NDTV ready for big entertainment leap

The company firms up plans to foray into the regional language space; Bollywood also on the radar.

It’s been a little over six months since NDTV Networks launched NDTV Imagine, and the entertainment division is bubbling with excitement.

Headed by former Star India CEO Sameer Nair, the company launched a Bollywood channel, NDTV Showbiz, earlier this month. The company is now firming up plans to launch a slew of regional and international channels and enter Bollywood.

Sameer Nair, CEO, NDTV Imagine, says: “When we started off, the mandate was to build an entertainment company. A Hindi general entertainment channel is just one of the many things under the entertainment space.”

In its bid for differentiated content, the company is creating a series of animation content, to be aired by June 2009. The animated series will be half-hour episodes, which can be dubbed and sold to other regional channels.

The Shah Rukh Khan-promoted production house, Red Chillies Entertainment, is said to be in talks with the channel. Renowned filmmaker Karan Johar who holds an equity stake in NDTV Imagine — through his Dharma Productions — will launch his second show on the channel.

Nair plans to operate a bouquet of channels that will encompass regional and international channels. It plans to leverage on its partnership with NBC, which operates two channels in Asia — NBC SkyFi and NBC Universal.

“We will introduce these channels in India by the year-end. We are also talking to other international players for introducing genre channels for India like kids, action among others,” says Nair.

Earlier this year, NBC Universal and NDTV formed a strategic alliance under which NBC acquired 26 per cent stake in NDTV Networks — the holding company of NDTV Imagine.

NDTV Lumiere — the subsidiary floated in association with Manmohan Shetty and Sunil Doshi (of the Bheja Fry fame) to showcase world cinema in India — will launch its world cinema channel in September.

“We have released 8-10 films across PVR Cinemas in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, Kolkata and will soon include Chennai. We hope to sign on other theatre chains like Adlabs Cinemas, Fame, Inox Leisure, and so on,” says Nair.

NDTV Lumiere also holds the online distribution rights for these films across Saarc countries. The films are available for download from entertainment portal Jaman.com at $1.99.

The company has also formed a film wing, NDTV Imagine Film Company, and signed a co-production deal with Manmohan Shetty for around five movies.

“We intend to make movies with budgets up to Rs 15 crore. Currently, we have almost 25-30 films at varied stages of production. We will co-produce, produce and distribute movies,” says Nair.