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The Friday Blockbuster Velliminnalgal will also coincide
with the Tamil New Year in April which will be celebrated by a film
(Vallarasu) starring superstar Vijayakanth.
Raj Television Network head - national sales B Shankar spoke to
indiantelevision.com about the new initiative. "We have lined
an impressive list of films such as Kamal Hassan's Tenali,
Vijayakanth's Vallarasu, Prashant's Parthenrasiten
and 5-Star amongst others. Raj TV will create waves by showing
these blockbusters as something like this has never been attempted
on the Tamil cable and satellite TV industry," Shankar said.
The network will increase "noise levels" by backing the
Friday Blockbusters with a multi-media campaign estimated to be
in the region of Rs 7 million. "We have finalised 50 hoarding
sites all across Tamil Nadu. We will also advertise in print - Daily
Thanti, Dina Malar and The Hindu to some extent. For
the first time, Raj TV will use radio FM for the promotional campaign,"
says Shankar.
Market buzz also indicates that Raj Television Network is on the
verge of finalising its ad agency and Mudra seems to be a leading
contender. In fact, Hindustan Lever has already signed up as the
title sponsor for the Friday Blockbuster.
Raj TV is also gearing up to introduce other new offerings in the
post cricket World Cup phase. In fact, it was buoyed by the fairly
decent ratings for films such as 12B (aired on 7 March) and
Ninaikatha Nallillai (aired on 14 March) which coincided
with the World Cup. Advertisers such as Reckitt Benkiser and Paras
had supported the March films.
Channel officials claim to have conducted a coup of sorts by roping
in ace director K Balachander (Minbinbingal Productions) to direct
a daily soap called Rekkai Kattiyamanasu. This will be aired
every day between Monday and Thursday at 8:30 pm. Officials claim
that Raj TV's existing soap Gitanjali (8 pm to 8:30 pm),
an AVM productions, is already scaling peaks of popularity and is
one of the top programmes on the channel.
"Balachander is returning to the small screen after a long
gap. The family soap is the biggest daily in terms of scale, production
values and has been extensively shot all over India," says
Shankar, who remains tight-lipped about the storyline.
Raj TV has also tied up with Jayashree Pictures, said to be close
to super-star Rajnikanth, to produce a first-of-its-kind family
suspense serial called Ennsattaninda Neram. This daily will
be aired at 9 pm between Monday and Thursday.
There are also plans to refurbish the quality of the afternoon
slot and also the morning slot. Channel officials confirm that they
have tied up with a leading national production house to create
a breakfast programme in the 6:30 am-9 am slot. The programme will
showcase interesting aspects of cultural hotspots in Tamil Nadu;
issues related to health and fitness; problems faced by the common
man; and feature celebrities in the world of performing arts.
By July-end or the first week of August, the network will conduct
its annual event - Mudalvan Awards - wherein the top students of
class X and XII will be felicitated. "This is into its fourth
year in succession and we have gained tremendous mileage from the
earlier ones. Eminent personalities such as MK Stalin and J Krishnamoorthy
have attended the function as chief guests," says Shankar.
As regards Raj TV's new Telugu channel, Vissa TV, it will be a
free-to-air channel and will be beamed via Thaicom satellite.
The channel has reportedly earmarked an initial investment of Rs
500 million for the new channel with around Rs 250 million to be
pumped in the coming months.
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