English Entertainment
I-Day: Entertain yourself the English way
MUMBAI: English is entertaining on I-Day. It’s that time of the year when the patriot in you is in high spirits. Indians will celebrate its 70th Independence Day on 15 August. Twenty-one gun shots are fired after the Prime Minister hoists the Indian tricolour in honour of the solemn occasion.
After covering the Prime Minister’s address to the nation, flag-hoisting ceremonies, parades and cultural events, patriotic songs in Hindi and regional languages are played on news and radio channels. Hindi movie channels air patriotic or Indian classic films throughout the day.
If you are done with patriotic movies and songs on the Indian media, do not fret. As the Red Fort prepares to usher in another year of liberty for the world’s largest democracy, Indiantelevision.com has compiled the programming schedule of a few English entertainment channels.
Read on:
Colors Infinity
The channel will play back-to-back episodes of Orange Is The New Black starting from 6 am. The stories of cell-mates ride alongside Piper’s as they try to figure out their life in prison and attain freedom from their own inner inhibitions.
Comedy Central
Feel the freedom and get inspired by Mindy on Comedy Central. The channel will play continuous episodes of The Mindy Project for its viewers. Mindy is successful, independent and sassy. Everyone feels a sense of self-awareness and power each time she states, “I don’t need marriage. I don’t need anyone to take care of all my needs and desires. I can take care of them myself now.”
The show will begin at 1pm
FX and FX HD
To pay tribute to one of the stalwart sitcom series, the channel has a special day planned on the Independence Day. FX will air a day-long marathon of season 3 of that 70s show starring Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, Laura Prepon and Wilmer Valderrama from 10 am to 7pm.
Set in the mid-late 1970s, the show follows the daily lives of six teenagers. The head of the group is Eric Forman played by Topher Grace who lives under the authority of parents Red and Kitty. Living next door is his girlfriend Donna Pinciotti enacted by Laura Prepon and her parents Bob and Midge. The rest of the gang includes Fez played by Wilmer Valderrama, Jackie Burkhart enacted by Mila Kunis, her boyfriend Michael Kelso played by Ashton Kutcher and Dany Masterson playing the role of Steven Hyde.
The gang usually spends its time in Eric’s basement, thinking of their lives, parents, and futures, but they manage to get into funny adventures and mishaps along the way through their teenage lives. The season 3 begins with Hyde getting out of the jail, but Red is now on a strict warpath. Despite a few missteps, Eric and Donna’s relationship makes strides as they begin to imagine their futures together. Eric also makes progress at work — as does Donna — but Donna also discovers some painful truths about her dad. Jackie sets her sights on a resisting Hyde, while Kelso makes a concerted effort to win her back. Fez finally gets a girlfriend, Caroline, who turns out to be crazy. Eric and Kelso decide to take their relationships with Donna and Jackie to the next level, but with unforeseeable results.
Movies Now
The channel will showcase the best of Hollywood in a special Fight to Freedom property showcasing movies that inspire the feeling of freedom and the struggle one has to go through to claim it. The movie marathon will air from 1 pm to 9 pm.
The movies scheduled for the day include inspiring tales of freedom struggle, with titles like: Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, 300: Rise of an Empire, and Edge of Tomorrow.
Man of Steel, the movie narrates the story of an inconspicuous super-human, who is forced to fight his own race to save planet Earth. The movie Pacific Rim, is an intense war drama between humans and monsters and the responsibility has fallen upon a former pilot and a trainee, who are desperately trying to save the world from the apocalypse. The next movie on the binge is 300: Rise of an Empire. It’s a tale of courage, where an admiral of Athens leads the pack of just 300 brave men who stand up against the vast Persian army that is marching to conquer Greece.
‘Edge of Tomorrow’ is another exciting alien story and a fight of one soldier to win a war against aliens, despite set-backs of starting all over again, every time he dies.
MTV
The channel will kickstart their #IamFlawsome campaign through a very crucial episode that will be played out on Girls on Top. An upcoming sequence will see the character of Gia Sen standing up for a bar dancer who is looked down upon because of her profession. Seeing injustice taking place in front of her, Gia will stand up for the girl and remind them of the fact that, just because someone belongs to a certain background, it does not mean they are not talented.
Speaking about the same, Barkha Singh who plays the character of Gia Sen, shared, “We live in the progressive era but sadly people’s thoughts and mentality is still regressive. Everyone has flaws and having them is no shame! What really matters is how you channelize these flaws and use them to help you be a better person. MTV’s #IamFlawsome campaign is a very bold and commendable step towards encouraging people to celebrate who they are and the fact there is no fun in changing one for the sake of the society.”
Star World and Star World HD
Star World and Star World HD will give viewers a reason to laugh out loud this Independence Day. The channel will play back-to-back episodes of season 12 of Two and a Half Men from 10 am onwards. The show features Ashton Kutcher as a billionaire internet entrepreneur, Walden Schmidt and Jon Cryer as the helpless Alan Harper in lead roles.
The American television sitcom follows the tumultuous lives of Walden and Alan as they navigate situations involving dating, sex, divorce, career choices, love and friendship among others. From chasing love interests to getting married to each other as a sign of true friendship and companionship to adopting a child, Alan and Walden do it all and more, often with hilarious consequences!
Vh1
Vh1 will celebrate noteworthy music with Vh1 Trending in India, a list of songs that has moved millions in the country. Find out what’s trending in India and revel in 69 years of the country’s glorious sovereignty from 12 pm and 6 pm.
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.
