MUMBAI: Wrestlemania 25, aired on Ten Sports on 15th April 2009, has comprehensively beaten the top rated programs from various genres like Hindi & English news, Business News, English Movies, Entertainment, Infotainment & Lifestyle, Music channels.

As per TAM data, for week ending 18th April 2009, WrestleMania has achieved a TVR of 1.5% amongst CS 4+ years at All India level.

Comparatively, the number 1 program on other sports channels like ESPN?s Sports Center achieves 0.05% ratings, Star Sports TNA gets 0.06%, Star Cricket?s Its Raining Sixes gets 0.18%, Neo Cricket?s The Great Indian Run Chase gets 0.05% TVRs.

Peter Hutton, COO, Taj TV Ltd said ?This is the highest WWE rating in India since August 2006. The 7 shows a week and the monthly specials have always rated well, but it?s excellent to see a new high for WWE in India and it follows our change in scheduling to make sure all the monthly specials are shown in prime time. With two more specials in the next month, we look forward to continued strong ratings in May, particularly on the 27th when we?ll be showing Judgement Day followed immediately by the Champions League final?

Rukin Kizilbash, GM, Taj TV India, added ?We are extremely delighted to see WrestleMania deliver these numbers. WWE is one of our key properties and has been delivering high numbers on a consistent basis year after year, and we are confident it will carry on doing so for a long while.?

Ten Sports holds exclusive telecast rights for WWE in the sub continent till 2015.

MUMBAI: IDEA Cellular, a leading telecom operator of the Aditya Birla Group, has received an overwhelming response with over two million calls and messages from the time it launched its innovative campaign based on the theme of ?connecting fans with their cricket superheroes? following a tie up with Mumbai Indians in the second season of the Indian Premier League.

Ever since IDEA Cellular launched its communication campaign last week, the leading telecom operator received two million calls and messages with the master blaster Mumbai Indians Skipper Sachin Tendulkar topping the list with nearly 50 per cent of the calls, followed by spinner Harbhajan Singh and pace bowler Zaheer Khan.

Of the record calls and messages received by IDEA Cellular till April 30, Sachin received a record 9.5 lakh calls and messages on his ten digit Idea Cellular number of Mumbai followed by Bhajji at 7.05 lakh calls and Zaheer 1.3 calls. Similar calls and messages were also received on the ten digit numbers of other Mumbai Indian players including Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya, West Indian Dwayne Bravo and hard hitting Mumbai batsman Abhishek Nayar.

Mr Pradeep Srivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, IDEA Cellular, said ?we are really surprised by the unprecedented calls that had started coming in ever since we launched the campaign on April 30. We are indeed overwhelmed by the response the fans have shown and IDEA Cellular will make the call and SMS details available to the players.

Later during the tournament, IDEA Cellular, which has a pan India presence, will organize the cricket stars to return the calls of some of their fans. The campaign has been a huge hit amongst the youth community online as well, Mr Srivastava said.

The response to the campaign has been a huge hit with other telecom subscribers as well with over 75 per cent of the calls received from non Idea subscribers from all over the network. Circle-wise calls from Maharashtra topped the list with 4.5 lakh followed by Mumbai 2 lakh calls, and Delhi 1.10 lakh calls. Other circles including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan equally recorded a substantial number of incoming calls. rec

IDEA Cellular announced its partnership with Mumbai Indians as the team?s Founding Partner, in the second season of the T-20 tournament. Just a few days later, the telecom brand launched an innovative campaign based on the theme of ?Connecting Fans with their Cricket superheroes?. IDEA advertised the mobile numbers of Mumbai Indians skipper Sachin Tendulkar, pace bowler Zaheer Khan, spinner Harbhajan Singh, and batsman Sanath Jayasuriya, and enabled people to call and SMS their favourite stars.

MUMBAI: World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1991 as a day "to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession."

This day is celebrated each year on 3rd May and the focus this year is on the way the media influences thought and action and its capacity to foster dialogue, understanding and reconciliation.

With potential to make fact as fiction and fiction as fact, media is the most powerful entity on earth as they control the minds of the masses. The media fancies in the news if it makes a good story, without much regard for the factual accuracy and ensures that truth is lost in semantics and theatrics.

Much of today?s jaundiced traditional journalism finds fertile ground in would-be journalists whose motives have little to do with social conscience, disclosure of injustice, uncovering wrongdoing or giving voice to the voiceless.

For its doom, the current state of traditional news media must take the blame for public?s general lack of information which is vital for responsible citizenship in a democracy. Traditional media has always focused much on urban news coverage. Any news coverage of suburban and rural events by traditional media has worked on by and large pre-arranged procedures only.

Today in journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right. In this age where old news is cold news, priority is to get it first rather than get it right. Online journalism is rapidly becoming a cornerstone in the media industry taking news from anywhere to everywhere and from anyone to everyone.

Online journalism, or e-journalism, or cyber news, is journalism practiced online. While traditional media is linear, online journalism takes a non-linear approach to news. The Internet, web logs, search engines, and RSS feeds are the new tools of computer assisted reporting (CAR). Free press releases distribution services built on the principles of search engine optimization have added an exciting dimension to online journalism and press freedom.

Pilani is a small town in Rajasthan India where Birla Institute of Technology and Science - BITS Pilani which is one among the top ranking universities in India today is located. Recently the National Assessment and Accreditation Council NAAC reaccredited BITS with 3.71 CGPA out of 4 and awarded ?A? grade ?Very Good? status.

MUMBAI: ?Kaioppu? telecast by Amrita TV every Saturday at 9pm, is an unusual programme in which distinguished directors of Malayalam films run their fingers down their years of prodigious output, handpick four or five movies they have a soft corner for and reveal the reasons why they hold pride of place in their hearts. Malayalam Cinema has in its pantheon many maestros who have directed their way to a permanent place in the Celluloid Hall of Fame; many others have the potential to rub shoulders with the best in the Motion Picture world.

The Director bestows a bit of his soul to each of his film. So each work will display some distinguishing brush strokes that will immediately proclaim the artist to the viewer ; every film will bear the signature of his talent that is as individualistic and recognizable as the loops and flourishes of his autograph.

While these films attain mass popularity, get rave reviews or become the film jury?s pet choice, the voice of the person who wielded the megaphone is seldom heard. ?Kaioppu? journeys behind the scenes to the Man Who Calls the Shots, to obtain an assessment of his favourite works of art, in his own words.

?Kaioppu? will feature the beat directors of the past era and present age from Adoor Gopalakrishnan, K.G.George, Kamal, Sibi Malayil, , Fazil, to Lal Jose, Shaji Kailas and Lohitha Das in 50 episodes spread across as many weeks; each week will focus on one director and his choice of movies or scenes.

One by one, the stalwarts of Malayalam filmdom select 4 or 5 films for which they have a marked preference, and disclose why they are placed in the mantelpiece of their hearts. The Director?s narration will be complimented by relevant clippings from the film that will underline his opinions and convictions. He explains the origins of the film that might have sprung into existence from a chance incident or news clipping; the fleshing out of the characters outlined on people he had known somewhere in Life?s journey; the casting in which instinct won over reason and always proved to be right.

?Kaioppu? is a retrospective of the impeccable masterpieces from brilliant auteurs of Malayalam filmdom, with the directors themselves enumerating why they are jewels in their creative crown.

MUMBAI: Animation, today is a much sought after education as well as a career option. An animator gets a job in Bollywood, Marathi Film Industry and the huge advertising industry. Moreover, with the boom of childrens channels like Pogo, Disney, Cartoon Network, animators are always in demand.

Now, like animation there is one more field which is as exicting and glamorous. This is the Visual Effects world. Visual Effects (VFX) are used in films to show an event or spectacle which is not possible by normal filming. VFX makes the impossible ? possible. For example, countless scenes of car crashes, building collapses, unusual creatures attack ? nothing is real, but everything brought to life by VFX.

Hollywoods movies liberally use VFX whether it is Spiderman, Hancock, I am Legend, Gladiator or earlier Titanic.VFX is done by using high tech softwares. The best and the most powerful software which Hollywood uses is ?Houdini.?

Houdini allows the creator extreme freedom and power to create effects which are some the best. Out of any 10 films created by using Houdini, 7 ? 8 films have turned out Oscar winners! That?s the beauty of Houdini.

Now, this power is coming to India and to Pune! Side Effects the company which owns Houdini has declared Seamless Education Academy (SeamEdu) as it?s authorized training centre. SeamEdu will teach Houdini to Pune studetns, just the way students in Canada or in the USA are taught.

Richard Hamel from Side Effects said, ?We at Side Effects are happy that SeamEdu would training students here the power of Houdini and can assure the public that the quality levels will be the same as that in any part of the world.?

Dr Nigavekar on this occasion stated, ? The reason why Hollywood churns out amazing movies with spectacular VFX is this. Houdini allows you to do that as compared to any other software. And now, SeamEdu has brought the same Houdini to India!?

Akhlaque Sheikh, SeamEdu?s technical director for Houdini training said that he was confident that students will benefit enormously through this and will open new job opportunities for the students who are in the field of animation and visual effects.

MUMBAI: With the elections just around the corner, BIG 92.7 FM, Chennai‘s only station that plays music which reflects the mood of Chennai has come up with a unique on-air and on-ground campaign titled ‘Vote Podalana‘ to create awareness on the importance of voting. In continuation to the same a walkathon by kids was held today at Besant Nagar beach in association with Janagrahaa and Kids caf?. The walkathon was flagged off by Mr. Naresh Gupta, State Electoral Officer along with RJ BIG Dheena of BIG 92.7 FM.

‘Vote Podalana‘ is a week long election special programme on-air and on-ground which is aimed at giving listeners a completely local flavor of the forthcoming elections in a smart & witty manner. ‘Vote Podalana‘ will stress on the importance of voting and will have interviews of specialists on various aspects of elections. The on-air programme will be high on interaction where listeners can get their doubts on elections cleared. RJs of BIG 92.7 FM will also interact with listeners on elections during their regular outdoor broadcasting shows.

Commenting on the campaign, Mr. P.B Ramaswamy, Cluster Head, BIG 92.7 FM TamilNadu said, "BIG 92.7 FM Chennai is committed to empowering listeners by providing them with relevant information about the forthcoming elections in a smart & witty fashion, which will compel them to franchise their right to vote. Vote Podalana has been conceptualized keeping in mind the prevailing mood of city and we believe this campaign will create a sizeable impact in terms of awareness creation during this election."