MUMBAI:With television becoming the main mode of entertainment in the country today, the impact and growth of regional language channels, especially in the South, cannot be undermined.

The session on 'Regional media : Emergence of a new market', held on the second day at FRAMES primarily talked about regional cinema and how it needs to be taken beyond the respective region. It also stressed on regional media companies' ability to grow and diversify successfully in their territories and outside as well.

"Cinema and TV co- exist. Most of the popular programmes on Asianet channel are movie based comedy shows," said Asianet chief operating officer Mohan Nair, while stressing on the symbiotic relationship which regional cinema share with the regional channels.

"Television needs movies and is in no way a deterrent to the film industry. We have slots wherein we run movies only and Asianet for one has acquired movies which have not done well in theaters. Thus the film maker gets his audience and we do our bit for the industry," he added.

In a bid to explain why channels opt to step into film production, Nair said, "Unfortunately, the problems faced by channels, especially regional channels is that the cost of acquisition of movies has increased 10 to 20 times. In the 80's it was two to four lakhs and now it is close to 20 lakhs. This makes acquiring movies extremely unviable. We have so far made three films which have done well ".

"Each movie cost us 25 - 30 lakhs only. These such low budget ventures are fit only for channel premiers as they do not have mega stars like Mamooty or Mohan Lal and thus don't stand a chance outside." He also highlighted the fact that with proper streamlining , the two media - television and regional cinema can share a symbiotic relationship where television can promote the movies outside the region and thus interest distributors to show the movies in these areas".

The session: Regional Media: Emergence of a new market

Moderator: NFDC managing director Deepankar Mukhopadhayay
The speakers: L Suresh, Mg Director, Polur Ananda - Relevance of regional cinema to the national scene
Jabbar Patel- Can regional cinema be bilingual?
GV Films chairman G Venkateswaran - Taking regional cinema abroad
Asianet Communications chairman Raji Menon
Priya Cinema's Arijit Dutta - Taking regional cinema beyond the region