MUMBAI: Chennai-headquartered production house Yantra Media is entering the event space. The inaugural offering is a beauty queen contest Ms South India 2005 covering four Southern states Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
 
 

The contest will kick off with the Tamil Nadu round on 2 October followed by similar state level events in the other states. The final event will be held in Chennai in December 2005. According to Yantra Media head Shyamsundar, the company is making investments in the region of Rs 1.8 million to Rs 2 million per event in this series. Yantra will produce and market the events.

Yantra has also associated with television channels in the respective regions for telecast of the event. "Raj TV will telecast the Tamil Nadu round while Asianet will be our telecast partner in Kerala. For Telugu, we are in talks with Zee Telugu and ETV Telugu. If ETV is getting the deal, the channel will telecast the Karnataka round also. The final event will be simulcast in all the four languages," Shyamsundar told indiantelevision.com.
 
 

Yantra plans to broaden its event initiative to the Middle East market as well. The company's next big event will be based in the Gulf. "Next, Yantra will be doing humour based shows in various cities in the Gulf. Our target group will be the vast South Indian expatriate segment the Middle East market offers," says Shyamsundar.

Yantra Media presently produces soaps for various South Indian channels including Asianet and Zee Telugu.