Critically Covid struck SPB and son Charan together in a song to release on Aug 15th

Tommorow ( Aug 15th) will see the release of song in which  SPB, who is battling Covid in a hospital along with son  SPB Charan have sung along with the 65 singers who have lend their voices to the all time hit Thamizha Thamizha composed by A R Rahman as part of the move to generate funds to support the singers and musicians of the musical fraternity in distress during the pandemic. A R Rahman, Mohanlal, KGF Yash will release the song at 11 AM.

Earlier in a video, he had revealed that he had fever, a cold and chest congestion, and wanted to get tested for the disease. The reports were positive, and doctors recommended him to follow home quarantine. Instead of going back home, he admitted himself to the hospital, keeping in mind the safety of his family members. To Bollywood buffs, he is known for his evergreen songs in films like "Ek Duuje Ke Liye", "Maine Pyar Kiya", "Humn Aapke Hain Koun..!" and "Hum Saath-Saath Hain".

United Singers Charitable Trust (USCT), a non-profit organisation founded by revered playback singer Mr. Srinivas along with Mr. Unnikrishnan, Mrs. Sujatha Mohan, Mr. Rahul Nambiar and Mr. Ranjith Govind on board as trustees, with the motive to generate funds to support the singers and musicians of the musical fraternity in distress during the pandemic. The song is a reprise of an AR Rahman classic, which stands for unity in times of difficulty. This version of the song has 65 singers coming together and performing in five languages: Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. The song was completely recorded and produced by the singers from their respective homes during the total lockdown.

“Together As One” song was curated by Mr. Srinivas along with Mr. Rahul Nambiar and Mr. Aalaap Raju, mixed and mastered by Ishit Kuberkar. The video is compiled by Litbox Media Factory and the release is administered and managed by Silver Tree Talent Management.
USCT is next planning for a global concert in September to raise funds from all across the globe for the same cause.

சண்டியர்™ツ☞

@Madura_Maya07

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2h

SPB gives a big thumbs up !!!

He is stable and doing well says his son SP Charan !!

#SPbalasubrahmanyam

Shekhar Kapur

@shekharkapur

Praying for the great singer #SPBalasubrahmanyam on a ventilator with #Covid_19 @arrahman

A.R.Rahman

@arrahman

I request all the music fans to pray for this legend along with me ..#SPBalasubrahmanyam ..he has given us so much joy with his amazing voice! https://twitter.com/thequint/status/1294238877285113856

Hollywood makes fun of Thalaivar- Amazon rift with Suriya - NASA names STAR after Hansika- Meera backed by B'Town director ?

Did American band make fun of Thalaiva ? Suriya and Amazon Prime part ways? NASA named a celestial Star after Hansika Motwani? Meera Mitun has the backing of a maverick director? These questions were raised by many of the netizens today. The answers. Black Eyed Peas the American band in a music video `Action’ features scenes from films like Rajinikanth’s Enthiran, Vishal’s Aambala, Ajay Devgn’s Singham, among others. The action scenes are identical to the original, except for the faces of the actors, upon which Black Eyed Peas member’s will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo have superimposed their own faces through deep fake technology. Scenes from the Swedish movie Kopps and Maryada Ramanna also appear in Action’s music video. Now Thalaivar, who is completing 45 years in Cinema on August 15th and basking in the praises flowing from his colleagues finds that his fans are unhappy with this music video. Fans say that it actually makes fun of the action scenes in Enthiran ( Robot). The makers wrote, “Check out our video for #ACTION inspired by #BOLLYWOOD…ive always loved music from india…#Elephunk and #MonkeyBusiness were inspired by Indian Culture…thank you india for your vibrancy and contribution to the world…” Music Maestro AR Rahman approved of the music video and quote-tweeted will.i.am’s tweet, “The borders are blurring through art! #tamilcinema @directorshankar #rajnikant #india.” Watching the video the fans do have a point. When the Common DP is making waves, the timing of the music video seems ill-timed. 

Now Suriya’s 2D Ent was the first to let Amazon Prime have a premiere release of their film Ponmaghal vandhal. He is to act in a web series helmed by Mani Rathnam for the same company. Now what went wrong? Why was 24 pulled out by the OTT?. Nothing to worry. Viewers said that audio quality is bad and it will be back with a bang soon says Amazon. 

No NASA did not name any celestial star after actress Hansika Motwani. A few friends paid the amount to the website https://www.star-registration.com/. In case you want to gift a STAR, pls visit the website. They give you a certificate that has a lifetime validity. So Hansika at 29 years need not worry about stardom. To further clear the query- Hansika never mentioned about NASA. It was an overzealous web portal. 

Yes, Meera Mitun announced that she is launching her production company in Delhi on Ganesh Chatuthurthi day She thanked her politicians-financier friends. Bhartiraaja who is to head the active producer’s council has warned Meera not to cross the line in her attacks on Stars. She called wives of Suriya and Vijay as woman with bad past. Her ex manager alleges that a big director in Mumbai is sponsoring her attacks on Kollywood. Talking about NASA, my astrologer says it has rearranged positions. Now my astrological planet sign has changed and should follow new sign. That is why I missed the prediction of COVID 19.

Then Home Video and VHS tape Now OTT and App

Over the Top (OTT) platforms are the buzz word. This is an extension of the now extinct Home Video. To us it reminds us of the VHS tapes that often got caught in the VCR and the booking of cassettes at the local video library. Now it all comes to your mobile phone and TV screen through an app and crystal clear. Like in the case of Home Video rights which grew out of a counter to cable TV piracy, OTT comes as a route for those film producers and directors who want a quick release of their content and without being at the mercy of the theater- distributor lobby. The advent of cable TV started with the import of VCR and local manufacture of this equipment. Till then, a NRI coming from abroad would pay customs duty and bring it along with him for his folks to see. The cassettes were mostly those which were called theater print and marketed in Gulf and other countries that Tamils and other Indians lived. It also gave birth of the porn industry in India, All you needed was a VCR and cables that ran to the houses in your street and you are a cable TV operator. Slowly it moved to an organized business module with people with political backing entering to take control of regions. As competition grew, theater prints were screened on cable TV. By then, Zee TV, Sun and Asianet had launched their satellite channels. Now the business gets legitimate and cable TV operators get an identity. They become part of SCV of Sun TV MSO in Tamil Nadu, Shashi Kumar’s Asianet’s ACTV in Kerala and Siticable in North India. RPG and Hathway too entered the fray. Small operators became agents of the MSO’s who shifted from VCR to Satellite dishes. The number of connections held by a TV channel controlled MSO was the yardstick for advertisers to gauge the reach. In between, many US companies tried to go for JV with Indian firms but fell through. Now the channel have their own satellite platforms and dishes to offer, the cable network is shrunk to areas where there is more independent homes and no apartment blocks. With BARC replacing the old TRP system, advertisers get a more transparent picture of the channel reach. The first to cash in on the home video was Raj Videos in Chennai. They bought the rights of all released movies with a clause that said they hold the perpetual right to transmit the content by air, underwater and by any means and in any form. It took care of a satellite rights later when TV channels came up and now digital rights. It also took care of transmission through underground sea cables. Into the fray came Eknaath Videos. Raj Videos was run by a family headed by Rajendran. Eknaath bought for higher prices the new releases. He then wanted to make his own content and turned producer. Like many producer’s, he did not know when to call it quits. The bankers came calling. Raj Videos started Raj TV and content was not a problem. You got not less than 3 movies a day and all of them were `classics’. Sun TV just left open its slot to those who were looking for an opening as Doordarshan was ridden with corrupt officials in cahoots with politicians and a few publicity seeking businessmen. Now OTT players from abroad have entered and doing what cable TV was doing then. Only this time they do not have to deal with anybody to screen the content they buy. They have `mediators’ who get them best deals and they do not have to worry as the servers are not within the Indian Cinematographic Act and they don’t need theaters. The two major players Amazon and Netflix are very much imbedded in the mobiles and TV screens. The threat arises when the OTT players start putting films that irk the ruling party agenda. A word of caution for producer’s who are going to sign deals with OTT. Those film producers who did not sign the `perpetual’ clause with Home Video and TV channels and chose to give for a time period are still raking money or their next generation. What might look like a good deal today will be a gold mine given away? Geo Kuttappan of Geo Films and Manjilas Joseph were those who saw it much before and resisted the temptation.

Producers should not miss the OTT bus

The postponement of the opening of cinema halls and film shootings has further entrenched the OTT platforms and given audience time to cultivate the habit of watching entertainment from home. Theaters are gung-ho on the simple belief that there is a large population in the rural India known as Bharat that has this pent-up feeling of not seeing a film in a theater with the family or friends. Once the curtains are up and a Star driven film is released, all the fears of Covid 19 will vanish and it will be business as usual. The theaters in Tamil Nadu cite the case of crowds coming back to TASMAC after a long closure. As some producer’s pointed out that the theaters equating them to TASMAC shop closure is mis placed. The people going to a theater to see a film and a tippler going to buy his drink every day from TASMAC are two different entities. There are two reasons that work against the theater viewing experience, when they reopen. The urban class known as India has shown a tremendous shift in habits and there is a spike in subscriptions to OTT platforms. A report says the fall in outdoor entertainment like theme parks, events and theaters, where social distancing is a must will take a hit. The urban class especially in the cities that have been severely hit by Covid will shift to home entertainment. In the case of smaller cities and rural areas, there has been a reverse migration of population and halt in economic activity would mean that spending on theaters and even on paying extra subscriptions for OTT would not be on the spending list. If the closure further continues, the OTT subscription model will gain momentum in both the urban and non-urban areas. Given that the theaters are opened with a 50% crowd capacity, monetization by theaters could take much more time. In this scenario, the digital rights will be more lucrative than the theatrical rights. Many production companies have already moved OTT platforms with proposals for web series and films exclusively for them. Top directors too are in the bandwagon. Mani Rathnam, Vetrimaran and Gautam Menon are those already signed up. Malayalam film industry has cashed the most from the OTT demand as the patronage by other language viewers for the dubbed versions is in great demand. Khalid Rahman, director of hits like Anuraga Karikkin Vellam and Unda , finished his movie starring Shine Tom Chacko and Rajisha Vijayan in the lead, and has been titled Love. It was shot for 23 days following the Covid precautions and is soon to hit an OTT platform. Though the theater owners are putting up a brave front saying that OTT has stopped buying films after the flop of Ponmaghal Vandhal and Punguin, the reality is that the business module that these films were acquired by the OTT has given both the parties a sizable profit. At present, OTT’s are advancing money for making `original’ films and web series. This may change as situation changes due to restoration of normalcy or more producers’ lining up. Use of AI by OTT to get to the root of user preference and need to have more cash liquidity as technology grows, will cut advance spend. OTT too has to grapple with the low advertising budgets of consumer- auto, e-commerce companies and recovery of money. The time is ripe for those who feel that CONTENT IS KING. An actor like Suriya has agreed to work in an episode of a web series as he wants to use the remuneration to donate to worker’s federation. Will many others follow?