News Broadcasting
Scriptwriters course ‘Qalam’ in full swing
MUMBAI: With positive response from channels as well as production houses, television and media services company Indiantelevision.com kicked off the third edition of its annual scriptwriter’s course, Qalam on 21 June 2003.
The four-month long comprehensive TV Scriptwriters course has been ideated, created, executed and guided by a governing board comprising of prominent television writers and media personalities including, Nimbus Communications CEO Akash Khurana, ace writer Vinod Ranganath, Indian Television Dot Com CEO, Anil Wanvari, film maker Aditya Seth and writer-director Vijay ‘Victor’ Acharya.
Qalam 2004 will be co-ordinated by Aditya Seth. The course gives participants a golden opportunity to present their concepts directly to the channel executives and representatives of production houses. New topics have been added to this year’s syllabus.
The selection process for the course included two rounds comprising a written test and personal Interviews. The selected candidates belong to a variety of fields ranging from amateur scriptwriting to content / technical writing.
The goal of Qalam is to convert the aspiring scriptwriters to real professionals and placing them in prominent production houses and television channels. Qalam’s earlier batch has produced students who are currently working with serials like Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi, Kitty Party and Yeh Meri Life Hain amongst others while some are involved in film scripts too.
Commenting on the launch of Qalam ’04 Nimbus Communications CEO Akash Khurana says, “We’re sharing our hard-earned knowledge with you and we expect you to respect and learn from what we’ve accumulated over the years – quite like in the gurukul system.”
With earlier batch students currently working with good projects, Dr Khurana feels that the ruling vision of Qalam is to get the creative talents their due.
The course is slated to run for 16-week with a minimum of three interactive sessions per week. The weekend sessions will be longer and the focus will be to illustrate the educational experience with the help of video sessions. Besides this, the participants will also be taking part in interactive sessions like discussions, ideation and analyses.
News Broadcasting
News18 India to air Sabse Bada Dangal on 4 May counting day
Channel promises fastest results, live trends and analysis across five states.
MUMBAI: Ballots will do the talking and screens will do the shouting. As counting day approaches for high-stakes Assembly elections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry, News18 India is gearing up for an all-day broadcast of its flagship election show, Sabse Bada Dangal, on 4 May from 6 am onwards. The Hindi news channel plans to deliver continuous, real-time updates as votes are tallied, combining live counting data with on-ground reporting and studio analysis. With political fortunes set to shift through the day, the coverage will track every swing, surge and surprise as trends turn into results.
The broadcast will feature a mix of senior political leaders, analysts and experts, offering instant reactions and decoding the evolving electoral picture. Expect heated debates, quick takes and detailed breakdowns as the numbers settle across all five states.
For News18 India, counting day has long been a high-visibility moment. The network is banking on its reporting reach, editorial bandwidth and technology-driven coverage to stay ahead in what is often a fiercely competitive news cycle.
With multiple battlegrounds and shifting narratives, the day promises both drama and data in equal measure. And if all goes to plan, Sabse Bada Dangal will once again turn the counting of votes into prime-time spectacle.
