MUMBAI: Zee News continues to pack its anchor team with personalities from diverse fields. This time, for a show featuring young parliamentarians, the channel has roped in former Times of India editor Dileep Padgaonkar, who follows ex-finance minister Yashwant Sinha and actor Abhinav Chaturvedi as anchors.

Padgaonkar, who has done some television programmes through his company APCA mainly for pubcaster Doordarshan earlier, will be seen in a new avatar on the news channel anchoring a personality based show on the young parliamentarians.

The show has been defined by Zee News as a breach of traditional shows revolving around dhoti-pyjama clad politicians. The show will capture the parliamentarians like Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Navin Jindal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, to name a few.

According to Zee Telefilms news director Laxmi N Goel, "Dileep Padgaonkar has been roped in for the show, Neta Tum Hi Kal Ke Ho (working title), as he possesses the stature and has worked in close quarters with politicians. He indeed can bring righteousness to the show."
  
As of now, the channel is still working on the title of the show. The personality driven show is scheduled to go on air by month-end.

Elaborating on the thing behind the show, Geol states, ?It is mainly a breakthrough for the Indian mindset on the politicians. And, also to show the changing faces of Indian leadership."

According to Goel, the show will provide an insight to young parliamentarians with a new vision for a better tomorrow examining their work culture, family values and other aspects.

The show is under production and around 35 episodes have been planned.

MUMBAI: This Friday, that is 5 August, at 9 pm, as Amitabh Bachchan re-unites with Computerji to rekindle the KBC phenomenon yet again on Indian television, Star?s Tamil channel Vijay TV will also have for its viewers its own dubbed version of KBC 2 with the tagline "Nambikku Mele Double" (twice more than you hope).

The Big B?s familiar deep baritone voice is being dubbed by renowned Tamil film artiste Nizhalgal Ravi who made it big in Kollywood with a reportoire that includes Nayakan, Nizhalgal, Indian, Kandukondain Kandukondain and Annamalai

The channel has already kicked off its aggressive promotional

activities for the big property. On ground activities which had participation by school kids, the distribution of KBC 2-branded merchandise, outdoor and print campaigns are being employed to create hype.
 
Says Vijay TV DGM Harsh Rohatgi on the upcoming biggy, "The show which made television history is back again and this time it will create a bigger impact among the Tamil audience."

Regional advertisers who have been roped in by Vijay TV for KBC 2 are confident that the dubbed version of the Hindi show will be accepted by Tamil viewers. "KBC 2 is a property that re-defines Indian television?s regional spirits. The show targets all segments of society whether it is the youth, the family or the kids segment. So I think the experiment will really work," says Chennai-based retailer Pothy?s Ramesh.

Other regional advertisers figuring in the Tamil version of KBC 2 include Univercell. The channel has also national advertisers Airtel, Fairever, LG Electronics and Chlor-Mint in its line up.

Also read:
Vijay TV spins separate story around ‘KBC 2‘

MUMBAI: The 31st AGM of Reliance Industries (RIL) held in the city today --- the first after the Ambani brothers split --- saw younger sibling Anil Ambani and an NDTV reporter in an altercation.

The incident happened post the AGM - where for the first time Anil Ambani was there as an RIL shareholder and not promoter.
  
As Ambani strode out, he was followed by television reporters vying for a sound bite. Something NDTV business editor Shivnath Thukral said as he thrust his microphone towards Ambani seems to have raised Ambani?s hackles. He was seen flinging the NDTV microphone aside and in the process Thukral almost lost his footing.

And later in the day, a press conference called by Ambani to announce the formation of two new companies, Global Fuel Management Services and Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd, under the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises (ADAE) umbrella, had a conspicuous absentee - Thukral.

A senior NDTV source claims that the reason the channel?s senior business journalist was absent was because ADAE head of corporate communications Jimmy Mogul had called up Thukral and informed him that NDTV was not invited for the press conference. And the reason for the ban? According to the NDTV source, it was Thukral?s poser to Ambani, "Anil Bhai what made you decide to come to the AGM?" that had so angered the ADAE chairman.

A Reliance official, however, said the media was overplaying the incident. "If one does not want to speak to the press, then that is his choice. Also Anil was in an extremely vulnerable and emotional frame of mind, so his reaction is understandable," he said.

Meanwhile, NDTV aired footage today stating Anil Ambani had manhandled the media. Interestingly though, despite the ban, NDTV Profit still aired the happenings of Anil Ambani?s media briefing. Queried about this, the NDTV source said, "We carry news, irrespective of the ban and the news came on Bloomberg. We are just doing our duty to inform viewers. It is indeed a sad day for journalism if one decides whom to call or not call on the basis of the questions journalists pose. If that was the case, all that journos have to do is sit back and wait for press releases."