Hoping to turn conventional wisdom as to what sells in India in the movie business on its head, HBO tonight premieres its $ 120 million epic miniseries, Band of Brothers, to the hail of a veritable media blitzkrieg across the country.

Band of Brothers produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks premiers tonight at 9.30 pm on HBO

According to Shruti Bajpai, director, marketing of HBO South Asia, it is the most heavily promoted event for HBO India in 2001. There is a multimedia campaign planned around the launch of the show, involving outdoor presence, press ads in various publications in major cities, Internet, radio and cinemas in all metros. Says Bajpai: "We also have an on air promotional plan which is the most expensive on air promo ever being done on the channel." The teaser campaign, programmes on the "making of" behind the scenes, exclusive interviews with Hanks, critics‘ reviews, audience reactions and a ten day countdown were all part of the promotion. In addition, the Band Of Brothers book is also being promoted at leading bookstores across the country.

After tonight‘s launch of Band Of Brothers, there will also be episodic recaps of all episodes. The channel is also pushing the series on MTV and Discovery Channel, Bajpai says. Apart from vantage point hoardings in Mumbai and Delhi, HBO has gone in for interesting media innovations with some leading English newspapers in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore. An example: today‘s edition of Mumbai‘s top-selling Mid Day tabloid had a double page centrespread foldout devoted to the launch.

Ad spend on the 10-part miniseries, the most expensive original production by HBO till date, is approximately 25 per cent of the channel‘s overall marketing budget, Bajpai revealed. Industry sources say HBO‘s ad spend for the year is roughly Rs 150 million so that would indicate a figure of Rs 37.5 million or thereabouts as the promotional spend on Band of Brothers.

If Band of Brothers does succeed as HBO expects it to, the prevailing wisdom that viewership on movie channels is title-driven and made for television productions cannot succeed will have been effectively disproved.

As for the episodes themselves, for 10 Mondays beginning tonight 9.30 pm, Band of Brothers will tell the story of World War II from the viewpoint of Easy Company, an elite team of American paratroopers who were among the first to land in France on the fatal D-Day morning and played a vital role in the capture of the Bulge. They also freed a concentration camp in Germany.

A scene from Band of Brothers

Based on Stephen Ambrose‘s book, the series is produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. The series is refreshingly free of the usual cliches associated with a war drama, according to the official release. No fake Pearl Harbour romantic triangle, no sickening patriotic rah rah. Just raw gritty drama that examines the human condition at the time of a war. Hanks has also directed Brothers‘ fifth episode called Crossroads.

Production for the series started last April and finished in November. The series has 500 speaking parts and 10,000 supporting actors were involved. The cast was trained on the usage of the weapons. They also had to undergo the hardships of a boot camp and each working day lasted 16 hours. They were trained in movement both during the day and night, hiding in foxholes and jumping from an aeroplane.

Tonight‘s episode is Currahee and shows how the members of Easy Company train. David Schwimmer of sitcom Friends‘ fame plays the nasty Lieutenant Sobel whose bullying attitude causes the men under his command to despise him.

Rajat Jain is the new executive vice president and business head of Sony Entertainment‘s SET MAX channel.

The channel, launched by SET to focus on movies and cricket, turned two on 8 October. Jain has one been given a one-point agenda by Kunal Dasgupta, CEO of Sony - to oversee the complete revamp of the channel.

Jain, who joined Sony as a key member of its corporate strategy team, hopes over 80 per cent of the revamped channel‘s revenue will come from ad sales, has this to say says, "We will feature only the best and most entertaining films ranging from early favourites to the best blockbusters, in all four slots every day, and not just the evening prime time slot. And, of course, we shall continue to bring viewers the best cricketing action too!"

The new look MAX, which will be launched from November, will also have a special theme for the prime time films on Wednesdays and Thursdays. In November, the channel plans to telecast comedy films every Wednesday, while action films will be shown every Thursday of the month.

MAX is also bringing the whole family together on Sundays, with all-time favourites in the 12.30 pm slot, with films like Bobby, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja

Nasty! Very nasty! Expect big trouble in the shape of a shrewish hostess with a razor for a tongue as the next big thing on Star Plus after Kaun Banega Crorepati.

The ‘Queen of Mean‘ Mary Robinson - host of the UK version of the Weakest Link .

BBC Worldwide and Star India announced in Mumbai today they had reached a licencing agreement to showcase Weakest Link, the biggest hit to come out of the BBC Worldwide stable in the last ten years (and before that as well?).

The show received a high-powered introduction with BBC Worldwide chief executive Rupert Gavin, Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea and BBC Worldwide director Monisha Shah doing the honours. It was a year ago that BBC Worldwide and Star India first announced their programming alliance with the launch of BBC‘s celebrated Yes Minister in its Hindi avatar Ji Mantriji.

The Indian version of this show will also be in Hindi and will be produced by BBC Worldwide in association with Siddharth Basu‘s Synergy Production‘s. Synergy produces KBC as well, and BBC World‘s mastermind India." The show, to be telecast on Star Plus, will follow the original UK format, including set, graphics and design. Key members from of the UK production team will be involved in the making of this show, it was announced.

The launch of the Hindi Weakest Link comes at a time when the Amitabh Bachchan-hosted KBC has lost much of its sheen and marks a first in that the two shows are being showcased on the same channel. In the UK and the US the two shows fight for the same prime time audience on competing channels. A pity that. It would have been interesting to see how KBC stood up in a straight slugfest.

On the sets of Weakest Link.

And if KBC was known for the Bachchan personna and his catchline "Lock kiya jaaye?", Weakest Link is associated even more closely with its "pitiless presenter" Ann Robinson and the catchline "You are the weakest link. Goodbye." In the space of one year Robinson has gone from relative obscurity as a newspaper columnist to superstar television personality - a superbitch who has taken nastiness to a whole new level. She also happens to be every headline writer worth his salt‘s dream concoction. Two gems among the many headlines used to describe her - "Host from Hell", "Queen of Mean".

On the subject of the Indian host for the show, Mukerjea said no one had been found as yet who could fill the nastiness quotient bill, adding the search was still on. Mukerjea said he hoped to find a suitable host within the next three to four weeks.

Questioned on the prize money at stake, Mukerjea said "no decision has been made, but it will be substantial." Mukerjea confirmed that the catchline for the show had already been decided but was unwilling to elaborate further, saying that once the host had been decided, the telecast date fixed and the prize money determined, an announcement would be made.

Queried on the duration of the show Monisha Shah said that it had a run time of 46 minutes which with the ad breaks meant a one-hour prime time slot.

Mukerjea, while acknowledging the difficulties in finding a suitable host for the show, hinted that if a woman was not found, Star might consider a man hosting the show. If Star does finally opt for a man, it will not be a first. Of the 65 countries where Weakest Link has been licensed, the Irish version has a man - Eamon Dunphy - doing the hardball act.

Now if Star could just find that little old nasty so the that the show can get on the road...!