Indian television to celebrate New Year's eve with English blockbusters

This New Year’s Eve celebrate the occasion with English movie channels. Viewers can get cosy and  comfortable before  their television sets this winter in order to enjoy New Year’s Eve extravaganza in store for them from  channels such as Star Movies, Movies Now, Sony Pix and Zee Studio.

To  make their New Year’s Eve extra special this year audiences can look forward to the highly anticipated penultimate instalment of Stephenie Meyer’s popular teen vampire love saga- Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 on Star Movies . The channel is committed to showcasing the biggest Hollywood Premieres week on week, and the fourth installment in the Twilight series, premiering on 31st December at 9pm, will take this promise through to the next year.

Commenting on the occasion, Rasika Tyagi, Sr. VP Programming, Star English Channels, STAR India, says, “Star Movies is the home of the biggest Hollywood Premieres. We are extremely excited to premiere the fourth instalment of ‘’The Twilight series” on our channel as the series is extremely popular in India. We have premiered the preludes to the series and have received an overwhelming response for the same. As market leaders we have always offered our viewers the biggest Hollywood premieres on every New Year’s Eve and are confident that the premiere of Breaking Dawn Part 1 will receive an enthralling response.”

This December also get ready to make the best out of the holiday season with Zee Studio! On New year’s eve Zee Studio brings to its viewers the final countdown with back to back satellite premieres on 31st of December starting 8:00 pm!! Animal kingdom and Wild Target will be showcased on Indian television for the first time ever only on Zee Studio! There couldn’t be a better way to bring in the New Year. Zee Studio launched a major marketing campaign to promote their December properties. Apart from going aggressive on social media it includes multiple verticals like TV, OOH, and BTL to create a buzz. As the push is heavy on online Zee Studio is giving away Christmas hampers on Facebook and Twitter with their contests!

PIX has taken a different initiative. Watch ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2’ and bid farewell to Bella and Edward in one of Hollywood's largest blockbuster! This fifth and last film from The Twilight Saga, promises to be enthralling with vampire-on-vampire beat downs and wolf-on-vampire action which has been excellently choreographed and orchestrated through Bill Condon’s direction. Himmat Butalia – Marketing Head, PIX commented “With an estimated budget of over $131 million dollars, the concluding chapter of this epic saga has been eagerly awaited. It is the perfect film to screen for the PIX Movie Club as the target audience is the same. We have screened the previous installment from the franchise in the past and received an excellent response from our ever growing members and hope for the same with this film.”

To become a member of the PIX Movie Club which is a free club for college students only one needs to register and log on to www.pixtelevision.com and click on the PIX Movie Club tab. On applying for the same , a unique membership number will be sent to the applicants via email which can be availed to view movies at the multiplex .

MOVIES NOW brings you ‘A Date with Bond’ powered by Apollo and in association with Volkswagen starting 1pm on 31st of December running through till the 1st of January 2013. So tune in for eight back to back breathtaking films - Diamonds are forever, Quantum of Solace, The World is not Enough, Octopussy, Casino Royale, Die Another Day, Tomorrow Never Dies and License to

Kill from New Year’s Eve till New Year’s Day as MOVIES NOW brings to you the best New Year gift – the biggest legacy in cinema history, viz. James Bond.

The movies capture the 5 most popular actors who characterized James Bond over 5 decades. From Sean Connery who emerged as a towering sex symbol and helped establish one of the greatest film franchises to Roger Moore who added a camp elegance that was perfectly in tune with the increasingly outrageous villains to Timothy Dalton whose portrayal of Bond was darker and more serious with emphasis on the gritty realism of Fleming's novels instead of fantasy plots and humour. Then the new age Bond was taken took over by Pierce Brosnan who took  the entire franchise to a new level of bravado and charisma and now Daniel Craig is doing justice to this role.

Thus as the ladies watch their urbane and socially sophisticated heartthrobs on screen, men have lots to look forward to with the Bond Guns, the Bond Cars, the extravagant lifestyle and the most beautiful Bond Girls.

Ajay Trigunayat, CEO, English Entertainment Channels spoke about how the year 2012 was and also shared the channel’s plans going forward. When asked about how the year was for Movies Now, he said, “We consolidated our leadership in this space. If we see the two year aggregate, our channel share is 30% which makes us stand ahead of competition. I guess we have had an amazing performance. In the last one year we have focused towards monetizing our viewership.” 

Speaking about the initiatives on New Year’s Eve, Trigunayat says, “We had an amazing line up for Christmas and this year end. The whole and sole motive is to engage the viewers completely with one of the most entertaining genres in year end.”   

HBO will be airing  movies such as “RUSH HOUR 3”, “THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE”, “THE MASK”, “KUNG FU PANDA 2” and much more. The whole of January HBO will delight viewers with an amazing line up of movies.

All the ingredients of a mega blockbuster – action, romance, drama and vampires, are in store for viewers. So this New Year’s Eve  one can enjoy the eagerly anticipated movies to the accompaniment of family, friends and lipsmacking snacks to smoothly sail into the New Year. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal@adgully.com]