BRIEFS

ZEE BOSS GETS AWARD

Zee Telefilms was nominated as the Emerging Company of the Year award by leading daily business publication The Economic Times which has created the The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence. Zee chairman Subash Chandra received the award at the hands of Indian finance minister Yashwant Sinha last week. The ET Awards have been instituted by India's leading print media group The Times of India.

GOVERNMENT BLOCKS SONY PICTURES PROPOSAL AGAIN

The Foreign Investments Promotions Board has deferred the proposal of Sony Pictures Entertainment to hike its equity in Sony Entertainment Television. The company has been attempting to up its equity in the No 2 private Indian satellite television channel for quite sometime.

ZEE FORAYS INTO PRINT MEDIA WITH BOLLYWOOD PUBLICATION

The Zee Network has made another stab at the print media business with the launch of Zee Premiere, a monthly magazine covering events and personalities in the Indian film industry. The magazine is priced at Rs 50 and has an initial print run of 25,000 copies. The network will broadcast a weekly television magazine of the same name on Zee TV.

AXN ACTION CHANNEL LAUNCHES

Sony Pictures Entertainment officially launched its AXN movies channel on 23 October at a jazzy function in Mumbai featuring death-defying acts by stuntmen from the Indian film industry.

AXN chief executive officer James Buklarewicz says the love of the Indians for action in cinema should help make the channel popular. "We may look at localising the feed further for the south and north of India, depending on how viewers respond," he says.

SITICABLE MURDER SUSPECT HELD

The prime suspect in the killing of Siticable Andhra Pradesh managing director P. Ramakrishna gave himself up to the police in the Guntur district of the state. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu had placed a reward of Rs 500,000 to anyone giving clues on the whereabouts of N. Seshagiri Rao, who is suspected to have killed Ramakrishna late last month. Seshagiri Rao said that he was being made a scapegoat and he had gone underground to prevent himself being lynched by the "mob." He added that he had business differences with Ramakrishna but no personal rivalry.