Managements of mana Telugu television channels seem to be as good (or as bad) as the Indian cricket team management! Just as our cricket team is in a shambles ahead of the World Cup, our channel houses are in deep confusion ahead of competition getting tougher, what with the much-talked-about NTV gearing up for launch. Opinions might vary on NTV’s prospects, but without doubt the channel has compounded confusion at the existing ones, if not actually triggering it.
Management-related issues are bugging employees at three channels: ETV, TV9 & Maa; Confusion and uncertainty triggered by Operation Undavalli has taken a toll on ETV employees and a good number of them have applied for the upcoming channel. As a result of the recent turmoil, ETV has postponed pay hikes to ETV2 programme employees, originally planned for last November. Naturally, some of them drove down the road to the new channel’s office.
At TV9, no one knows when Srini would exit from the company, offloading his stake. Venture Capitalist Srini, we hear, is mighty upset over Ravi Prakash’s sudden somersault, to take a pro-Congress line. Srini, apolitical though, would any day prefer the ‘progressive’ yellow brigade. Srini not only wants to walk out but also deliver a parting shot to Ravi Prakash – ensure his role is cut in the new set-up post his exit. That’s precisely what Ravi is seeking to avoid and the continuing one-up game is keeping the staff guessing on the final outcome.
Meanwhile, our friend Ravi Prakash summoned department heads after learning that 40 of his staff applied at NTV and spelt out his policy clearly: “Tell them to first resign here before submitting applications there.” Now, that argument makes sense only when you are the boss!
The scene at Maa TV is no less blurred. Insiders say they are witnessing a cold war of sorts between the two Tollywood stars, Nagarjuna and Chiranjeevi, stakeholders in the company. Super Nag fighting a two-way battle to be the Boss, with Indra Chiru one hand and with the real boss, founder promoter Murali Krishnam Raju on the other. Sharma stepped on Raju’s toes, occupying his chamber, for which he paid dearly. Chiru's frontman Sarat Marar replaced Sharma as the COO. Sharma is still around as the chief advisor but there’s no guessing how long he is going to last! Moreover, some biggies who left after Nag & Chiru stepped in are said to be planting doubts in the minds of the staff about the channel’s future.
Gemini group, the most successful among Telugu channels, too is going through a rough patch. Muniraju, the Tirupati hero who captured live visuals of the attack on Chandrababu Naidu at Alipiri, is the now the de facto bureau chief. Nobody whom Gemini bosses interviewed for the post of bureau chief, including Madhav of AJ, showed interest in joining the channel. The volatile situation at Gemni is said to be the reason for the disinterest. Of course, none would forget how the channel indiscriminately fired more than 20 news staff in one day without prior notice.
Star to form JV with Balaji for Telugu channel
Management-related issues are bugging employees at three channels: ETV, TV9 & Maa; Confusion and uncertainty triggered by Operation Undavalli has taken a toll on ETV employees and a good number of them have applied for the upcoming channel. As a result of the recent turmoil, ETV has postponed pay hikes to ETV2 programme employees, originally planned for last November. Naturally, some of them drove down the road to the new channel’s office.
At TV9, no one knows when Srini would exit from the company, offloading his stake. Venture Capitalist Srini, we hear, is mighty upset over Ravi Prakash’s sudden somersault, to take a pro-Congress line. Srini, apolitical though, would any day prefer the ‘progressive’ yellow brigade. Srini not only wants to walk out but also deliver a parting shot to Ravi Prakash – ensure his role is cut in the new set-up post his exit. That’s precisely what Ravi is seeking to avoid and the continuing one-up game is keeping the staff guessing on the final outcome.
Meanwhile, our friend Ravi Prakash summoned department heads after learning that 40 of his staff applied at NTV and spelt out his policy clearly: “Tell them to first resign here before submitting applications there.” Now, that argument makes sense only when you are the boss!
The scene at Maa TV is no less blurred. Insiders say they are witnessing a cold war of sorts between the two Tollywood stars, Nagarjuna and Chiranjeevi, stakeholders in the company. Super Nag fighting a two-way battle to be the Boss, with Indra Chiru one hand and with the real boss, founder promoter Murali Krishnam Raju on the other. Sharma stepped on Raju’s toes, occupying his chamber, for which he paid dearly. Chiru's frontman Sarat Marar replaced Sharma as the COO. Sharma is still around as the chief advisor but there’s no guessing how long he is going to last! Moreover, some biggies who left after Nag & Chiru stepped in are said to be planting doubts in the minds of the staff about the channel’s future.
Gemini group, the most successful among Telugu channels, too is going through a rough patch. Muniraju, the Tirupati hero who captured live visuals of the attack on Chandrababu Naidu at Alipiri, is the now the de facto bureau chief. Nobody whom Gemini bosses interviewed for the post of bureau chief, including Madhav of AJ, showed interest in joining the channel. The volatile situation at Gemni is said to be the reason for the disinterest. Of course, none would forget how the channel indiscriminately fired more than 20 news staff in one day without prior notice.
Star to form JV with Balaji for Telugu channel
Star Group is partnering with Balaji Telefilms to launch a Telugu entertainment channel. The channel would be launched around August. Star would be the majority stakeholder in the joint venture with Balaji Telefilms.
NTV’s claim: Guess how many would have applied for jobs at NTV? Given the questionable credentials of the promoter and the supposedly hidden ‘hands’ behind the channel, one would assume not many. Reality is otherwise. One senior at NTV proudly declared recently that the channel received more than 2,500 applications, for all jobs –journalist, technical HR etc. “We are flooded with applications and have multiple options in selecting the staff,” he said.
Resignations: ETV2: Political reporter at ETV2 Dronamraju Ramachandrarao decided to call it quits -ending almost 12 years of association with Eenadu group. He is now on long leave and we know what it means. His exit comes close on his bureau chief Moorthy quitting to join NTV as Bureau Chief for a pay Rs 43K plus car. We are not sure if Ramachandrarao too would join Moorthy at NTV but AP politicians would be relieved now that Ram is out of action, at least for the time being. Ram, who worked at Chennai and Tirupati before joining the bureau in Hyderabad, is known for his non-conventional approach. He had the knack of posing tricky questions and evoke ‘something controversial’ from the netas.
Deccan Chronicle: We hear ASR is on the way out. No news on what shocked the Transco correspondent but his exit would cut the elite club of senior reporters, with 10 years plus of service @ DC, to just two.
DNA scouting: At last DNA seems to be getting serious about launching the Hyderabad edition. The paper has started scouting for seniors to join its bureau in the city. At least half a dozen reporters received cold calls – two each from DC and ToI and the rest from other organizations. That’s good news. However, those who got the calls are surprised that it’s a city businessman making them instead of the local chief.
NTV’s claim: Guess how many would have applied for jobs at NTV? Given the questionable credentials of the promoter and the supposedly hidden ‘hands’ behind the channel, one would assume not many. Reality is otherwise. One senior at NTV proudly declared recently that the channel received more than 2,500 applications, for all jobs –journalist, technical HR etc. “We are flooded with applications and have multiple options in selecting the staff,” he said.
Resignations: ETV2: Political reporter at ETV2 Dronamraju Ramachandrarao decided to call it quits -ending almost 12 years of association with Eenadu group. He is now on long leave and we know what it means. His exit comes close on his bureau chief Moorthy quitting to join NTV as Bureau Chief for a pay Rs 43K plus car. We are not sure if Ramachandrarao too would join Moorthy at NTV but AP politicians would be relieved now that Ram is out of action, at least for the time being. Ram, who worked at Chennai and Tirupati before joining the bureau in Hyderabad, is known for his non-conventional approach. He had the knack of posing tricky questions and evoke ‘something controversial’ from the netas.
Deccan Chronicle: We hear ASR is on the way out. No news on what shocked the Transco correspondent but his exit would cut the elite club of senior reporters, with 10 years plus of service @ DC, to just two.
DNA scouting: At last DNA seems to be getting serious about launching the Hyderabad edition. The paper has started scouting for seniors to join its bureau in the city. At least half a dozen reporters received cold calls – two each from DC and ToI and the rest from other organizations. That’s good news. However, those who got the calls are surprised that it’s a city businessman making them instead of the local chief.
write to us at vikram.apmedia@gmail.com
11 comments:
Dronamraju Ramachandra Rao also joined NTV for a salary of 27k and is likely to come to office in a couple of days. Mr. Murthy preferred him and the management accepted it.
The news on TV9 is not true and it seems the information is planted by someone wilfully. The fact is that Srini Raju and Ravi Reddy were able to get Satyavedu SEZ of 1200 acres and in return, they are helping the Congress government. To show that he is innocent, Srini has transferred major stake to Ravi Reddy.This ia all a drama unknown to many. Infact, Ravi Prakash is going to be more aggressive after the successful launch of Kannada Channel. The Maharashtra channel on one side and the foreign launches on the other side are keeping him too busy. May be, to create uncertainity in the tv9 circles, new channels must have created this news.
Dear Vikram,
It's evident that you support NTV promoted by a landgrabber with the support of Shabbir of Congress. You try to attack other channels to create confusion in their ranks. This blog has become a gossip column. Whatever you listen in pressclub over a beer mug is carried here on the name of investigation.
Inta kastaaniki NTV enta pay chestundi Vikram babu?
Please Vikram!
Wish to bring to your notice:
A month back you said the coverage of TV9 on Margadarsi is due to the SEZ land given to Sriniraju's friend. You said Srini Raju was pushing Ravi towards Congress.
Today you say it is Ravi Prakash who toes the line of Congress against Raju's wish.
The Ravi I know from Osmania University days is different from these political affiliation allegations. He didn't apply the land under journalist quota because he didn't want to take anything from the Government. He didn't even apply for the land offered by the Govt. for TV9.
Ravi Prakash created a company where there is no casteism. We know how many Muslims work there. It is sad that you are comparing TV9 with casteistNTV.
When you criticised Ramoji we all appreciated you. But when TV9 did the coverage, you are attributing motives.
Is it fair?
I feel you are in utter confusion. What you wanted to communicate? Started with tv channels endedup in DNA.Are you working with a single point agenda of supporting NTV?
Q.What's the real name of Vikram?
Ans. S.R. Ramanujan
I think you're misinformed about a cold war between Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna. Its their combined muscle that got the Vajrotsavam to MAA. The channel is all set for re-launch once the dust settles and things fall in place.
ASR has resigned and it is a confirmed news. DC seems to be lagging in hiking salaries for the last two years. Most guys in DC(as told to their friends) are unhappy. Watch from more exits from DC bureau and desk soon????
After looking at the opinions expressed... one should understand the reasons for the anger against NTV. The channel head's background is not very good. If someone prints fake currency and becomes rich overnite... can we welcome into the media?
Senior journalists like S.R.,K.S.may not mind this. They are happy with their advance pay cheques.
We saw lot of criticism on Ramoji in the blog.
Apart from his financial misdeeds, his bias towards TDP is an important issue.
But what about NTV? This guy has taken Shabbir Ali, the bootlegger of Kamareddy into the board. Shabbir will dictate the terms to these seniors. He is asking the caste of the person before appointing. I feel this is more dangerous than political bias of other media.
we need to give a slogan..."clean money...Clean media."
There seems to be some bitter sighs here over negative remarks on Ravi Prakash in the posting. He should be ashamed of running such a TV where not a single sentence is complete without a generaous dose of English words. These people may justify themslevese saying this is "youth-friendly" channel. May be that is why the TV9 team is obsessed with sex "rackets". A lecherous crowd, no doubt. But the fact is these bunch knows neither English nor Telugu. It is obvious that Mr Ravi Prakash or the management of TV9 sold itself to the powers-that-be for the second time. First they predicted a thumping majority to TD when the writing on the wall was every clear. Now they are indirectly aiding YSR and the Congress's looting of State by attacking Ramoji Rao. I felt disgusted by their interview with a killer in which he graphically described how he had killed his victim. The channel's interview with smiling Jagan on the day Ravi was killed and his kin and supporters were mouring shows lack of sensibility, sensitivity or decoram on the part of opportunist Ravi Prakash. I don't know him personally, but the talk is that he is a cent per cent Vijawadian, but he used to tell, rather lie, to his fellow students in Osmania University, where Telangana bias is strong, that he was from Khammam. So much for the uprightness of this holier-than-thou guy! We are also hearing lot of reports that TV9 reporters in towns are partaking the loot from corrupt officials by blackmailing them. Seems something must be done to watch the watchdogs. Pl. Note I am from a print medium. Note sir, an agent of some TV9 rival
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