GECs
Zee Music rocks Mumbai with Sound of India
MUMBAI: “If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it….” These lines from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night fit to a T the revamped Zee Music and its new VJs.
Zee has pumped in yet another dose of vitamins in its thus far sickly baby Zee Music. Though a repeat performance of the Delhi party; the energy with which the launch was announced had to be seen to be believed.
“In this youth driven music channel market, we have realized the definitive need for a pure music channel and there Zee Music comes in with a format of playing full songs and less bakbak, (chatter), ” said Zee Music business head Yogesh Radhakrishnan at the launch.
Although Zee Music’s revamped version would be fighting for the same pie as Channel [V] and MTV, the real mêlée seems to be with MTV alone. “We are launching Sound of India and rest assured you will get quality music on our channel. We have rights to 70 per cent music in India. All the other music channels (read MTV) buy it from us. So we obviously have an upper hand. We have real young VJs, unlike the rest who just claim to be young,” said Zee sales head Bharat Ranga.
The programming has been revamped and eight new shows have been planned with a deliberate focus on Bollywood numbers. Also a bevy of six new VJs have been added to the Zee Music team. “Our mission is to be the brand ambassador of Indian Music to the world by leveraging Zee Music as The Sound of India,” said Radhakrishnan. All six VJ’s New Delhiites Roob, Parimal, and Manish and Mumbaiites Vishal, Karan and Adita, were introduced to the press and the invitees by Zee Music programming and brand head Niyati Shah. Though a giggly lot, some did have sparks of talent.
The eight new shows that will set the ball rolling at Zee Music are: a live show Please toh Play, Signs, Suniyore, Imported, www.bakbak.com, Global Gavaiya, Pehla Pyar and Item Bomb. Besides intriguing names, Please toh Play is touted as the first ever live show on a music channel. According to Radhakrishnan, “It will be just like radio. In fact we are planning to make our channel as live and as interactive as possible.”
With close to Rs 10.5 million that was planned on being spent on the media blitz for a month, which would cover outdoors, the electronic medium and the radio, it came as no surprise that the Mumbai launch party rocked the elite disco Velocity till the wee hours of the morning.
Among the celebrities that hopped by were Shaadi Ka Ladoo reel pair Mandira Bedi and Sanjay Suri. Also seen were Mandira’s husband Raj Kaushal and singer Raageshwari Sachdev.
And the music starts today….
GECs
Sahara One reports financial results, notes director exit and business realignment
Muted revenues, steady expenses and strategic adjustments shape company’s current phase
MUMBAI: In a tale where the sands seem to be slipping faster than they can be gathered, Sahara One Media and Entertainment Limited has reported another quarter of wafer-thin income and widening losses, even as a boardroom exit adds to the unease.
The company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that its board, in a meeting held on April 4, approved its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2025. The numbers paint a stark picture. Total income for the quarter stood at just Rs 0.13 lakh, unchanged sequentially and sharply down from Rs 0.26 lakh a year earlier.
Losses, meanwhile, deepened. The company posted a net loss of Rs 24.16 lakh for the quarter, compared to Rs 18.81 lakh in the June quarter and Rs 39.69 lakh in the same period last year. For the six months ended September 2025, the cumulative loss stood at Rs 39.69 lakh, while the full-year loss for FY25 was reported at Rs 60.72 lakh.
Expenses continued to outweigh income by a wide margin. Total expenses for the quarter came in at Rs 24.30 lakh, led by employee benefit costs of Rs 6.51 lakh and other expenses of Rs 17.78 lakh. Earnings per share remained in the red at Rs (0.11) for the quarter.
The balance sheet reflects a company with significant assets on paper but limited operational momentum. Total assets stood at Rs 23,065.57 lakh as of September 30, 2025, broadly unchanged from March 2025. Equity share capital remained steady at Rs 2,152.50 lakh, while total equity was reported at Rs 18,004.85 lakh.
Cash and cash equivalents saw a modest uptick to Rs 6.75 lakh from Rs 4.68 lakh earlier, supported by a positive operating cash flow of Rs 180.01 lakh for the period.
Yet, beneath these numbers lies a more complex narrative. The company’s auditors flagged their inability to obtain sufficient evidence to form a conclusion on the financial statements, citing lack of access to records. They also raised concerns over the company’s ability to continue as a going concern, pointing to insufficient funds, delayed recoveries, and stalled content investments.
Adding to the governance overhang, the company disclosed that Rana Zia has resigned as whole-time director, effective October 16, 2025, citing other professional commitments. The resignation, noted and accepted by the board, also brings an end to her role across company committees.
Regulatory pressures continue to loom large. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has already initiated penal actions for non-compliance with listing norms, with trading in the company’s shares remaining suspended. There is also a risk of promoter demat accounts being frozen.
Legacy legal issues remain unresolved. A substantial deposit of Rs 694,027.88 thousand linked to the long-running OFCD dispute involving Sahara group entities is still under the purview of the Supreme Court of India. Restrictions on asset disposal continue to weigh on the company’s financial flexibility.
Operationally, challenges persist across multiple fronts. Advances worth Rs 1,92,916 thousand given for film content remain stuck, with delays in project completion and uncertain recoverability. The company’s YouTube channel, despite being operational, has generated no revenue for over three years due to compliance lapses. In a further twist, management has indicated that revenues may have been fraudulently diverted through unauthorised changes to its AdSense account, with a police complaint in the works.
There are also missed revenue opportunities. Television content rights continue to be used by a related party despite the expiry of the licence agreement, with fresh negotiations still underway.
For now, Sahara One Media and Entertainment Limited appears caught between legacy disputes and present-day operational hurdles. As losses linger and governance questions mount, the road to recovery looks less like a sprint and more like a slow trudge through shifting sands.
