Zee Telefilms Limited and Turner International (India) Private Ltd, an AOL Time Warner Company, today announced an agreement to form a joint venture company, Zee Turner Private Ltd, to manage distribution and trade marketing for a bouquet of channels of the two companies and third party channels in India and South Asia.
The JV partners are currently seeking all relevant regulatory approvals, an official release states.

Zee will hold 74 per cent equity and Turner 26 per cent in the joint venture. The company will be based in New Delhi. The board of directors will comprise three directors nominated by Zee and one by Turner. DP Naganand, director of Zee Telefilms and group head, access business for Zee, will be chairman. The JV will be managed by a team of Turner and Zee executives. Anshuman Misra will be managing director of the JV (and will continue to head up Turner), with Sunil Khanna as the CEO, Paresh Karia as the CFO and Siddharth Jain as the senior vice-president, distribution.

Zee group chairman Subhash Chandra expressed his happiness about the formation of the joint venture with Turner, a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, the world?s largest media company and said: ?This new joint venture is in keeping with Zee?s philosophy of associating with world class organisations to deliver better value to its customers and all other stakeholders. The joint venture leverages both partners? respective brands and will enhance each party?s distribution strength. Zee will continue to explore other strategic co-operation and investment opportunities with AOL Time Warner.?

?This alliance, the first of its kind for Turner in Asia is a ground-breaking step for us in India. Partnering with Zee, India?s premier broadcast group, means that together we can offer an unparalleled blend of international and local channels to viewers,? said Steve Marcopoto, president & managing director of Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific Inc. ?This new venture also underscores our commitment to investing and participating in the growth and future development of the country?s cable and satellite industry,? he said.

A number of initiatives in cross-promotions, programming and distribution arrangements are under consideration in line with the intent of the two companies to derive maximum value from this partnership.

The Indian television industry?s first ever Scriptwriters Workshop and Forum, Qalam 2001, will be held in Mumbai on 20-21 December.
Conceived by Indian Television Dot Com Pvt Ltd as the first event of Qalam, a TV Scriptwriters forum, the workshop will provide attendees an insight into the rudiments of scriptwriting, character development, dialogue writing, the process of getting scripts approved by TV producers and channels, and the pitfalls in the business.

Endorsed by the Film Producers? Guild of India and backed by Balaji Telefilms, Sony Entertainment Television, Star India and B.A.G. Films, the two-day workshop will be unique for the interactivity that has been built into it. Exercises will be allotted to attendees on which they will be provided feedback. For the first time, an eminent scriptwriter and instructor from the Vancouver Film School (Canada), Joyce Thierry is coming down to India to conduct the workshop in co-ordination with leading Indian scriptwriters. Among the eminent film and TV personalities who will address participants are filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, scriptwriters Dr Achala Nagar, Anjana Sood, Ashwani Dhir, Ila Bedi Dutta, Mir Muneer, Rajesh Joshi, Vipul D Shah, Raman Kumar, Vinta Nanda, former Sony programming head Rekha Nigam and actor turned producer Soni Razdan.

The workshop will end with a big bash and a special networking session on the evening of 21 December. Indiantelevision.com is aiming to present a select bunch of bright scriptwriters who will emerge out of the two-day gruelling sessions to the television industry, thus offering a unique opportunity for budding writers to showcase their talents and meet people who count within television -programming heads from TV channels, executive producers, creative directors from production houses and directors. The workshop will be held at Time & Again, Banquet Hall in the northern Mumbai suburb of Andheri (W).

Says Thierry: "I am so excited about the prospect of interacting with Indian scriptwriters. I have been conducting workshops in Canada for some years now and I am looking forward to this experience."

Adds Star Plus creative director Deepak Segal: "Writing is integral to our existence in television because that?s from where our content flows. If you want an engineer you go to an engineering school, but where do you go if you want a scriptwriter? We decided to back Qalam 2001 because it is a first of its kind endeavour to develop writing talent and needs encouragement."

Adds Balaji Telefilms CEO Sanjay Dosi: "The script is the soul of any programme and it is a very creditable step by indiantelevision.com to promote scriptwriters and help them in honing their writing skills and it would go a long way in promoting new talent. The industry needs such kind of initiatives."

Information and television services company Indian Television Dot Com Pvt Ltd has earlier held the Indian Telly Awards 2001, the first ever television industry awards held in July this year. Says indiantelevision.com founder & CEO Anil Wanvari: "There is a paucity of trained television scriptwriters in India. This is a plaint I have often heard from the TV industry. After the Indian Telly Awards 2001, Qalam 2001 is an effort from our company to start what we hope will become de rigueur in television - training."