Star India, which in January was reported to have in place the blueprint for its DTH operations, appears to be having second thoughts after the government?s recent notification that there would be no changes to the guidelines it issued to broadcasters in November 2000.

Altaf Ali Mohammed, president digital platforms group, who had been brought in from Hong Kong to oversee Star?s DTH project in December last after Star abandoned its DTH plans for Hong Kong, has this to say: ?At this point, the risks of going in for DTH are much higher than the possible rewards.?

?Even leaving aside the guidelines themselves, which are anyway extremely stringent, the government has not spelt out clearly some other issues,? Mohammed says. ? As far as computing our costs go, we still don?t have a clear picture on what spectrum usage fees and the uplinking licence fee mentioned in the notification will entail. Add the service tax and new income tax regime in the present budget and it effectively leaves us with little room to manouvre,? Mohammed says.

Queried whether Star has given up on DTH, Mohammed says: ?We are putting together a business plan which will go into all aspects of this and the whole process will take at least 30 days. If at the end of this, we feel it is commercially viable for us to get into DTH we will, otherwise no.?

Why a business plan is required at this stage is the question if talk that Mohammed had already readied a report to be presented before the Star‘s board in Hong Kong is true. Especially considering that in January, Star officials were quoted as saying that ?in the absence of any positive response from the government on the issue of raising the foreign equity ceiling to a minimum of 49 per cent, it was anyway launching the project to take a first mover advantage.

Sri Adhikari Brothers Entertainment (Sabe) TV has recently modified its logo keeping its Hindi speaking audience in mind.

"We slightly changed the design and added the Hindi script because that is what we are. A Hindi entertainment channel," explains Markand Adhikari, the company‘s vice-chairman and managing director.

"With the changed logo, viewer identification will be that much simpler," Adhikari says.

First there was cine heartthrob Hrithik Roshan on Star‘s Rendezvous With Simi Garewal. Now Sony has gone two up, and lined up three shows about Tinseltown‘s top hunk, scheduled to air between 31 March and 23 April 2001.

The first of the three programmes, The Roshans - Hrithik Live in Concert, will be aired on 31 March on SET while the other two episodes about the making of the star will be screened on 16 and 23 April respectively.

The concert is a celebration of 50 stellar years of the Roshan family in the film industry: director and former actor Rakesh Roshan, Filmfare Award-winning music director Rajesh Roshan and Hrithik Roshan himself. In the concert, Rakesh Roshan reminisces on his time in the film industry, from when he joined till the launch of his son Hrithik in the film Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, which he directed.

The highlight of the show will be Hrithik Roshan‘s stage dances. Captured by 17 cameras, he will be performing different numbers from his three films, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Fiza and Mission Kasmir. The songs include Sitaroon Ki Mehfil, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Pyaar Ki Kashti Mein, Aaja Mahiya, Bhumbro, and Rind Poshmaa.

Of the three programmes, the remaining two-part series traces Hrithik Roshan‘s journey from childhood till the day he picked up the Filmfare Best Actor award for his debut film Kaho Na Pyar Hai, which was released last year.

Says Hrithik Roshan‘s sister-in-law Farah Khan, vice president - production and chief creative head, Numero Uno International Ltd which produced these programmes: "The idea is to let people know that Hrithik Roshan is not an overnight star as the media has projected him to be, but instead a lot of hard work has gone behind his success."

Hrithik is the only star son who was financially broke most of the time, who would stammer while talking and was an extremely introverted person. Quite unlike the star he is today, she quips.

Sony is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to promoting the show. At the moment, Rs 10 million is being spent for promos over the next 15 to 20 days apart from in-house promos aired on television, says Kacon Sethi, executive vice-president, marketing and sales. Apart from that, they are still in the process of working on the post telecast ad campaign for Hrithik Mania. "We are building up pre-campaign and post campaign publicity," says Sethi.

The channel has a one year contract with Numero Uno for the telecast of two airings of the series.

Sony has roped in Coke as the third partner for the series. Hometrade.com is the major sponsor, among others, for the show which will be aired in 123 countries across the world. Ad rates have been pegged at Rs 350,000 to 400,000 per ten second spot, which should fetch the channel somewhere in the region of Rs 70 million.

And this is just the beginning. Sony promises six more such shows with "real big stars".