NDTV Good Times, India’s first lifestyle channel, has been awarded the ‘Best Lifestyle Channel’ at the recently held Indy’s Awards for Excellence in Mass Communications, Advertising & Branding. The Indy’s awards 2008 were announced amidst much glitz and glamour in Mumbai to honour excellence in mass communications, including fields like advertising, media planning and buying and public relations.The chief guest for the evening was Girish Agarwal, Director Marketing, DNA, Bhaskar Group. The special guests for the evening included industry stalwarts like M. G. Parameswaran, Executive Director & CEO, FCB-ULKA Advertising Private Ltd; Arvind Sharma, Chairman & CEO, Leo Burnett; Anurag Batra, Managing Director and Editor in Chief, Exchange4media Group and Parthodas Gupta, CEO, Future Media.

Speaking on the occasion, Shibani Sharma Khanna, Channel Head, NDTV Good Times said, “NDTV Good Times has emerged as a clear winner among the slew of channels launched recently in the Indian television market. We wanted to position our channel way beyond the rest and this award stands testimony to what we have set to achieve and what is to come.”

The Indy’s draws ups nominations from the industry which are then analyzed and judged at two levels- Mass polling and Jury verdict. Post compilations from polling by the masses in the metros and verdict by a distinguished jury involving industry’s who’s who, the winners are adjudged according to the weightage received by the nominations from the above two processes. This was the second year of the Indy’s award ceremony.

After its success in winning over kids in the south with its Tamil language channel Chutti TV, Sun TV is now gearing up to launch kids channels in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.The Telugu channel will be called Khushi TV, while the Kannada channel will be called Chotu TV. The Malayalam channel has been named Kochu TV.

Speaking about the channels, Chutti TV channel head Kavitha Jubin says, “In two month’s time, all these channels will be on air.”

With local as well as international content, all the three channels will target 2-14 year olds.

Elaborating on the content, Jubin says, “Our programming will range from comedy, action, education, reality shows and entertainment. Apart from the dubbed content, we also have adaptations of popular programmes.”

On being queried about any competition from Disney’s Jetix, which is also running in Tamil and Telugu, Jubin said, “Our content is different from Jetix. They have more of action-based shows whereas we have shows across different categories.”

Chutti TV, the first Kids’ channel from Sun’s stable, was launched on 29 April 2007.

Right wing religious outfit called Hindu Samrajya Sena ransacked NDTV’s office in Ahmedabad to protest against the news channels running a SMS poll on M F Husain as a contender of Bharat Ratna.

A group of 15-20 people destroyed the office property and assaulted one of the staff members. The group broke furniture, destroyed studio equipment and even smashed the air-conditioners and other electrical fittings.

The attackers plastered NDTV’s office with poster and banners describing the channel as traitors and demanded an apology.

Meanwhile Congress condemned the attack on NDTV’s office in Ahmedabad by a right wing Hindu outfit, deploring the “climate of intolerance” and alleged “ultimately this is what fascism all about”.

The much-married Gurdeep Kohli is all set to return to television after a big break post her marriage to actor Arjun Punjj.

While Arjun wants to concentrate on movies, Gurdeep is back on the small screen, but this time she won’t be acting in a serial. Instead she will be seen as a host in Good Morning Zindagi on 9X.

She will be hosting the show with Shakti Anand. Looks like the actress wants to stay away from the maddening schedules that come with taking up a daily show and give more time to her family.

Dipsshikha Nagpal says this is the best phase of her life.

What’s it like playing Maya Mehta in Dahhej?
Maya Mehta is someone with a no-nonsense kind of an attitude. She likes to have control of the house. Her attire, the way she conducts herself.. she’s a strong personality. In fact these days people keep telling me I’m the hottest mom on TV ever.

What’s your character’s connection with dahej… dowry?
I can’t reveal the story right now. My character is very important. Without Maya Mehta there will be no Dahhej.

But the title does give an impression of the show being regressive…
It is basically a love story. I would say don’t go by the title, watch the show.

But the focus of the show is dowry…
It’s one point. Dowry is a social evil that’s got to be eradicated. This show has a social message for the audiences.

You are playing a mother for the first time. Isn’t there worry of getting slotted?
I was not ready to do this show initially. But I must thank the creative people of the production house who convinced me to take it up. They told me Maya Mehta can only be played by Dipsshikha. I don’t think I’ll get slotted as a mother because of this one show. I’m also doing Baa Bahu Aur Baby where my character Iccha is back. She’s not a mother.

How are you balancing home and two TV shows?
It is time consuming. But I make it a point to have breakfast with my kids everyday. Whenever possible they drop in on the sets too.

How’s the new year been so far?
Very good. I’m doing a daily after a long time. Doing dailies can be very tiring, so you got to have strong motivation to get up in the morning and go on to the sets. I have that motivation. This is the best phase of my life workwise. I’m doing some good work and really enjoying it. Apart from serials, I’m also looking forward to my films that will release this year. There is Dhoom Dhadaka , an out an out comedy film. is Another film Pranali where I play a prostitute. I’m also playing the lead in a Bhojpuri film with Ravi Kissen and Manoj Tiwari. 2008 is my year!

Many channels owe their origins or at least their talent to Doordarshan. Prannoy Roy began his television innings in a weekly programme on Doordarshan. Now, NDTV headed by him is to become the first privately-owned channel to screen films made by the Prasar Bharati-supported Public Service Broadcasting Trust.
The Trust (SSBT) and New Delhi Television (NDTV) have entered into a significant partnership for the promotion of documentary and reality films. PSBT’s films are already being telecast on Doordarshan every week and at numerous national and international fora. They will now be telecast each month on NDTV’s flagship channel NDTV 24×7 as part of the NDTV series ‘Documentary 24×7’, every Thursday at 21:30 hrs and repeated on Sundays at 0130 hrs.

According to a PSBT spokesperson, the partnership provides an ideal platform for the exploration of myriad issues that these documentaries deal with and for enhancing the viewership of powerful and insightful content. The effort will go a long way in creating and encouraging a public culture of documentary appreciation and engagement.

Renowned filmmaker and PSBT Chairperson Adoor Gopalakrishnan said: “We welcome exposure for the excellent films produced by PSBT on a private commercial channel. With the terrible decline in the standards of commercial television, this is a very praiseworthy effort by NDTV. Our films are produced by independent filmmakers, most of them young, partially funded by Doordarshan. The future for public broadcasting lies in efforts such as these that demonstrate the potential of public-private partnerships”.

Two PSBT films have been telecast on NDTV over the last month: Spot the Difference by Vivek Mohan, which documents the everyday lived similarities of a Chinese and Tibetan family despite underlying political differences, and Sharira by Ein Lall which explores the life of Chandralekha, an extraordinary and celebrated dancer and the interconnections between body, movement, sexuality, sensuality and spirituality.

PSBT is a non-profit trust that represents the confluence of energies to foster a shared public culture of broadcasting that is exciting and cutting edge. PSBT’s pioneering work revolves around the creation of independent films that are socially responsive and representative of democratic values. It seeks to situate a new vocabulary and activism at the very heart of broadcasting in India and this endeavour will open up new spaces for engagement with the form and content of documentary films in the mainstream public media.

Jodi No: 8 Kashmeera and Krushna Abhishek are going to burn the dance floor tonight as they attempt to enact the Flamenco dance. The duo was given this style by their mentor Vaibhavi Merchant. Kashmeera and Krushna’s choreographer, Nitin, told us about their act.

“It’s a fusion dance as this style was suggested by the Vaibhavi Merchant as she was our mentor. She gave me tips for that and she said what exactly she wants in dancing but the rest of the dance I had to tell them.”

“Flamenco is a Spanish form of dancing which has lots clapping. It’s basically a mixture of both salsa and tango. The dance involves grace and posture should be stiff. Even the costumes are of Spanish style and for me to teach them was not problem because fortunate both Krushna and Kashmeera are fast learners. Initially I had just shown them all the steps but rest they had to perform and their performance was mind-blowing,” adds Nitin.

But what was Kashmeera and Krushna’s reaction on hearing the dance style?

“They were a little amazed but later on after watching the steps they started loving it and thank God even it was appreciated by the judges and I hope it will be liked by the audiences,” says the choreographer.

The performance will aired on Friday night.

About Flamenco dance style:
Flamenco is a Spanish dance style and like Spanish music which is strong with rhythmical undertones, Flamenco is similarly a passionate style of dance involving vigorous movements, such as hand-clapping and foot-stomping. Latin American and especially Cuban influences have also been important in shaping several Flamenco musical forms. Although considered part of the culture of Spain in general, Flamenco actually originates from Andalucía which is an autonomous community of Spain.

All the actors of Teen Bahuraniyan envy the show’s lead actress, Kadambari Kadam aka Janki as she has a doting husband. Her husband has given a complete makeover to her make-up room.

One day, her husband Sameer Desai landed up on the sets of Teen Bahuraniyan to pay a surprise visit to his wife. The studio is at Mansukh Mills in Kanjurmarg. He also happened to step into Kadambari’s make-up room when she was busy in a shot. Contrary to his expectations, he was quite depressed after having a look at the make-up room’s dismal condition. Instead of asking the production house to give Kadambari a better make-up room, he took take the initiative to refurbish her room.

Says a unit member, “His argument was that Kadambari spends most of her time on the sets and especially in the make-up room. He was quite upset with the make-up room’s condition. He bought cushions, bed sheets and whole lot of other stuff to give a better look to the room. The room is beautifully done and all the unit members can’t stop talking about it. Now, everyone wants their make-up room to be done up like Kadambari’s.”

Kadambari says, “I share my make-up room with Amrapali Gupta (who plays Bindiya). My make-up room was not a very pleasant one, and Sameer was obviously not pleased when he saw the condition. He changed cushions and

bed sheets to add more colour to my room. He likes everything to be perfect and pleasant. I am so proud of him.”

Kadambari’s husband Sameer says, “My wife spends 16 hours on the sets, so it is very important that she has a nice make-up room. She works very hard, so whatever little time she gets to rest, she needs to feel at home. I did not like the ambience, so I made a few changes. I wanted to do more, but thought of not intervening in the production house’s work. Now, it’s looking better.”

“I have received so many calls from her co-stars and unit members, and everyone wants me to give a makeover to their respective rooms. I hope the production house gives personal make-up rooms to all artistes,” he adds.

Jodi No 2 Karan Patel and Amita Chandekar had a showdown on sets during the technical rehearsals on Sunday.

This week’s theme is Club Mix which requires the jodis to be high on energy during their performances. However, even after trying very hard Amita has been failing to match up to Karan’s energy level.

During the technical rehearsals Amita and Karan’s choreographer, Sanjay Yadav, was giving Amita last minute finishing touches to her steps and repeatedly asked her to increase her energy on stage. When the duo repeated their steps once again, the director of the show came on stage and also had a word with the actress about her performance for a few moments. Even after the third round of rehearsals, Amita’s act was not up to the mark. At this point the director came on set and asked to speak to her alone in her vanity van. After their discussion, the director had a word with Sanjay as well.

However, soon after the director had finished speaking to both Amita and Sanjay, Amita went up to Karan and said that she wanted to leave as she had to go somewhere. On hearing this Patel lost his cool and was heard shouting at her that “You do that later know, first we have to finish our rehearsals!”

However, the argument didn’t end there and finally an angry Karan left the sets immediately and so did Amita leaving their choreographer Sanjay looking at what was happening helplessly unable to stop the duo. And although Karan and Kavita left separately we hear that it took the jodi 12 hours of practice for Amita to reach anywhere close to Karan’s level.

Jai Bhanushali aka Neev of Kayamath has given a challenge to his co-actor and on-screen wife Sanjeeda Sheikh aka Ayesha as both are dancing on the floors of two different reality shows. And the competition has gotten so fierce that the onscreen lovers aren’t speaking to one another off screen!

Jai says that he plans to give Sanjeeda some tough competition on screen. “I know that she is a good dancer and will perform well so now I have decided that I will give her tough competition! I plan to show her that even I can dance quite well,” says Bhanushali.

Speaking about his performances the actor says that he believes his dance competition is tougher than Nach Baliye. “Her dance form is completely different as compared to mine. I’m learning exciting and most difficult dance steps which are very difficult so mine is tougher then her,” he says.

Jai has even reduced his role on screen so he can concentrate on the competition completely. “I am practicing hard as I want to give her a tough fight and because of this I’m doing less of Kayamath and Kyunki!”