MUMBAI: Zee Marathi said Saturday that two of its shows, ?Dance Maharashtra Dance? and ?Home Minister?, have been selected in ?Greatest Shows on the Earth? series by RDF Television from Britain.

RDF Television has been commissioned to make ?The Greatest Shows on the Earth? by Channel 4, one of the four terrestrial broadcasters in the UK.
 
Zee Marathi business head Nikhil Sane said, "Zee Marathi has always launched shows that have inspired and set trends in Marathi Entertainment. Each show has catered to range of emotions; love, pride, honor, fulfillment, joy, tears of compassion. The shows are receiving great applause from nationally and internationally which boosts our enthusiasm. It gives us great pleasure and encouragement to give innovative and best quality entertainment to our viewers. Zee Marathi always believe on quality entertainment and chose to focus on the interpersonal relationships that reflects the ethos of region."

"?Dance Maharashtra Dance?is a show that is evidently well loved in the region and offers a window onto the very heart and soul of Indian life. Home Minister is a show that fascinates us in the way it celebrates the typical humble Maharashtrian housevives. We do not have anything like this in Britain," RDF Television- London executive producer of Greatest Shows on the Earth Teressa Watkins said.

Dance Maharashtra Dance is a dancing talent hunt show judged by Urmila Matondkar and mentored by Swaroop Medara, Devendra Shelar and Soniya Parchure.

Meanwhile, Home Minister is a game show where two families participate and compete with each other.

MUMBAI: Zee Marathi is all set to give a stage to dance lovers by introducing a dance reality show ?Dance Maharashtra Dance?.

The channel has taken the cue of launching the show from ?Dance India Dance? that is a very popular property of sister channel Zee TV.

?Dance Maharashtra Dance? will start auditioning people in the age group of 15-30 in Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nasik, Kolhapur, Pune, Thane and Mumbai.

From the auditions conducted in these seven cities, 18 finalists will be selected for the show and after which the "Dancing Superstar" will be crowned.

The show is expected to go on-air in the second week of December and will air bi-weekly at 9.30 pm. However, the final date of launch of the show is yet to be decided.

Zee Marathi business head Nikhil Sane said, "?Dance Maharashtra Dance? is the ultimate platform to showcase the talent and charisma of Maharashtra?s most gifted dancers. In a bid to attract the finest dancing talent from every nook and corner of the Maharashtra, Dance Maharashtra Dance?s creative team has been conducting auditions across 7 cities in Maharashtra. The show is shaping up beautifully and we are confident that it will see a fabulous innings with passionate aspirants!!"

MUMBAI: Zee Marathi is launching the new season of its chat show ?Khupte Tithe Gupte? on 7 November.

To be hosted by Avadhoot Gupte, the first episode of this new season will witness Narayan Rane as the guest.

In an unusual act, Rane will be seen expressing his respect towards the Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray on the show.

"I have utmost respect for Balasaheb Thackeray. I call him the king of Maharashtra and Marathi people. I had to leave Shiv Sena as my presence in the party was causing rifts between Balasaheb and his son. Being an honest party worker, I was ready to obey Balasaheb but I could not do the same for his son. So, I moved out in order to maintain peace between the father and son", Rane said when asked about his reason behind leaving the party.

The show will air every Wednesday and Thursday at 9.30 pm.

MUMBAI: Zee has tied up with Bruhan Maharashtra Mandal of North America (BMM) to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi across the US! Zee Marath will revel with the Marathi Diaspora in the US on the occasion Ganapati celebrations!

 
Ganesh Chaturthi Events that will take place in various cities across the coming week will be a celebration of the birth of Lord Ganesh, with elements of Marathi culture along with food and music:

• September 22nd - Marathi Mandal Dallas
• September 22nd - Marathi Mandal Chicago
• September 22nd - Marathi Mandal Boston
• September 22nd - Marathi Mandal Cleveland
• September 23rd - Marathi Mandal Pittsburg
• September 29th - Marathi Mandal New Jersey
• September 29th - Marathi Mandal Los Angeles
• September 29th - Marathi Mandal Houston
• September 29th - Marathi Mandal Atlanta
• October 6th -Marathi Mandal Washington DC
   

Zee Marathi will have a presence at all these events. Attendees will get to know more about Zee Marathi?s programming and take home a Ganesh idol.

Zee Americas GM Sameer Targe said, "BMM is making great efforts to bring the Marathi community together and keep them connected. This is a perfect opportunity for ZEE Marathi to support BMM and their initiatives!"

BMM president Ashish Chaughule said, "Lokmanya Tilak gave the festival mode to Ganeshotsav mainly to enhance the sense of togetherness and to build the community. I am confident that BMM?s partnership with Zee Marathi will bring 40,000 Maharashtrian families in USA and Canada together."

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) expects ad revenue growth to stay muted this fiscal but a cut in costs will protect the Indian broadcasting company?s profitability.

The company?s expenses outside sports will be up 15 per cent but overall spending will be lower. The losses from sports will stay within the guidance of Rs 1 billion, down from Rs 2.08 billion in the earlier fiscal.

?We do not expect a big bounce back in ad revenues. The environment is less predictable,? said Zeel president corporate strategy and business development Atul Das.

Zeel?s ad revenues are under pressure, both in terms of volumes and ad rates. Besides a slowdown in the advertising economy, the company?s flagship channel Zee TV and regional channel Zee Marathi have lost market share.

The company posted a 4.2 per cent drop in ad revenue to Rs 3.95 billion for the three-month period ended September 2011.

"If you take out the sports business, we have actually posted a growth in ad revenue over the same quarter last year. In the second quarter of the previous fiscal, we had bigger cricketing events. But the ad climate will stay weak this fiscal," said Das.

Zee TV, which is now fourth in the Hindi GEC pecking order, will not make any dramatic shift in its programming strategy. The programming hours will increase from 29 hours per week to 33 hours. The thrust, though, will be to fix the primary slots before launching original shows in the ancillary time bands.

"We had chalked out a strategy of upping the original programming hours much before we lost market share. Our investments are independent of the loss in share," averred Das.

The sports business loss for the first half of this fiscal stands at Rs 792 million. "We are confident of meeting our earlier guidance of maximum loss of Rs 1 billion from the sports business this fiscal," said Das.

Zee has rights for South Africa-Australia and Pakistan-Sri Lanka cricket series in the second half of FY‘12.

Zeel has a net cash of Rs 11.1 billion. The company has gone slow on its buyback programme, having spend Rs 1.65 billion so far.

"We had said we could go up to Rs 7 billion. We have spent Rs 1.65 billion so far, but have time till March 2012," said Das.