Thursday, March 27, 2008

Govt allots Rs 15 crores for DD Urdu

Govt allots Rs 15 crores for DD Urdu

Wednesday - Mar 19, 2008

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Mumbai
An amount of Rs 15 crores has been allotted for Urdu channel of Doordarshan for the year 2007-08. The DD Urdu channel has been included for mandatory carriage by all cable operators and multi-system operators (MSOs) in all states and Union Territories, apart from being a part of DD Direct Plus which is Doordarshan�s free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) platform.
I&B minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi has informed the Parliament today, adding that Twenty-one persons knowing Urdu have been given contract jobs in this channel.
Effective packaging, outsourcing quality software from top producers from the field of production, filmmaking, culture, literature and media are some of the steps taken to popularise the channel. The channel has allotted a daily slot to the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) for the telecast of informative and educational programmes produced by its Media Research Institute.
Launched on the Independence Day in 2006, DD Urdu is now a 24x7 channel. It is being telecast on the Insat-4A satellite, thus making it available throughout the world. The channel has a fresh band from 5-11 pm, repeating these programmes in the bands from 7 am to 12:30 pm and then from 1 pm to 3:30 pm everyday.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Holly Hunter

Happy 50th birthday to actress Holly Hunter. A lot of talent and her share of serendipitous coincidences joined forces to make Hunter a movie star. In 1980, she had just finished appearing in an off-Broadway show when she got stuck in an elevator with playwright Beth Henley. That meeting led to Hunter's Broadway debut in Henley's Crimes of the Heart. Directors Joel and Ethan Coen saw her in Crimes of the Heart and wanted to cast her in their first film, Blood Simple, but Hunter was unavailable. She introduced them to her roommate, Frances McDormand, who ended up getting the role and marrying Joel Coen. Later, Hunter made her feature film debut in the Coen Brothers comedy Raising Arizona.