Sharon Prabhakar: desi Lucy
* It is uncommon, very uncommon. However typically dd does pull off surprises. This time, it is upped Star TV once more. There will be over 110 hours of Barcelona protection, a lot of it dwell, DD’s simply been fortunate: their settlement with Asia Broadcasting Union offers them the Olympics package deal for lower than $60,000, in line with Deputy Director-Common, DD, Chitra Narain. Final time the Authorities raked in over Rs 1 crore in promoting revenue-and that too for under 5 days of Wimbledon. This time it’s going to be a fortnight filled with advert income.
* The I Love Lucy present was the usual joke about dd recycling previous American sitcoms. However Lucy’s clearly an endearing and sturdy character. There’s now going to be an I Love Lucy – Indian fashion. Nadira Babbar’s adapting it as a collection for ATN, the satellite tv for pc channel. And Lucy is being performed by singer Sharon Prabhakar. Says Babbar: “It is obtained numerous potential to be tailored into our tradition.” Naturally, there will likely be a desi Desi – Arnaz.

A nonetheless from Poirot: Sunday suspense
* One advantage of the serial rip-off – which has held in abeyance sponsored serials – there’s heaps extra time for rivetting programmes similar to Agatha Christie’sPoirot, being aired each Sunday with the marvellous British actor David Suchet taking part in Poirot, humorous moustache and all. Suchet learn over 30 Christie mysteries to get into the character, which fortuitously is much less hammy than different Poirot avatars like Albert Finney’s and Peter Ustinov’s. And for as soon as, dd’s not serving warmed-up left-overs: it is present within the UK, too.
* In December 1989, Britain’s Channel 4 interviewed freelancer Hilla Sethna, who now additionally does public relations, for a documentary on Parsis in India. Identified for her tongue-in-cheek frankness, Sethna stated, amongst different issues, that Lord Zarathustra would have been sad to see how his faith was being “mispractised” have been he to return right down to earth. The movie, Eye On Asia – The Parsees, proven by Star TV just a few weeks in the past, now has the Parsi neighborhood all set to take Sethna to court docket. The bubbly Sethna, nonetheless, lashed again in print, and the battle continues. “What they’re actually upset about is the truth that they have been proven of their center class finest.the smaller Parsis exist however they do not acknowledge them,” she says.

Sethna: perturbing the Parsis
* One thing is decidedly fishy concerning the proposed Metro Channel. The inexperienced sign’s been given to allot time slots to impartial producers. However preserving it off limits to cross-media seems to be a muddled determination. Or, definitely a contradiction. The cross-media – corporations which have print media considerations as nicely – are already current on the primary channel, HTV, Occasions Tv and Enterprise Tv – among the many different corporations which do present affair programmes for DD – are additionally a part of bigger media homes. The Rajiv authorities first considered these restrictions-they even introduced over paperwork from Australia the place there are cross-media restrictions for tv. Why is the Authorities cautious of the print barons? Do they really feel that they may be capable of management impartial producers with larger ease? As for the Broadcasting Council, it is nonetheless not clear who would be the members. Some like Girish Karnad have refused as a result of they’re thinking about making programmes for tv.
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