Raj TV, one of the leading Television channels in South India will be re-entering into the big screen with a bunch of new film projects. The Rs.385 million company will start its movie production work from next April onwards. According to M. Ravindran, director, programming and technical, the company plans to sign up leading actors in Tamil industry.
“Tamil movies that feature leading actors would cost around Rs.70 million. We can do a business of around Rs.100 million. The general entertainment television channel market is very competitive. It is becoming difficult for television channels to acquire and retain movie telecast rights. In the case of own movies, we need not worry about satellite rights while we’d be happy with the additional revenues,” said Ravindran. The company had already produced few low budgeted Tamil movies like Sigamani Ramamani with Director Visu.
For Raj Television, the purpose of getting into movie production is twofold – broaden its revenue stream and retain the movie rights. Presently, the Raj Television group owns satellite rights for 2,900 Tamil movies. The company is planning to produce films in other South Indian Languages like Telugu and Kannada.
Ravindran further told that the company has plans to launch a 24 hours Tamil news Channel and a music channel. He also complained that Raj channels are not telecast in the prime band by Su mangali Cable Vision, the major multi-system operator in Tamil Nadu owned by Sun Network.
“We are eagerly waiting for Tamil Nadu government’s cable television company to start its operations and regarding DTH service we decided to go slow at present and talking with Sun network to telecast our channels through their DTH ” Ravindran said.