After the hype and hoopla it's the film's serious nature and subject matter which is putting people off.
The youthful former owner of Fame has unwittingly set off a takeover battle over his successful multiplex business.
The show has got a rating of 5.1, much more than the first episode of Bigg Boss (also on Colors a couple of months earlier) that the senior Bachchan hosted. In the process, Abhishek has outperformed the other celebrities as well -- Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, et al (see table below). The ratings have been given by TV rating agency TAM Media Research.
The Aamir Khan-starrer raked in Rs 12.5 crore on Friday and experts estimate the movie to net Rs 40 crore over the first weekend from the box office, with gross collections of Rs 65 crore.
The fight is between Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the producer of 3 Idiots, and multiplexes.
To launch in BIG Cinemas in India, abroad. Brother Mukesh Ambani might be the king of retail, but Anil Ambani's ADAG is getting ready to make its presence felt in branded food products
Your holiday in Dubai just got a little cheaper. Thanks to Dubai World's crash, travel portals and agencies like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Cleartrip and SOTC are offering packages at prices almost 40 percent lower than a week or two ago.
Turner International is close to acquiring a controlling stake in entertainment company NDTV Imagine, which runs three entertainment channels.
Anil Ambani's radio business, Reliance Media World, which operates radio station BIG FM 92.7, will list on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange on Thursday. This makes BIG FM 92.7 the second radio station to be listed on the stock exchanges.
The eight team owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are all set to lock horns with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by refusing to pay their next instalment of the franchisee fee which is due in January 2009.
The heat from the cricket endorsement pitch is cooling, with rates falling between 25 and 50 per cent as advertisers shy away from new deals.Industry sources say the only major cricketer to have signed on for a new brand in the last six months is Yuvraj Singh. Up-and-coming players like Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina are charging Rs 40 lakh to Rs 60 lakh but have not signed any new individual deals in the last few months.
SET Max, the official broadcasters of the Indian Premier League (IPL)cricket tournament, has already hit a sixer with the third edition of the twenty20 league. The channel is estimated to rake in over Rs 650 crore, 30 per cent higher than it got in IPL-2.
After the dramatic end of the Star-Balaji proposed joint venture -- formed to launch regional channels -- Balaji has signed a content deal with leading southern broadcaster Sun Network. Balaji's move will set the battleground between Star and Balaji as the Murdoch company is believed to be partnering with Kerala-based broadcaster Asianet for its regional foray.
At least three major broadcasting companies have held discussions on forming a combine, the first of its kind, to counter the might of media buying houses in dictating commercial air-time rates.
A day after the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that players can be transferred for the second edition of the DLF Indian Premier League team, owners are already drawing up their wish lists.
Small-budget films seem to be raking in the moolah for production houses. Little wonder that filmmakers like Ghai, Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt and Pritish Nandy have over the years stuck to making small-budget films in the range of Rs 10-15 crore (Rs 100-150 million).
What started as a trickle three years ago has now hit big time with music companies putting more and more songs on iTunes. "Three years back, when we started off, Bollywood filmmakers were not very bullish about promoting music content on a global platform. Under iTunes' world category of songs, Bollywood certainly features in the top three," said Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama Mobile. The company has been responsible for making Bollywood music available on iTunes.
Riding on the success of Indian Idol 3, advertisers are queuing up for the fourth season of the show. Sony Entertainment Television, which will air Indian Idol 4 starting September 19 has sold over 85 per cent of the advertising inventory.
With competition rising in the entertainment channel business due to the advent of new players, broadcasters are ready to cough up huge amounts to celebrities in the hope of wooing a more fragmented audience. As a result, anchor rates have doubled and tripled since Bachchan warmed the hot seat. Naturally, the programming cost has shot through the roof.
You can soon buy your car or house sitting in front a television set. With Network 18 launching India's first home shopping channel Home Shop 18 in April, and Star TV group soon to join the fray, the home shopping channels are expected to be the next big thing for television broadcasters.