MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) is strengthening its presence in the Middle East with the launch in August of Zee Arabia, a music and lifestyle channel targeted at South Asians.

Zee Arabia, which is under the Zee International division, will launch in the first half of August. Zee Telefilms director, special projects, Yogesh Radhakrishnan is heading the initiative.

Former Sahara One non-fiction programming head Kalyan Sundaram, who joined Zee International last month as creative head, will be heading the creative wing of Zee Arabia.

"We believe in interactivity and participation, and I will continue to promote these in my projects for Zee as well," says Sundaram, who had conceptualised the Sahara One show Dial One aur Jeeto.

Zee's move emphasises chairman and managing director Subhash Chandra's plans to have a solid ground presence in the Middle East market. "We have based Yogesh in Dubai as he is an experienced person and the Middle East is an important and big market for us. We would like to have sizable ground presence in the area," Chandra had said in an interview with indiantelevision.com early this year.

Zee Network presently has Zee TV providing a dedicated localised feed for the Gulf. As reported by this website earlier, Zee is planning to launch a dedicated feed of Zee Music in the region this year.