MUMBAI: Chennai-based production house Yantra Media is getting into Hindi programming. The production house, which has a total of seven shows on air in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu currently, is planning to launch an interactive thriller show.

Yantra hopes to launch the show in February. When queried on the channel, Yantra Media head Shyamsunder told indiantelevision.com that two channels were in the final list and a decision would be taken soon. He said production would begin in January 2005.

"I always wanted to get into Hindi. The present thriller show we are planning will be in an interactive format. The viewer will have to solve the puzzle. The production will begin in a month's time in Mumbai."

Speaking on his South Indian plans, Shyamsunder said he was doing a couple of shows for Sun's soon-to-be-launched 24-hour music channel Aditya. According to Shyamsunder, one show would be a sitcom while the other would be a political satire. For Surya TV in Malayalam, Yantra has two shows in mind. According to Shyamsunder, one show will be a regular drama-based soap based on a published work while the other would be a political satire.

"Both the shows will be replacing our own shows which are currently on air in Surya. The shows will be launched after three months," offers Shyamsunder. "In Tamil, we are launching a daily mythology serial on Sree Murugan (Lord Subrahmanya) titled Murugan Arul. In Kannada, we will be launching a daily soap in two months. In Telugu, we are launching a crime based programme Crime File on 20 December," offers Shyamsunder on Yantra's plans for Tamil and Kannada.

Yantra Media left Malayalam channel Asianet and Sun's Tamil rival Vijay TV and joined the Sun Network in 1992. Since then, the production house has been doing shows for all the South Indian channels under the Sun Network.