Cable operators stop telecast for 24 hours in K’taka
Cable TV operators all over Karnataka disconnected their cables for 24 hours from 6 a.m. on September 20 to September 21. This was to protest the delay in release of screen icon Dr. Rajkumar who has been abducted by forest brigand Veerappan. According to Jagadish, Vice President of the Karnataka Cable TV Chamber of Commerce (KCTCC) and its General Secretary, Amruth, the loss from the shut down has run into a few crores of rupees. A major setback is the commercial loss to advertisers resulting from about 50 lakh houses getting disconnected for 24 hours in Bangalore.

This is for the first time that the Karnataka televiewers have experienced a channel black out. In Karnataka, there are around 10,000 operators and approximately each of the operator holds 500 connections to the houses.
In the respective centers like Mysore, Shimoga and Chickmagalur, the cable operators took out a procession and submitted a memorandum to the District Commissioner..

Former Union Minister to start a TV channel?
A Union Minister in former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s cabinet, C.M. Ibrahmi is contemplating launching a television channel in Karnataka shortly. The channel will main thrust will be programming in Kannada and Urdu languages, it is reliably learnt. To head the television channel’s operations, Ibrahim is reportedly looking for a person who is fluent in reading, speaking and writing both Urdu and Kannada.
Vasishtha


Crazy Mohan’s serial on Sun
Renuka Vasanth, wife of director Vasanth had produced a serial Ladies Club - Senior/Junior and was telecast for the past 37 weeks on Sun on the 9.30 pm slot on Saturdays. This slot has now been filled up with the same producer’s next serial Charulatha, directed by well known humourist Crazy Mohan and his team. The serial is all about the funny activities of two sisters. Its videographed by R. V. Baskar. Neelkant, Meera Krishnan, Baby Kalyani, Viswa, Rithika, Sasi Kumar, Crazy Venkat are the other artistes. The story-screenplay is by Kamlesh and the dialogues by Velumani. The serial is co-produced by Media Dreams, a sister concern of Pentafour. The serial has music by Yuvan Sankar Raja with the title song sung by Harini to the lyrics of Palanibharathi.

Bandham; daily soap on Raj
Chandrasekar and Srividya play important roles in the daily soap Bandham telecast at 10 pm on Raj. A story of a murder in a joint family resulting in its breaking up and getting ruined, the serial has Ravikumar, KSG Venkatesh, Mangai Jeeva, Amudha, Rajkanth in important roles. Suthimoorthi directs this serial and it is videographed by Balabharani. The serial is produced by Somu under the banner of Jothisandhiya combines.

Now, s how for public exam candidates
All those parents who have banned TV viewing for their children will now have to think again about their decision with producer Raviji’s programme Vetri Nammathey, produced under the banner of Yamunadhevi Creations. Telecast at 6 am on Raj, the programme gives questions and answers about public exams and other competitive exams meant for students from SSC to HSC. There is also a class in Hindi. Last year, 200 episodes were telecast. The programme this year will resume from October 10.

Shankar Mahadevan show on Vijay
Vijay TV sponsored a live show of Shankar Mahadevan with Srinivas, Shuba, Minmini, Ceylon Manohar as co-singers. The show conducted in the open air theatre in Chennai was jampacked and the cops had a tough time controlling the audience. It was telecast later on Vijay.
Ayyappa Prasad