MUMBAI: It was Chak de for the ‘Chak De India‘ team at the Sunsilk Apsara, The Producers‘ Guild Award 2008. Chak De India dominated the Sunsilk Apsara, The Producers‘ Guild Awards for excellence and achievement in theatrical motion by sweeping a total of 8 Apsara trophies. ‘Chak De India‘ was declared the ‘Best Film Award‘ for the year 2007 ? 2008, while Shimit Amin picked up the ‘Best Director‘ and Shahrukh Khan picked up the award for ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role‘ for his performance in the film.

Kareena Kapoor won praise for her role in Jab We Met, picking up the award for the ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role‘. Life in A?Metro swept 2 awards as both Konkana Sen Sharma & Irfan Khan won the ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role‘ and ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role‘ respectively.

The Producers Guild Awards 2008 lived up to the expectations of being an extraordinary night with thrilling performances by Salman Khan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor that set the stage ablaze. The performances were choreographed by duo Pappu Mallu and Ganesh Hegde, who wowed the crowd with his solo performance. Prankster Javed Jaffery and Indian Hockey team Captain Vidya Malvade took over the Master of Ceremony proceedings.

The star studded evening was also graced by Yash Chopra, Anurag Basu, Rakesh Roshan and mega stars Shahrukh Khan, Anil Kapoor, Jeetendra, Saif Ali Khan, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Upen Patel, actress from the south Shreya, the Chak de Girls, and Sameera Reddy amongst others. The new couple Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor walked in together causing a stir with the fans present.

Promoters and partners of the show, NDTV Imagine presented awards to Akshay Kumar for ‘NDTV Imagine Best Entertainer of the Year‘, while Govinda and Salman Khan won the award for ‘NDTV Imagine Best Jodi of the Year‘.

Shah Rukh Khan presented the ‘Award for the Best Contribution to Indian cinema‘ to non other than Mr.Yash Chopra. Under the special category, the ‘ARY Style Icon Award‘ was presented to Hrithik Roshan and Stunning Katrina Kaif was presented the ‘ARY Style Diva Award‘. ARY, the popular Pakistani news network presented these awards on behalf of the fan falling present for the Indian Cinema in Pakistan.

Other awards from the Popular Category were as follows:

Best Choreography ? Farah Khan (Om Shanti Om)
Best Lyrics ? Gulzar (Tere Bina ? Guru)
Best Female Playback Singer - Shreya Ghosal (Barso Re - Guru)
Best Male Playback Singer ? Shaan (Jab Se Tere Naina ? Saawariya)
Best Music ? Pritam (Jab we Met)
Best Screenplay ? Jaideep Sahni (Chak De India)
Best Dialogue ? Imtiaz Ali (Jab we Met)
Best Actor in a Comic Role ? Vinay Pathak (Bheja Fry)
Best Actor in a Negative Role ? Neil Nitin Mukesh (Johnny Gaddaar)

An evening of glamour and glitz!!

The Producers‘ Guild Awards 2008 was promoted and presented by NDTV Imagine and Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, who also conceptualized the show.

MUMBAI: CNBC-TV18 - India‘s leading business medium, along with Arena Animation - the Global leader in Animation Education, presented ‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards‘ powered by Animation Xpress.com, at a glittering award ceremony, which took place in Mumbai. Mr. Tim Mostert, creator of the ‘Speedy‘ comic strip in South Africa was the chief guest and Animation Director & Co- Founder of Spark Unlimited, Mr. Sunil Thankamushy was the guest of honour for the evening.

‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards‘ is a path breaking initiative that has been conceptualized with the objective of enhancing and shaping the future of the Indian Animation industry and to create a unique foothold in the international animation arena.

While commenting on the need for the awards in this space Shilpi Singh, Senior Manager, CNBC - TV18 said, "Animation in India is currently riding on two key factors - a large base of highly skilled labour, and low cost of production. While the industry is gaining prominence steadily, several important factors such as the government‘s role in supporting the animation industry, producing original content locally, and the importance of training, will steer the industry to greater heights. India definitely has a lot of advantages and tremendous potential to develop the animation industry. While the industry is gaining prominence, The Golden Cursor Animation Awards, brings to light some of the best work that this industry has projected in the last few years."

Says R. Krishnan, Global Head, Arena Animation, "The Indian Animation Industry has taken off in a big way in the past 3-4 years owing to the recognition of India‘s IT expertise, creative skills & the entrepreneurial drive of companies. In addition to inherent factors like creative skills, manpower availability and cost advantage, external factors like growing maturity of animation studios, increase in number of co-production ventures, development of Intellectual Property, and the attractive domestic market opportunity have immensely contributed to this industry‘s growth."

"Arena recognized the potential of the Multimedia & Animation over a decade back & in 1996, embarked on a journey to create and train professionals to power the industry. Arena has always encouraged and honed talent & our association with the Golden Cursor Award is an initiative to give the creative professionals a recognition in the animation industry." Added Krishnan

‘Tech2 and Arena Animation along with CNBC-TV18, and Aptech have instituted ‘The Golden Cursor Awards‘ powered by Animation Express, felicitated the animation developers in two major categories - professional and amateur. The Professional entries were further divided sector wise, which includes films, TV commercials, mobile entertainment, TV channels and animation games.

The winners of these awards were chosen after a comprehensive three-stage process that involved the Indian Animation Industry nominating some of their best work across categories. Post that, a panel of experts short listed the top 3-5 nominees in every category and the same were presented to an eminent jury panel comprising an expert team of animation experts from The Cell (The network 18 graphics & animation team), AnimationXpress.com, Editorial team & Tech2 editorial team & experts from Arena Animation, short listed the entries based on the pre- determined parameters.

Prior to the awards ceremony, The Golden Cursor Animation Award team devised an Amateur storytelling contest. The contestants had to tell their story within 4 frames, each entry was judged on characters, props and design and story concept. The best story was developed into a movie, which was executed and showcased at the awards. The winner Kristofer Paul Mendonca was awarded at the ceremony by our revered guest Tim Mostert.

MUMBAI: Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML) announces that it has crossed the 5 million subscribers mark during the month of March. The Company thanks its shareholders and all stakeholders for their support in its progress towards this significant milestone.

The Company is also pleased to announce that its special new offering, the Lifetime Go One recharge, launched with a major new advertising campaign, is attracting excellent traction in the market. The highly competitive tariffs offered with this product, including lifetime free incoming, local calls at Rs 1, and STD calls at Rs 2, have become a major draw for subscribers."

MUMBAI: BIG 92.7 FM, India?s No.1 FM Station has come forward to support the wildlife and environment preservation and conservation initiative in Srinagar. Taking an important step in the city, BIG 92.7 FM observed ?Wildlife Awareness Week? from 24th March till 31st March.

The week-long campaign saw both on-air and on-ground activities coupled with interviews of the top officials from the Ministry of Wildlife including - Mr. Qazi Mohd Afzal (Ho?ble Minsiter of Wildlife ? J&K), Mr. A.K.Srivastava (Chief Wildlife Warden ? J&K), Mr. Farooq Geelani (Regional Wildlife Warden), Mr. Rashid Naqash (Wildlife Warden), Mr. Rouf Zargar (Wildlife Warden ? Wetlands) and Mr. Rouf Zargar (Wildlife Veterinarian and Biologist). The discussion covered critical topics like ? measures taken by Govt. to preserve Wildlife, present conditions of the wetlands, preservation of ?Hangul? ? the state animal ? to name a few.

BIG 92,7 FM also offered its listeners and opportunity to participate in these discussions, some of whom won visits to the ?Dachigam Sanctuary?.

On the last day of the week-long campaign, BIG FM RJ Haya along with contest winners visited ?Dachigam Sanctuary? for a day, where they enjoyed trekking, wild life shows and a special visit to animal rescue centre. The BIG FM team also interacted with the sanctuary staff and took stock of the current status of the animals present at the sanctuary.

Speaking on the occasion, Syed Jafary, Station Director ? Srinagar, BIG 92.7 FM said, ?It is our constant endeavor to offer a wholesome mix of entertainment on air and create a social awareness through responsible on-ground activities. Since our launch in Srinagar, we have been consistently taking forward-steps to positively impact the city and share responsibility for the development of the society. Activities like this have not only made people aware of wildlife conservation but also provided information on their importance in maintaining a healthy ecological balance.

MUMBAI: Go green?celebrate this April Fool?s Day with Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM India?s hottest radio station in true and unique mirchi istyle!

While everyone will be busy playing hilarious and notorious prank on friends and family, here is your chance to showcase your hidden florist trade on Radio Mirchi?s hunt for the biggest fool in Mumbai on April Fool?s Day. All through the day, Mirchi RJs on-air will invite listeners to call or send text SMSes if they have a big fool at home.

Mirchi RJ will visit the randomly selected homes to judge the best entry and winner will be honored as an environmental friendly Mumbaikar and will take home a special prize. In addition, listeners can also win loads of exciting prizes on April Fool Day on Radio Mirchi.

So tune in to Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM and celebrate April Fool?s Day in true mirchi istyle while you relieve the moments of crazy pranks with loads of laughter!!!

MUMBAI: Campus18‘s ‘Digistars: War of the Videos‘ winners are ready to steal the spotlight as judges Makarand Deshpande and Nikhil Chinappa came together at the Grand Finale to unveil the best talent in various categories. The scintillating evening hosted at Seijo, Bandra was attended by all the student participants to commend the winners.

Mailesan Rangaswamy, the winner for the Best Video ‘Street Light‘ and Aryan Adityo, the winner of Best Performance ‘Aakss‘ now gets to be a part of India‘s first internet serial that will be produced and promoted extensively by Campus18.com. Both the winners also won the cash prize of Rs.25000/-. The winners of other categories of the contest will also get to contribute in the India‘s first internet serial.

The best video ‘Street Light‘ is based on a blind man‘s perspective; we as individuals don‘t value what we have and the ones who don‘t have it precisely know the value of the things missing in their lives! This touching, heart-warming video shows the importance of looking beyond one‘s individual self. While the best performance ‘Aakss‘ is a film with multiple interpretation of the story, a new style of film making, gives the viewers enough food for thought in 3 minutes to spin their brain.

Applauding the winners, renowned Actor/ director Makarand Deshpande said, "I truly am envious of the winners; since we had no such opportunities in our college days. We didn‘t have such concept driven short film making contests that could help us express our point of view in a great story. There is vast pool of talent in this country which is untouched and unexplored. And Campus18 has introduced a new platform to expose this talent and this is just a start!"

The finalists were selected from more than 2 lac online votes, SMSes & judges rating. The contest received more than 500 entries from across the country.

Adding to it, MTV VJ Nikhil Chinappa spoke about the importance of the online medium in promoting talent of young and budding students. "Internet is the most powerful medium in recent times with UGC being the biggest driver. We are proud to be associated with Campus18‘s Digistars and it has offered a fantastic opportunity to the young students"

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Puneet Johar said, "The internet has started the process of democratizing film-making talent. We are offering a new platform for talented people to showcase their skills. Campus18 is committed to promote young talent through the launch of more such competitions around photography, writing, music and so on. I congratulate all the winners and we will shortly share the details of our new initiative."

The participants of the contest really appreciated the inputs given by Makarand & Nikhil on various aspects of film making in the digital space. Winners had every reason to be happy and were looking forward to be a part of India‘s first online interactive serial.

Winners for the categories are as follows:

• Best Funniest Video- Pawan Kumar, ‘Hell Bound‘
• Best Mash up Video- Ayaskanta Mishra, ‘Reincarnation of Erroneous Soul
• Best Social Message Video- Sushant Sudhakaran, ‘Endless Expectation
• Best Story-Yash Dave, ‘True or False
• Best Music Video- Rohan Talwarkar, ‘Echoes of Sound
• Break through Concept- Abhinav Tripathi, ‘Jump‘

The winners of other categories of the contest will come together to create India‘s first online interactive serial which will be showcased on Campus18.