two years of our existence.”

On the awards night, the station will host an hour long special programme, interspersed with messages from the winners and their songs across all four stations – Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore and Gulbarga. States Chandra, “We would be changing the flow of the programmes for the day. We would be playing the tracks that have been voted by the listeners and try to link on air from the venue. We would have feeds from the winners interacting with the RJs on air.”

SFM in Karnataka mostly plays Kannada content and Bollywood occupies a small portion of its shows. Explains Chandra, “We play three Bollywood tracks every hour during the prime drive time in the mornings and the evenings and the other content is mostly Kannada.” The voting lines for the awards close on 20 January 2009 and the results would be declared at the awards ceremony.

Zee Kannada enters the Limca Book of World Records

Zee Kannada has entered the Limca Book of World Records for its unique handkerchief campaign in support of the Indian team in the Cricket World Cup 2007. The channel’s record breaking feat is mentioned under The Biggest and the Smallest section.

Zee Kannada is the first Kannada channel to enter the record books. The campaign, launched in February 2007, saw the channel’s team travel across the state to over 50 schools, 25 colleges, IT companies, NGOs, media houses, malls, institutions, shops, and succeeded in collecting over 55,000 hankies, thus creating the world’s longest chain of signed handkerchiefs.

Anup Chandrasekharan, business head, Zee Kannada, said, “We at Zee Kannada strive to do things differently and do the best. Records and awards are definitely materialistic recognition for such efforts. This is entirely a team effort and would not have been possible otherwise. The team is ecstatic to be a part of the prestigious Limca Book of World Records.”

The chain extended over 17 km in distance. The record was created amidst a lot of fanfare at an event, which was inaugurated by Mysore royal family scion Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar at Palace Grounds, Bangalore. The event also witnessed the record of maximum number of signed handkerchiefs collected (55,000) and the biggest handkerchief with signatures (measuring 48 ft x 52.5 ft).

The campaign had received an overwhelming response not only from the people of Karnataka, but from the entire country. Prominent signatories included Subhash Chandra, chairman, Essel Group, signing the first handkerchief; followed by the then chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy; the then deputy CM, BS Yediyurappa; and various personalities like former home minister, MP Prakash; member of the board and director HR, Infosys, Mohandas Pai; Chenraj Jain, chairman, Jain Group of Institutions; artiste Umashree; swimmer Nisha Millet; and music director Hamsalekha, among many others.

Pyramid Saimira Cine Gandha Awards held on March 2

Pyramid Saimira has announced the Pyramid Saimira Cine Gandha Awards 2007, in recognition of contributions that have been made to the Kannada film industry.

The Awards include various categories like Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor in Lead Role, Best Actress in Lead Role, Best Actor in Supporting Role, Best Actress in Supporting Role, Best Debut Director, Best Editor, Best Music Director and Best Choreographer.

Along with the fore-mentioned awards, other special awards were also presented, which include the Saptaswara Award for the seven music directors, Snehajeevi Awards to Dr. Vishnuvardhan, Ambarish, Srinath and Ravichandran and the Dr. Rajkumar Trinetra awards to his sons Shivraj Kumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar.

The jury that examined the nominations in the various categories comprised of actor Srinath; senior journalist P. G. Srinivasa Murthy; Thomas D’souza, Secretary, Karnataka Film Chambers of Commerce; Shivram Christ, Member, Censor Board Panel and Dr. Girija Mahesh.

The Awards are an embodiment under the Kannada channel, Kasturi TV. The Awards ceremony was held at the Bangalore Palace, on March 2.

Sun TV to launch kids channels in Telugu, Kannada & Malayalam

After its success in winning over kids in the south with its Tamil language channel Chutti TV, Sun TV is now gearing up to launch kids channels in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.The Telugu channel will be called Khushi TV, while the Kannada channel will be called Chotu TV. The Malayalam channel has been named Kochu TV.

Speaking about the channels, Chutti TV channel head Kavitha Jubin says, “In two month’s time, all these channels will be on air.”

With local as well as international content, all the three channels will target 2-14 year olds.

Elaborating on the content, Jubin says, “Our programming will range from comedy, action, education, reality shows and entertainment. Apart from the dubbed content, we also have adaptations of popular programmes.”

On being queried about any competition from Disney’s Jetix, which is also running in Tamil and Telugu, Jubin said, “Our content is different from Jetix. They have more of action-based shows whereas we have shows across different categories.”

Chutti TV, the first Kids’ channel from Sun’s stable, was launched on 29 April 2007.

Preethi Yeke.. @ Rs 1 cr, Zee Kannada denies

Zee Kannada has denied that it has paid an exorbitant sum of Rs 1.08 crore for the satellite rights of the Kannada movie Preethi Yeke Bhoomi Mele Ide (PYBMI).

Anup Chandrasekharan, Business head, Zee Kannada said that the amount paid was nowhere in the region. “We have paid a much lesser sum, which cannot be revealed due to the nondisclosure clause in the agreement signed with the producers of the movie,” said Chandrasekharan.

Chandrasekharan also denied that Zee Kannada had acquired the rights of the film, Sathya in Love, for Rs 81 lakh. “Zee Kannada does not believe in paying unrealistic prices for movies, even at the cost of losing them to rival channels. Zee Kannada will not purchase a movie for a price higher than its market worth,” the statement from the channel noted.

PYBMI was procured by Zee Kannada in December and is one among the 27 Kannada movies that the channel has acquired last year