Earshot 8212; Pune

Best bat or ball?Here is a new series on Zee called Indian Cricketer of the Millennium from November 7, Sunday, 12.30 pm. As part of it...

Best bat or ball?
Here is a new series on Zee called Indian Cricketer of the Millennium from November 7, Sunday, 12.30 pm. As part of its millennium bonanza, Zee TV has this special eight episode series highlighting Indian cricket stalwarts of yore and today. The show is hosted by Ajay Jadeja and features Geoff Boycott; it tells the story of Indian cricket, era by era from its infancy in international cricket back in 1932 when we played our first official test match, to 1999 i.e., 67 years of official cricket. In the process the show also asks viewers to select the Indian cricketer of the Millennium. Will it be Gavaskar, Kapil, or Sachin? Wait and watch. P.S: This show is strictly for cricket lovers.

Bye Bye Big B
All loyal viewers of Sony will have enjoyed Superstar of the millennium featuring films of the great Bachhan and will be sad to see it conclude, last week. The festival ended with The Great Gambler and Dastana. It was quite good as Sony show-cased hit songs from his films too. Who8217;s next in line? We don8217;t know. It could be Dilip Kumar, Shashi Kapoor or Dev Anand.. That is if they are planning another festival. But in recognition of Amitabh8217;s contribution to Hindi cinema, Sony Entertainment Television came up with a gesture which is worth a mention. CEO, Kunal Das Gupta and programming head Raveena Kohli presented a plaque which had Superstar of the Millennium8217; embossed on it to the Big B.

Big starts
We told you about Zee coming up with regional channels under their brand Alpha in three languages 8211; Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali. While Alpha Marathi took off on August 15, the Punjabi and Bangla started transmission last month. And the launch of these two channels were memorable events. The Governor of West Bengal 8211; Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen 8212; launched Alpha Bangla at the Taj Bengal, Calcutta. And former prime minister, I.K. Gujral pressed a remote to launch Alpha Punjabi at the Taj in New Delhi. Subhash Chandra Goyal was also present along with newly appointed CEO R.K. Singh.

Not so funny
Dinesh Bansal must be a worried man. His sitcom Ghar Jamai Zee with Satish Shah and Madhavan playing father-in-law and son-in-law who are at loggerheads and directed by Anant Mahadevan had completed one year and they got an extension of another 52 episodes. Which meant the sitcom was humorous enough and generating good TRPs, otherwise it would have been pulled off the air. Now the sitcom, which is 70-odd episodes old has been shifted to Thursdays. Ideally for a sitcom, 8 pm is considered a good slot but this one has been placed at 12.30 pm. That8217;s not all: we hear it could be wrapped up in a week or two.

Etc8230;
Now for some interesting tidbits. Priya Tendulkar, who was Ashok Saraf8217;s wife in Professor Pyarelal, has been replaced by Shoma Anand who also plays his wife in Hum Paanch in which Priya also appears as the talking photograph. Rumours have it, Priya was acting tough with dates while on the other hand, we also hear stories that she was not being paid on time. Anyway, the other interesting info is that after some bigwigs like Boney Kapoor, Mahesh Bhatt, Ketan Mehta, Pooja Bhatt stepped into the TV business behind the camera or in front of it, the latest trying her hand in the software industry, is film actress Ayesha Jhulka who has started her own production company and would produce serials.