Star India is looking to buy a stake in Asianet Entertainment and add a Malayalam and Kannada channel to its bouquet. It announced the launch of its Bengali general entertainment channel, Star Jolsha, on Friday.
The company recently called off its joint venture with Balaji and plans to buy out of the company with whom it planned to launch regional channels. Asianet owns three Malayalam channels, two Kannada channels under the Suvarna name, and radio channels. The company reportedly also had plans to launch a Telugu general entertainment channel.
Star’s new Bengali channel is to be followed up with Gujarati and Marathi channel. Actor Victor Banerjee will make his television debut, director Ravi Ojha will present a thriller and the channel is also promising to premier the biggest of Bengali films. For the launch, Star has created a promotional music video featuring director Rituparno Ghosh, singers Abhijeet and Palash Sen, and actress Raima Sen amongst others. “With Star Jolsha as well, we plan to create a revolution in the Bengali entertainment, similar to what we have been able to achieve with our other leading brands. Viewers can look forward to a standard of Bengali entertainment that’s on par with the finest in the country, bar none,” said Mr Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India.
The channel has lined up fiction and non-fiction programming that includes mythology, movies and reality shows.
Source: Moneycontrol