UK too to regulate US OTT Netflix- Amazon- Disney

 

Just as `Tandav’ had the shorts twisted in India, The Crown webseries  seems to have done the same in UK . Netflix – Amazon- Disney ,the US streamers will be brought under the UK regulating Ofcom as  they should have appropriate content age ratings in place and whether they should be subject to standards on impartiality and accuracy for documentaries and news programming. The next is that these streamers have been asked to share the viewership figures of shows that originated by British public service broadcasters, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5.

Netflix is already adopted British Board of Film Classification age ratings on its content. It has an investment close to $1 billion in originals that cater to European market.  It is governed by Netherland's laws. 

The UK streamer regulation review will inform a white paper, which will pave the way for the biggest shakeup in broadcasting laws in 18 years. When the UK’s Communications Act was introduced in 2003, Netflix was still a DVD company in America and Amazon had just posted its first full-year profit, reports Deadline.

In India the OTT players who have to join a self regulatory body is divided into two. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, ALTBalaji, Hungama Play, MX Player, ShemarooMe, Aha, Lionsgate, Firework TV, and hoichoi have decided to stay in the  Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) Disney+ Hotstar, Zee5, SonyLIV, Voot, Sun NXT, Discovery+, Jio TV, and Jio Cinema will be part of the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), The IBDF has appointed Justice (Retd.) Vikramjit Sen as the Chairman, along with filmmaker Nikkhil Advani, artist, filmmaker and writer Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, writer and director Tigmanshu Dhulia and CEO Banijay Group Deepak Dhar, General Counsel, Sony Pictures Ashok Nambisan, and Chief Regional Counsel, Star and Disney India Mihir Rale.

Jagame Thandiram movie : What Indian Gods mean to West and Today's youth thinks of Tamil Eelam- New insights

 "I am all your ridiculous gods with their all their legs and hands rolled into one mad devil . I swear on your elephant headed god ... - The Britisher in the film who is out to put all immigrants in his jail  ( private detention centers) says. After hearing the long or short story of Tamils in Sri Lanka being refugees in India and staying in refugee camps, the protagonist confesses that he was preoccupied with daily work and livelihood and knew nothing about even such refugee camps existing in Tamil Nadu. Also I learnt that Theradha case means whimpering prick in English.

I got the elephant headed god bit but the one with legs and hands rolled into one like a mad devil beats me. Cant think of any such god. 

The Tamil nationalists could infer that their rooting for a Tamil Eelam cause is something that today's youth in Tamil Nadu is not even bothered about. If the hero did not know anything about refugee camps existing in Tamil Nadu , even if he is from Madurai,it shows that all the  history of Tamil uprising in Sri Lanka is new unheard of territory for the present generation.  

I liked the white man character Peter (James Cosmo) and the guy who wrote the dialogues for him. When Dhanush goes on about how he helped Peter to be the Don and in turn he needs help, Peter cuts him short- Cut the bleeding heart, ask the favor. I liked the actor ( white guy) who played the henchman of Peter and gets shot dead but not before saying  Sorry Murugesan aana. The guy gets pumped in with two bullets and both times his body gives the right jerk. Good job. Might be a regular actor who plays the guy who gets shot dead. Joju George who plays the Tamil Lankan gangster had earlier been smoking beedis and cigarettes in Malayalam films and here you get to see him smoke cigar ? No. same stuff. Aishwarya Lakshmi is most miscast as the Lankan refugee in London.

The climax song when the hero and his team mount a gun attack on the white man Peter's villa - the Tamil lyric goes this way- naan Dhaan Boss Veerarun Boss-U 

Pollatha class ukkaru pesu

Theratha case- U kondatha race-u

Ellame Thoosu Mannodu close-U

The subtitling for the last few lines in the song  is

You're a worthless prick

Now bring on the  race

 When the Sri Lankan flashback started, I thought that we are in for some hardcore Eelam stuff. Nothing like that. God bless the director. The London street that the hero gets as a gift looks like a set left behind by some Bollywood film unit. In the present times, this film is just enough to keep you engaged about talking about the merit and demerits. Director is Karthik Subburaj - films to his credit - ‘Pizza’, ‘Jigarthanda’, ‘Iraivi’, ‘Mercury’ and ‘Petta’

 

Sun TV to focus on Kerala- Andhra markets - focus on Reality shows and satellite rights

 

Sun Network will be investing more in the Surya TV – Gemini TV markets hereafter. It will be putting out 40-50 episode non -fiction (reality shows) got from International markets. For the time being, the network will concentrate on reality shows and finishing committed movie apart from buying movies satellite rights ,   web-series for the OTT platform is not on the cards. The present method to show medium budget films first on Sun NXT and later premiering on Sun TV  will continue.

Sun will be pumping in Rs 30 cr per show of nonfiction genre. On the movie front, the network has allocated Rs 1200 crores to be spend in 2 years. 8 movies are in the pipeline, four of them are under production. one movie is almost nearing completion. Shooting for a couple of movies are 30% to 40% complete. The fourth movie has just commenced shooting. Two of the eight movies are big ticket releases with South Indian megastars in the lead role. In view of uncertainity surrounding shooting due to Covid 19 restrictions, the network will be clearing the pending commitments. This helps as these films add to the networks film library.

v  For the stock market share investor sharp reduction in dividend payout to 13% versus average of 49% over the last five years, despite cash and cash equivalents of Rs 4140 crore, is a big disappointment. The 2020 Ad revenue fell by 26% but DTH connection subscription has risen by 10%.The promoters' massive compensations have remained intact whilst investors have been short changed. In the case of Sun TV,  promoters and friends and family control almost 80% of the stock. As of date, it has enormous financial assets, excluding non-current assets and trade receivables, of INR 3750 cr. This includes cash, bank and treasury investments. Its gross expenditure net of depreciation and amortization is approximately INR 1150 cr. In other words, the company can survive for 3 years plus with no revenue whatsoever! Surely the management does not believe the pandemic’s impact will be so grave on a company with such a robust business model! -writes Prabal Basu Roy who is a non-executive director, and an Advisor to Chairmen, of corporate boards about the stock market of the network.

 

Samantha is OTT Pan Indian Star - Netflix offers Rs 8 cr for web series

The popularity of Samantha after web-series The Family Man 2 has prompted Netflix to offer her  Rs 8 crore for a upcoming project of theirs. She is the first South Indian actress to achieve the Pan Indian appeal to OTT viewers. Her under production film Shakunthalam in which she plays the title role has become hot property. Her other film on the floor is a Tamil film with Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi.

The success of The Family Man 2 has raised demand for her other films on OTT like O Baby. The power packed acting by her as the LTTE's pilot on a mission to assassinate  the Indian PM has won laurels. Even the Sri Lankan Tamils abroad agree that her acting was terrific as they condemn the contents for being anti- LTTE.

Shakunthalanm is high budget epic drama is based on the tale of love from the Adi Parva OF the epic Mahabharata. 'Shaakunthalam' is based on Mahakavi Kalidas’ iconic drama, 'Abhigyana Shaakuntalam'. Eesha Rebba and Malayalam actor Dev Mohan are also on board to play key roles in this film. Director Gunasekar who directed the period film Rudramadevi with Anushka Shetty in the title role directs this epic moive. Neeta Lulla ( Oscar panel member) handles the costumes. Samantha  recent Telugu release Jaanu was a big hit.

She faces an unofficial ban in Kollywood for acting in The Family Man 2 but it is for only future projects, NetFlix series is not likely to be hit.

Vijay Sethupathi backs out due to unofficial ban on Samantha and directors

At present Raj - DK ( directors of The Family Man 2) were to direct a webseries and Vijay Sethupathi was to play a pivotal role.  As he heard about the unofficial ban , he backed out. He was earlier slammed for accepting the role of Sri Lankan cricketeer Muralitharan and had to back out.

Tamil Nationalist groups in Tamil filmdom has spread the word around that no producer should sign Samantha and director  Raj- DK for being associated with The Family Man season 2. It is said to have potrayed LTTE in a bad light.

Currently  Samantha is acting in Nayanthara - Vignesh film 'Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kadhal' ( KVRK) with Vijay Sethupathi. The film is produced by Vignesh and Lalith Kumar Seven Screen Studio. Lalith Kumar is one of the pillars of the new producer's body headed by Bharathiraaja.

Samantha had some time back decided to stay away from Tamil films and KVRK was an exception since the script was appealing.

Parvathy T is another actress who is in a similar situation, said a source. Her first Tamil release will be Manirathnam's Navarasa ( anthology). Her under production film is with Siddharth as hero and producer and directed by Rathindra ( he directed the anthology portion featuring her). She has a Malayalam film Puzhu with Mammooty ( for the first time).

In a First- Nayanthara movie enters top 5 Tamil TV TRP

 In a first for Star Vijay and Tamil movies, heroine centric Nayanthara's Mookuthi Amman entered the top 5 TRP of Tamil TV week 22. The first spot is always become a permanent fixture of Sun TV with it's Sunday movie that has a top  Stars of Tamil cinema. No other channel has been able tp break this domination despite premiering many movies that never came to theatres and were for OTT. The only time there was a change when Vikram Prabhu starrer  Pullikutti Pandi had a premiere release on Sun TV and came No 1 beating even the Rajanikanth film repeat telecast in the same channel.

Mookuthi Amman top TRP and that coming from Star Vijay which is No 2 but way behind in viewership is considered to be the drawing power of Nayanthara and added to that the attraction that such subjects have with the audience. The film unlike the title is not just a mythological film but but a satire of the religion and its business. The fact that the film is still available on OTT and had a wide response when premiered on OTT could come into Top 5 of the week is no mere achievement.

Surya's Kappan and Vijay's Bairavaa both telecast in that week end were in top 5 of week 22. With Sun News in top 5 Tamil channels along with Sun and KTV, the domination of Sun Netwoork is complete. Star Vijay, only one to put a fight has slipped badly in TRP as it has repeats due to lockdown restrictions. Sun TV  and Zee Tamil has found a way to circumvent the restrictions and give fresh episodes.

Raashi Khanna in Ajay Devgn webseries -Rudra The Edge of Darkness

 Raashi Khanna, popular across South Indian films is making her debut in webseries opposite Ajay Devgan, After Samantha, Kajal Agarwal and Tamannaah, Raashi will be starring in this webseries, remake of Luther produced by Applause Entertainment in association with BBC Studios India. Naga Chaitanya’s Thank You and Karthi’s Sardar are other two films in Telugu that are currently on the floor with Raashi as heroine.

Raashii's initiative #BeTheMiracle has taken up the initiative to distribute food to the needy. She has been working tirelessly during the covid times helping the ones who have lost their livelihoods.

Raashii Khanna shares, "The ground reality of people suffering through the pandemic is heartbreaking. #BeTheMiracle is my way of doing as much as I can for them. I am also blessed with a team that is brave enough to step out during the pandemic just to bring to you the reality of peoples’ suffering. It’s really bad out there for a lot of families and some of them are literally on the brink of starvation. I would really want people to open their hearts and donate because literally, every bit counts. It doesn’t have to be an exorbitant amount. We have to realise that we are all in this together and only together can we overcome these difficult times. And together we can be a miracle in someone’s life"

With #BeTheMiracle Raashii is associating with organisations like Roti Bank and many other volunteers who are also helping animals that have been left out with no food or water especially during the lockdown and some old age homes.