MUMBAI: Star India‘s Bengali movie channel Jalsha Movies which launched on 16 December made a debut with 154 GRPs in West Bengal, which the broadcaster claims is the biggest ever opening for any channel in the Bengali market since 2008.

According to Star India president - ad sales and Star Jalsha president and GM Kevin Vaz, the channel‘s superior content coupled with aggressive marketing and distribution contributed to the ratings.

"The channel is already setting new benchmarks and is redefining the pleasure of watching movies for our audiences within a week of its launch. This is a stepping stone for us and we hope to further live up to the expectations by offering a never before entertainment experience to our viewers," he said.

The channel was launched with the television premiere of Bengali superstar Jeet-starrer Awara that clocked 5.3 TVR.

Jalsha Movies, which has a five-year deal with Bengali production house Shree Venkatesh Films, already has a library of 350 movies under its belt. The deal with Shree Venkatesh will give Jalsha Movies the exclusive right to air all the movies of the banner to be released in next five years.

Going forward Vaz said that Jalsha Movies will continue to have big movie festivals like Dev festival, Mithun festival and so on.

"We will also have one or two big movie premieres every month. We are soon premiering Challenge II which is the biggest blockbuster during Diwali in West Bengal market," Vaz added.

The free-to-air channel is available on all cable platforms including Manthan, DigiCable and Siti Cable apart from DTH platforms like Tata Sky, Videocon d2h and Airtel digital TV.