Viewers can now call HC judges, courtesy Asianet News

Don’t know how to get rid of encroachers upon your land? Don’t worry as top judges in Kerala are now just a phone call away.

Asianet News, the Malayalam news channel from the house of Star Jupiter Entertainment, is airing a weekly show, in which viewers can call Kerala High Court judges, including Chief Justice S. R. Bannurmath, and address their grievances to them.

The show, the first of its kind in India, will be telecast on every Sunday at 7.30 pm, starting August 02, 2009. Callers from around the world can interact with the judges live on the show, which is called Adalat (court of law).

“Callers can ask us any legal question. Well suggest possible solutions,” said Justice Kurian Joseph; while Justice Bannurmath says, “We are thankful (to the channel) for allotting prime time slot to the show.”

The first episode, that was aired last Sunday, was shot on the high court premises in Kochi on Friday. Biju Pankaj, an official of Asianet News, said the channel was ‘flooded’ with calls – mostly from the Gulf countries, which have a huge number of workers from the state – seeking legal remedies.

“On the first day of the recording, we received some 10,000 calls but were able to put through only 100 of them to the judges. The judges had agreed to spare 45 minutes per week for the show. But the shoot went on for over two hours and still many calls couldn’t be attended.” Pankaj adds.

The channel chose Friday as the day of recording because it is a public holiday in the Gulf, where more than a dozen Malayalam channels are engaged in a fierce battle for supremacy.

Many of the callers from the Gulf said they had trouble protecting their property in India from encroachers because they couldn’t stay back and file a case that was likely to go on for years. Taking note of this, the judges said they’ll pressure authorities for fast- track courts to deal with such cases.

The channel expects the programme to become a huge hit. Sponsors are already queuing up, having realised the shows commercial potential.

Amrita TV to kick off Super Star 2 on 20 July

Amrita TV is set to launch the second season of its flagship singing reality show, Super Star, starting 20 July.

Noted playback singer and composer Hariharan will flag off the show that will be aired every Monday-Friday from 7.30–8.30 pm.

The channel claims of receiving huge response at the three Super Star audition centres of Trivandrum, Calicut and Cochin.

Amrita TV had arranged the ‘Super Star Express’, a mobile audition coach that visited select colleges across Kerala for conducting spot auditions.

The show will have 20 participants between 16 to 29 years fighting for the ‘Super Star’ status.

Amrita TV firms up Saturday programming with two new shows

Malayalam entertainment channel Amrita TV is gearing up to launch two new shows on 27 June in a bid to beef up its Saturday programming.

While Business Buzz will be aired at 1.30 pm to provide an overview of the businesses in Kerala, travelogue Ezham Kadalinakkare (across the seven seas) will be telecast at 8.30 pm to capture the sights, sounds and spirit of locales around the world.

Business Buzz is divided into three sections – company profile, young businessman and business news.

‘Company profile’ gives a short summary of the firm and its performance that includes details of its origin, growth graph, product range, long term objectives, profit margins and its full history till date (in brief).

‘Young businessman’ will sketch new entrepreneurs who have taken the plunge into the speculative waters of trade and commerce.

‘Business news’ will bring the top stories from the business world, the latest headlines that haven’t been ‘broken’ by any other media, and exclusive coverage of new product launches.

Amrita TV launches election-based show ‘War Zone’

Amrita TV has launched an election programme – War Zone in a bid to give an analytic view of the electoral situation prevailing in the twenty constituencies of Kerala.

The show will air from Monday to Friday at 5 pm. It will be telecast at 11.30 am on Saturday and Sunday.

War Zone gives an account of elections that happened in past, information about the sitting MP’s and the issues affecting various constituencies.

Amrita TV to launch ‘Citizen Impact’ on 7 December

Amrita TV is set to launch a news-based reality show, Citizen Impact, starting 7 December. The show, to be aired every Sunday at 10.30 pm, aims to showcase citizens giving a variety of stories and their impact on society. Citizen Impact follows up the popular Best Citizen Journalist series, which was aired on the channel previously. The show aims to explore the outcome of the stories filed by the citizen journalists of Best Citizen Journalist and take stock of the impact they have made through a detailed feed-back from the figures who played a role in the story.
According to the channel, clippings of the report, whose effects are being explored, will be shown first, followed by incisive interviews from the persons directly or indirectly involved in the case.

Amrita TV, Kalaignar TV to launch new reality shows

Amrita TV, the Malayalam entertainment channel, and Kalaignar TV, the Tamil entertainment channel, have announced a slew of new reality shows to be launched in the coming days.

Amrita TV will launch a new reality show called Super Talent, which offers a platform for presenting many talents of a person. The channel claims to break the monotony of conventional dancing and singing based shows. Super Talent will offer a platform for participants to present any and every talent ranging from mime, mimicry, mono acting, magic, juggling, instrumental music, etc’, besides singing and dancing.

The show is based on the concept, wherein people of all ages can take part, who are artistically gifted. The participants would be assessed solely on the basis of the entertainment value of their performances. The participants would be allotted a specific time for presenting their acts on the stage. The show is currently in its audition stage and would go on air soon.

Kalaignar TV, on the other hand, is launching two new reality shows, both of which will go on air from October 18. Odi Vilayadu Pappa is a children’s dance reality show, which would be telecast at 9.00 pm. Directed by ace choreographer Kala Master, this show is expected to be on air for six months.

The second reality show of Kalaignar TV is called Dhil Dhil Manadhil, which will be aired on Saturdays at 9.30 pm. The reality show will showcase youngsters exhibiting daredevil acts.

Malayalam channel Jai Hind TV starts Gulf operations

As part of it global expansion move, Congress backed Malayalam channel Jai Hind TV has kick-started its Middle East operations to cater to the large expatriate Malayali population across the region.

The channel will air Gulf-related programmes such as daily news bulletins, a weekly news-based programme called ‘Gulf Around’, business programme ‘Gulf Souq’ and travelogue ‘Arabia’. The programmes will be aired everyday till 9 pm.

The Middle East office of the channel is located in Dubai Studio City.

Jai Hind TV was launched in August last year as a 24-hour channel with emphasis on news and current affairs programmes.

It is a joint venture between Bharath Broadcasting Network (BBN) and Jai Hind Communications (JHC), both headed by Dubai-based Keralites, and the Congress party.

Amrita TV launches Great India Race show

Amrita TV has launched an new show Great India Race (GIR), wherein the contestants will race across the length and breadth of the country, guided by hidden clues given to them when they reach a specified leg in the journey.

In the show, contestants will be in the actual world facing realities without rehearsals, without takes and without a second chance. The competition will be between partners who function in pairs. Thus, each team will consist of two persons – who could be friends, spouses, siblings, parents, relatives, companions, parent-child, teacher-student, grandparent-grandchildren, et al. They need to be above 21 years and have the authority to take their own decision and be medically fit to participate. GIR pair partners have no gender restriction.

Every competing team may have to travel by train, bus, auto, taxi, bullock cart, as the situation demands. They may be required to maneuver busy roads, trek lonely paths, climb mountains, cross rivers, encounter heat and cold, or rain and snow; enjoy and experience different cultures, taste different food.

Each GIR team will be provided with a fixed sum of money for completing every leg of the competition. Borrowing money, use of credit cards or taking help of friends, relatives, contacts to enjoy an unfair advantage in the GIR will not be permitted.

Aspirants have to register by March 8 by sending CVs and CDs of the team, which should demonstrate the team’s attitude towards life with an adventurous spirit, demonstrating the pair’s mutual chemistry.

Amrita TV to air finale of Super Dancer Junior live

Amrita TV is all set to telecast live the grand finale of kids dance talent hunt show Pepsodent Super Dancer Junior on 24 February from 6.30 pm onwards. The selection of the winner will be based on SMS voting by viewers across the world.The finale will be held in front of 2000-invited audiences in Trivandrum and is expected to last for nearly three hours.

document.write(“”)

Besides having competition performances from the four finalists (Anna, Nayana, Sheha, and Shradha), the finale will see entertaining programme consisting of cinematic dance by actor Roma, choreographed dances directed by Kala Master comprising contestants of Super Dancer and Super Dancer Junior, and specialised troupes presenting tribal dance, martial art weapon dance and classical dance.

The winner will be awarded with a prize worth Rs 500,000 while the runner-up bags a prize of Rs 300,000.

Amrita TV has announced that the entire income from SMS will be donated to the well-being of underprivileged children under its ongoing public service campaign, ‘Send an SMS. Save a Child’. This initiative was launched in November 2007, wherein Amrita TV pledged the SMS revenue from all its reality shows for needy children Pepsodent is the brand sponsor and Amway the presenting sponsor of Super Dancer Junior Super Dancer Junior claims to be the only reality show on a GEC to be telecast seven days a week. It commenced in September 2007 and has completed 160 episodes on prime time.

document.write(“”)

document.write(“”)

Surabhi Lekshmi wins Amrita TV’s Best Actor

Amrita TV’s reality show Best Actor, whose grand finale was held at Calicut on January 25 2008, saw four finalists vying for the Oxywash Best Actor title, which ultimately went to Surabhi Lekshmi, a native of Calicut.

The Best Actor enjoys a free trip to Hollywood studio and sessions with two top celebrities in the field of theatre arts. In addition, she also wins a trip to schools of drama in Yale and New York, and an opportunity to participate in auditions at Broadway, and also opportunities to work with prominent Malayalam filmmakers, says an official press release.

The runner-up Sidhartha Siva, from Thiruvalla, won an car. Siva has been engaged in direction and acting and also released a collection of poems. Although thousands of contestants appeared for screen tests in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kerala, only four reached the finals through an elimination process of public SMS voting.

As part of the grand finale, Amrita TV also honoured a few thespians by way of mementos in recognition of their contributions in the field of theatre arts. The 105-episode reality show was being telecast from SeptEMBER 2007 on prime time Monday through Friday on Amrita TV. The channel will air the finale for its worldwide audiences on February 03.