| BANGALORE:
Zee Kannada is likely to enter into film production.
The buzz is that it is roping in a reputed Kannada film director for the task. What
is further fuelling this speculation is that a large number of Kannada film personalities
were present at the first anniversary celebrations of the channel held in Bangalore
yesterday.
Kannada film industry doyen the late Dr. Rajkumar’s wife Parvathiamma who
arrived with her son Puneet Rajkumar cut the Zee Kannada anniversary cake. The
anniversary programme bash is to be broadcast on Sunday on Zee Kannada
The southern regional
channel programs are more movie content driven in general. Movie rights have been
selling at a premium, with the Sun group owning a number of the Kannada movie
title rights, followed by ETV and the much delayed Kannada Kasturi channel to
be launched by the Karnataka Chief Minister’s wife. Zee
has acquired 50 movie titles, sources in the company say. But with the prices
heading northwards, the strategy has been to pick and choose selected titles.
“There
is no point in buying every thing that is in sight like some of our competitors
who own around 800 plus titles have done,’” reveals a Zee source, obviously
referring to Sun. “A
big problem in acquiring movie rights is the lack of clarity about ownership of
the movies. Many of the Kannada titles have multiple owners. So, who do we approach
for the rights? The documentation is an absolute mess in many cases,” adds
the source.
Zee Kannada is slowly trying to shift viewership from movie content focus to locally
produced television shows. DD Metro is the other channel whose programming content
is not as movie driven as the others. “A
channel takes four to five years to turn around and start giving profits. Both
Zee Kannada and Zee Telugu are in the red currently,” informs another Zee
source. “A proposal is in the offing for the corporate office to sanction
our foray into Kannada films,” he adds. | 
