The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practises Commission (MRTPC) to investigate accusation of financial bungling by the Star Plus channel in its Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) show. A Division Bench of Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice JP Singh asked the petitioner and the Star Plus to appear before the Commission on May 8.

“Keeping in view the contentions of the parties, importance and gravity of the allegations besides the larger interest of the general public, we deem it fit that the matter should be referred to MRTP Commission for investigation into the finances, chances of winning, element of allurement, misrepresentation, fraud and other related allegations,” the Bench said.

“The Commission should implead computer experts or any other person or party who may have the know-how of finding out fraud, tricks or manipulation, if any, in the game,” the Bench added. (more…)

STAR India has finally got a new CEO. Close to four months after the high-profile exits of Peter Mukherjea and Sameer Nair, STAR has appointed STAR News CEO Uday Shankar as new chief executive.

Senior executives of STAR India and STAR News confirmed the development to ET on Sunday. A formal announcement is expected in the next few days from Hong Kong. However, the STAR spokesperson feigned ignorance when contacted for an official response.

A veteran in the news business, this will be Mr Shankar’s first stint in the general entertainment broadcasting segment. A senior print and television journalist, Mr Shankar joined STAR News in February 2004. (more…)

The show that made news and created a stir when it began its third season earlier this year is approaching its end in April. ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, with SRK, which opened with a TVR of 12.33 on January 22, has been witnessing a downward trend in viewership since then. STAR India has come up with a new concept for the show, called ‘Khelo India Saath Saath’, to gather more eyeballs.

‘Khelo India Saath Saath’ will be introduced in the show from April 9, providing viewers a platform to win money while seated at home. This eight-episode series will allow viewers to play at the same time as contestants on the show. For every right answer, the prize money is Rs 1 lakh.

Viewers can use the phone to answer questions appearing on the screen during the show by selecting the right option, as long as they do it before the correct answer is identified by the computer. One of the correct entries will be selected randomly. (more…)

Former Tata Tetley executive Vijay Singh has been appointed as President, Strategy & Corporate Development of Star india. Singh will be reporting to Paul Aiello, who is the acting CEO of the company.

Singh will be essentially responsible for developing business directions for STAR india. He will oversee corporate functions including strategic planning, business development, human resources, legal, government affairs, MiS, administration and corporate communications. He will join the company in April this year. (more…)

After Star CEO Paul Aiello, it is News Corp president and COO Peter Chernin, Rupert Murdoch’s right hand man, who will be coming to these shores to shore up the morale of the indian team. Chernin is flying in late on Thursday and will be in Mumbai over the following three days meeting the troops as it were.

And in a related development, indiantelevision.com learns that Vijay Singh, former CEO of Sony Music and currently Tata group company Tetley Tea’s managing director, developing markets, has been appointed as Star india COO.

The main agenda of Chernin’s visit would appear to be to reinforce india’s importance, as well as to make clear how the new executive structure in Hong Kong and india (of which Singh is a key element) will mesh with News Corp’s overall growth plans. (more…)

Star’s internet portal Indya.com is to launch its own digital entertainment store, making some of its most popular Indian programming available to download for the first time. Now you can download and see most popular dramas of STAR on this website like Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii from its Indian network. indya.com is also working with other content providers to bring the best of Indian documentaries, films and music online. indya.com will offer the download of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and the talk show Koffee With Karan, among others.

The service is available worldwide and is targeted at broadband-enabled South Asian audiences in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Southeast Asia. Users can access the service at http://broadband.indya.com/, which is powered by Direct2Drive, Fox Interactive Media’s digital retail store.

Purchased content can be downloaded to a PC and is then played on up to two Windows Media compatible devices, including portable players. Single episodes are now available for free on a trial basis. Additional episodes are priced starting from US$0.99 per episode, with discounts for bundled purchases. indya.com also delivers exclusive recap episodes for top serials, chronicling an entire week of events in a 45-minute episode. (more…)

Star Plus has decided to wind up Kavyanjali and replace the series with another Balaji Telefilms production Karam Apnaa Apnaa. Slotted for 9:30 pm, Monday to Thursday, Karam Apnaa Apnaa will lock horns with Zee TV’s show Saat Phere.

Star Plus will launch Karam Apnaa Apnaa on 29 August. According to Star India senior creative director Shailja Kejriwal, the channel will use the series, which will have as its principal characters Bengalis, to target Eastern India.

Star Plus is initiating with Karam Apnaa Apnaa is to reach out to the young audience during the launch stage itself. The marketing wing of Star India has devised various marketing activities and one of these is to hype up the lead character’s marriage. (more…)

Star India CFO, G Subramaniam has, has put in his papers and is currently serving his notice period. He will be with the organization till the end of this month and is slated to join Reliance Mobile in the later course of time.

He is Chartered accountant by qualification. He joined Stat India as CFO, Digital Platform Group in May 2001. Aforementioned to joining Star, he had worked with the BPL Innovision business group in their telecom ventures, including four years with BPL Mobile, Mumbai as the CFO.

The Key professional has made the third exit after the departure of Puneet Johar and Vidyuth Bhandari, last week. Puneet Johar was Senior Vice president, marketing and Communication; he was associated with marketing initiatives of Kkavyanjali, KBC 2, Prithviraj Chauhan and also National Geographic Channel. While, Vidyuth Bhandari was Associate Vice president, he has currently moved to Adlabs Radio as Interactivity Activation and PR Head.

After the sizzling broadcaster act with Shabbir Ahluwalia in Nach Baliye a few months ago, and in Zee TV’s Rabba Ishq Naa Hove, the red lady is back this time doing what she does best - wears good clothes, look good and mouth sappy, romantic lines - in Ravi Chopra’s family drama, Viraasat on Star Plus.

In the serial Sangeeta plays a role of Priyanka who marries “Rohit Roy’s character. It’s about two warring family’s fervent their antagonism is like an incurable disease which doesn’t have a cure and marry into that family with the hope of solving their problem,” she says briefly about the show which goes on air on June 12.

Sangeeta say’s that she was initially wary of “doing Viraasat because it was a daily soap but when I read the script I was completely hooked.” Adds Shailja Kejriwal, senior creative director, Star India, “Priyanka Kharbanda, the female leading role of this show, is romantic and tough at mind.”