News Broadcasting
Big budget Malayalam TV serial targets multiple language deal
MUMBAI: After tasting success with the folklore thriller Kadamattath Kaththanar on Asianet, the Trivandrum-based C Subrahmaniam Enterprises is now back with Kadilinu Akkare, a big budget adventure thriller.
Having shot a major portion of the serial in South Africa, the production house is now looking to dub it in all the four South Indian languages.
“We have spent about Rs 8 million shooting the serial in South Africa. Cost-wise, it is a huge budget taking Malayalam standards into consideration. Hence, we are planning to launch the serial in all the four South Indian languages. However, the first launch will happen in Malayalam and we have already kicked off negotiations with the channels here,” says the production house’ promoter S Karthikeyan.
The South Africa portions were shot in the Pietermaritzburg wildlife park with a 45-day shooting schedule. “The storyline required the lead characters interacting wth wild animals and a lot of wild adventure. That is why we headed to South Africa for shooting,” explains Karthikeyan.
Kadilinu Akkare will be packaged in about 300 half-an-hour episodes. Karthikeyan hopes that the animal adventure portions will keep even the kids glued to the serial. Karthikeyan’s maiden serial Kadamattath Kaththanar had a lot of fan following in kids.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
