ATN Canada to Produce and Broadcast 100 Episodes as a Tribute to 100 Years of Indian Cinema

TORONTO, Sept. 5, 2013 /CNW/ - Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN) (TSX-SAT), Canada's largest South Asian Broadcaster, is pleased to announce that it will produce a Canadian television series of 100 Episodes as a tribute to 100 Years of Indian Cinema. The series will feature 100 celebrities from the world's largest film Industry with an International perspective. The series will feature exclusive interviews with stalwarts of the Indian Film Industry including Movie Stars, Producers, Directors, Music Composers and Playback Singers.

ATN Canada has reached into the depth and breadth of its own massive archives to enable it to embark on a deep nostalgic dive into the memory-land of Indian cinema. The forthcoming new series is planned with a special Canadian flavor as most of the icons and glittering stars of the Indian cinema have at some time or the other during the past 3 decades, either visited ATN in Canada or have been interviewed by ATN on location. The names of these icons and the mega stars are numerous and each one is in some case immortalised and treasured in our collective memories, in the films and recordings and in other cases are still with us as glamorous and as larger than life as ever.

The production is based on the interviews and shared moments with the icons of the Indian cinema who, while on foreign soil and away from the film studios, have dropped their guard and opened up to show their real personal warmth and their real personal charm that, amongst other things, makes the production very unique and original. It is a labour of love, as the archives and the library go back in history when the concept of ATN as what it is to-day was a mere hope in the future.  The series will be produced at ATN's new High Definition Studios and Broadcast centre. The series will use precious footage from its vast original Canadian Production Archives, some of which may not be available anywhere else in the world.

ATN's Tribute to 100 Years Of Indian Cinema will include Exclusive interviews with Mega Movie Stars from the Hindi Film Industry such as Raj Kapoor, Devanand, Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi, Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Sunny Deol and Producers & Directors like Yash Chopra, V. Shantaram, Ramanand Sagar, B. R Chopra, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Mira Nair & Manmohan Desai to name a few.

It will also include Mega stars from the Southern film industry such as Dr. M.G. Ramachandran, Shivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, Rajanikant, Kamala Hassan, Prabhu Deva, Jaya Pradha, and more and artists from the Punjabi Film Industry such as Gurdas Mann, Aryan Babbar, Om Puri, Sonu Sood, Diljit Dosanjh, Narender Chanchal, Rupinder Handa & Divya Dutta

ATN will pay its tribute through outstanding Singers such as the Nightingale of India Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Oscar winner A R Rahman, Mukesh, Asha Bhosle, Ghulam Ali, Jagjit Singh, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and others. ATN will also showcase Canadian success stories' contribution to Indian Cinema such as Deepa Mehta, Jaspinder Narula, Harbhajan Mann, Lisa Ray, Adnan Sami, Raghav and many more.

"It has been a privilege to have been involved with the Canadian Broadcast Industry and the Indian Film Industry. My Father, a lawyer turned film producer was a Pioneer in Indian cinema. He was one among the first in Southern India to Produce a Feature Film with sound. Based on his tremendous Goodwill, I have had the honour of interviewing several of the above mentioned Extraordinary Celebrities from the Indian Film Industry. As the Founder of ATN in Canada I am delighted to be blessed with this opportunity to be associated with the Centenary Celebration of Indian Cinema" said Dr. Shan Chandrasekar President and CEO of ATN.

The series will commence in September 2013 and run for 52 weeks at prime time on ATN HD and other selected ATN affiliated Channels. ATN will deploy close to 100 staff members for this project at different levels including Programming, Script Writing, Production, Post Production, Graphics, Marketing and Sales. ATN may also be syndicating selected shows internationally.

About ATN - Asian Television Network International Limited: ATN serves Canada's diverse cultural communities with 44 specialty television channels with about 800 Indian Movies per month. The Company offers its flagship ATN-HD general interest service, 4 Bollywood movie channels and a variety of channels that include 3 sports Channels, 3 news Channels, 3 music Channels, 3 lifestyle Channels, 3 Chinese Channels, 6 Punjabi channels, and several regional language channels. ATN operates a South Asian Radio Service on Satellite Radio across The United States and Canada. Some ATN content is also available on any Bell mobile phone that supports video. ATN has programming alliances with leading international broadcasters like Star Network (News Corp), Sony Entertainment Television, Viacom, Times Television Network, B4U Network, NDTV, Doordarshan and many more. ATN channels are available on various Cable, Satellite and IPTV Platforms across Canada like Shaw Cable, Bell TV, Rogers Cable, Bell Fibe TV, TELUS Optic TV, Cogeco Cable, East Link, ViaNet and Others.

SOURCE: Asian Television Network International Limited