MUMBAI: India?s No 1 FM Station, heats up its laughter quotient in the breakfast show ? BIG Chai with none other than Raju Shrivastav.

MUMBAI: Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel of the sub-continent, will telecast live one of the most anticipated matches from the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League ? Liverpool against Inter Milan.

The UEFA Champions League, Europe?s premier club tournament, reaches its knock out stage with 16 teams, including all four clubs from the English Premier League, still in the fray and Ten Sports, which has the rights for the Champions League in the Sub-continent, will show four of these matches.

Apart from the Liverpool-Inter match, which will kick off at 12:30 am IST on Wednesday, February 20, the other three matches to be shown live are Olympiacos v Chelsea (3:15 am on Wednesday, February 20), followed by Lyon v Manchester United and Celtic v Barcelona on Thursday, February 21, at the same times.

Repeat telecast of Liverpool-Inter and Olympiacos - Chelsea matches will be on Wednesday, starting 9:30 am IST, while Lyon-Man.United and Celtic -Barcelona?s clashes will be repeated at 8:30 am IST on Thursday.

Italian Champions Inter are top of Serie A again this season without losing in the league, and they are hot favourites to make Liverpool‘s increasingly-depressing season even worse by putting them out of Europe. Two finals in three years is now little more than history for under-pressure boss Rafael Benitez, who knows qualification for the Champions League next season is now the minimum requirement.

Liverpool (2005 and 2007) and Arsenal (2006) made it to the three most recent finals, but they now face the collective might of Milan over two legs, and both of the English sides will need to effect immediate and dramatic improvements from their weekend performances in the FA Cup if they are to make any impact on the Serie A giants Internazionale and AC Milan, respectively.

For Manchester United (Arsenal?s nemesis on Saturday) and Chelsea, the prospects are more promising. Both are buoyed by convincing FA Cup wins and, as winners of their respective Group Stage pools, have looked generally more solid in Europe this season than Liverpool and the Gunners.

The UEFA Champions League starts in September and continues till the champion club of Europe is determined in May. The tournament comprises a group stage features 32 teams in eight groups of four, followed by four knockout rounds.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SCHEDULE (First knockout round stage): Schalke vs Porto; Roma vs Real Madrid; Olympiacos vs Chelsea; Liverpool vs Internazionale (all matches on Tuesday, February 19); Celtic vs Barcelona; Lyon vs Manchester United; Fenerbah?e vs Sevilla; Arsenal vs Milan (All matches on Wednesday, February 20).

MUMBAI: The competition gets tougher on Sony‘s K for Kishore as three IBN 7 challengers gear up to compete against the contestants sent by the other partners. The February 16 episode to be aired on Sony at 9 PM will decide who amongst the challengers will emerge as the wild card entry winner.

In the search for the challengers, Sony Entertainment television travelled across the country. The participants were asked to sing their favourite Kishore Kumar songs, which were recorded on CD‘s and sent to IBN 7 with a personal code for each contestant, for further short listing. The codes of the five short listed candidates were then shared with Sony for final selection and after a rigorous audition, Amit Paul, Ammanat Ali and Jimmy Felix, made it as the IBN 7 challengers.

Pakistani talent Ammanat Ali is the nephew of maestro Gulam Ali and has been singing from an early age. He is a well-known playback singer and has sung for several Pakistani films. Amit Paul, a 24-year-old singer from Shillong and is rated among the top budding singers following his success in the Indian Idol 3 as a runner up. His stylish presentation, versatility in singing, has created a huge fan following for him. Jimmy Felix, 30-year-old is one of the popular singers from Asma band and a huge fan of Kishore Kumar. Channel V gave him a break through their popular show known as "coke V pop stars", which was a turning point in his journey to become a singer

The three IBN 7 challengers along with those selected by other partners will perform in front of three esteemed judges and at least one of them will make it to the K for Kishore main draw as a wild card entry winner/s.

MUMBAI: Love is in the air? and what better time to fall in love for Kanya and her ‘hate guru‘ husband Ranbir! After going through series of planning and scheming to get rid of Kanya from his life (Ranbir was forced by his mother to marry Kanya) Ranbir realizes that there is something about this young girl, who is his better half, that attracts him to her, every time.

Oblivious to the emotions that are stirring within them both Kanya & Ranbir are drawn to each other. In spite of Ranbir repeatedly throwing Kanya out of his room & house he misses her. He really cannot figure out the anxiety and restlessness that he goes thro‘ when Kanya is away from him. In between his love-hate emotions for Kanya he is also keen to trap the ‘wild & wacky‘ Natasha. Will Ranbir succeed in his mission to check out Natasha?

Love happens and Ranbir & Kanya fall in love. Life seems to have come to a complete circle with two people, who started off hating each other, finally in love. What they are not ready for are the side effects that come with love. There‘s romance, love and also mystery that surrounds this unusual love story.

Stay tuned to the drama & emotions unfolding on Monday February 25th at 9.00 p.m, on Kuchh Is Tara only on Sony Entertainment Television.

MUMBAI: Swar Sangram the music reality show on ETV-Marathi has raised a controversy-should a singer be versatile and sings all kinds of songs or stick to one?s own voice quality and sing only those kind of songs.

The same question has been raised repeatedly in all the Hindi music reality shows, but has hit the Marathi screen for the first time.

The show is in the continuation of another popular show aired on the same channel- Maze Jeevan Gaane.

The 12 contestants for Swar Sangram were selected by well known poets and music directors -Raam Laxman, Yeshwant Deo, Sriniwas Khale, Anil Mohile, Vandana Vitankar, Shantaram Nandgaonkar, Meena Mangeshkar Khadikar, Dashrath Pujari, Shridhar Phadke, Sudhir Moghe, Late Vasantrao Desai, Vithal Umap,.Ashok Patki and Mangesh Padgaonkar.

These personalities talked about their life?s musical journey and compositions, and their songs were presented by four up-coming, young talented singers. Other well known singers also spoke and rendered songs of these personalities. At the end of each episode the said personality chose one best singer from the four.

Swar Sangram is a singing competition between these selected 12 singers, this being the main difference between the regular singing contests and this show, that these singers are selected by the maker of the songs.

ETV claims that the competition will be different with each episode having a different theme - Republic Day, the golden era of Marathi music, classical, women?s day, Holi, albums , gazals, filmy masti, duets, regional songs, songs sung by non- Marathi singers, etc.

The eminent music based celebrities are called to judge on the sets like - Padmaja Pheneni, The first lady of Marathi films-Sulochanadidi , Prajakta Shukre, Swapnil Bandodkar, Aarti Anklikar etc along with the regular judges-Sadhana Sargam and up coming music director-Mayuresh Pai.

Music Personality Tyagraj Khadilkar is assigned the music mentor?s role. Another interesting concept being introduced here is that for the first time Marathi films are being promoted in such a show, with their teams becoming and becoming a part of the judging.

Films like Man Pakharu Pakharu, Mohini, Checkmate and Saaware Re have been promoted along with some of the top stars of the Marathi industry. The USP of this show is also that only the judges will decide the final winner and the SMS system will be applicable only for the last two episodes for the selection of the most popular singer- viewer?s choice.

These series have been shot in the picturesque Ramoji Film City on a huge set, never before seen on Marathi television, and conceived and directed by Madhavi Mutatkar.

The mega final of Swar Sangram will be telecast on the 12th of April. It is aired every Saturday at 9pm on ETV-Marathi.

To know more about all the controversy watch Swar Sangram this Saturday, 16 February at 9 pm only on ETV Marathi.

MUMBAI: If you were in Hong Kong last week, you may be wondering what this phrase means, and why you keep hearing it in every shop, restaurant and market in the city.The obligatory four-word greeting, always said with gusto, wishes others a happy and a prosperous New Year, accordingly to the lunar calendar. However, on February 7 this year, the New Year was extra-special for the Indian community in HK, as the finalists of Star Voice of India welcomed the Chinese Year of the Rat with a scintillating performance in Hong Kong. Indeed, it was an unforgettable evening.

Ishmeet, Harshit, Chhoote Ustad ?Abhaas?, Toshi, Sumitra & Priyani from the popular Star Plus reality show, Star Voice of India performed in front of a packed house at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Auditorium. The sold-out concert, themed as ?Evolution of Bollywood Music? took audience on a sentimental journey through the valley of reminiscences ? Starting with melodious classics of the 1970s all the way up to the contemporary favourites ?Dard-E-Disco? and ?Chak-De?. The talents were engaged in a mellifluous musical camaraderie and went into the crowd, setting the feet tapping. The show also showcased the fusion of local HK dancers dancing on popular Bollywood numbers, clearly a first time on such a big platform. Evidently, if public feedback is the metric of measurement, HK audience loved the performance. The chief guest was Mr. L.D. Ralte, the Consulate General of India in HK. It?s the first time the SVOI talents performed together anywhere internationally. After the event, we had organizer queries for similar shows in US, Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai. Please find attached a few pictures from the show!

The highlight of the evening was the Start of the auditions of Star Voice of HK with the promise that if we are able to spot a real singing talent in HK, he/she will be given an opportunity to travel to India and sing a song from the SVOI Season 2 platform, in front of esteemed judges and this episode will be televised on Star Plus globally. Clearly, this is a huge localization opportunity and will help integrate our International beams better. Already 100 people have signed up for the SVOHK auditions.

This is a small attempt to a bigger canvas called ?SVOI World Tour?. Encouraged by the success of SVOI Concert in HK and after incorporating the many learning too, we at International Business hope to take this property across other Star markets regionally soon (depending on regional market interest). The idea is to further popularize Star, enhance the brand equity of Star Voice of India, and entertain viewers by converting compelling and winning content from reel to real. Thanks & best regards.