English Entertainment
Enjoy the festival of colors with English entertainment channels
MUMBAI: When they say life is colourful, it can also mean that life is full of different shades of emotions. In a country like India, Holi is celebrated not just as a festival of colours, but it also symbolises unity and friendship.
With such a lively festival round the corner, can the English entertainment channels stop from immersing themselves into the vibrant colours of this gala event? To add to the dash of happiness and to brighten the day, English entertainment channels have lined up power packed shows for their viewers.
After perusing the available options on channels like FX India, Star World Premiere HD, Sony Pix, Romedy Now and Comedy Central, we recommend a few under-the-radar titles for your Holi viewing pleasure.
Read on:
Romedy Now
Romedy Now has planned a special property called Colors of Romedy starting from 0955 am. The channel will air the animated film Happy Feet Two. An Australian-American 3D computer animated family musical film that has been directed, produced and co-written by George Miller. The channel will also air the Alex D Linz and Olek Krupa starrer Home Alone 3, written and produced by John Hughes at 1155 am. Adding more fun to the line-up, Romedy Now will telecast Monster-in-Law starring Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez at 145pm
Also, witness the inspiring journey of Chef, a 2014 American comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by and starring Jon Favreau will air at 345 pm.
Comedy Central
The channel will play Outsourced and Citizen Khan all day long starting from 10 am. Outsourced depicts the story of an American novelty products salesman Todd Anderson after his entire department is outsourced. He heads to India to train his replacement. Todd is not happy but when his boss Dave informs him that quitting would mean losing his stock options, he goes to train his Indian replacement Puro.
Citizen Khan is a family based British sitcom created by Adil Ray. It is set in Sparkhill, East Birmingham, described by its lead character, a Pakistani Muslim Mr Khan, as the capital of British Pakistan. Citizen Khan follows the trials and tribulations of Mr Khan, a loud-mouthed, patriarchal, self-appointed, cricket-loving community leader, and his long suffering wife and daughters Shazia and Alia.
Sony Pix
Sony Pix is all geared up to celebrate the festival with a special programming line-up of entertaining and engaging movies starting from 9 am. The channel will air animated movies like Stuart Little, Wreck It Ralph, The Adventures of Tintin, Ratatouille and Brave.
The viewers can watch how the family Little adopts a charming young mouse named Stuart in Stuart Little, followed by the trail Wreck-It Ralph, a story of a video game villain trying to become a hero at 1047 am. This will be followed at 1249 pm by the Oscar nominated movie Steven Spielberg directed The Adventures of Tintin. The tale of Remy the rat will be presented in Ratatouille at 259 pm, followed by Brave, a multiple award winning entertainer at 507 pm. The adventure will conclude with the academy award nominated story of a super-dog, Bolt at 710 pm.
Star World Premiere HD
Star World Premiere HD is all set to run an all-day marathon of season 1 of the craziest, musical show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that has all the ingredients that Holi is known to possess – love, friendship, music, dance and most of all colours. The show will air starting 12 pm to 5 pm and then between 10 and 11 pm.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend revolves around Rebecca Bunch, a single woman who still longs for her long-time soul mate Josh, who dumped her after their summer fling during summer camp in 2005. In 2015, after being inspired by a TV commercial for a butter spread, she restarts her pursuit of Josh after she spots him in New York City.
FX and FX HD
Laugh out loud this Holi as popular comedian Louis C.K. makes his way to FX in a special marathon of season 5 of his show Louie between 12 and 330 pm. The series is loosely based on Louis C.K.’s life, showing him as a comic onstage and depicting his life offstage as a newly divorced father of two girls.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
