Zee movie channel launch
THE Zee World family are expanding their Bollywood roots into Africa as they prepare to launch their latest Bollywood moviesonly channel next month.
Celebrating a two-year success of Bollywood splendour, Zee Entertainment Enterprises will introduce fans to a 24-hour English dubbed movies-only channel.
The Zee Bolly Movies channel will launch on March 1 on channel 114 on DStv.
Zee World has taken Africa by storm with its Indian-centric family dramas since February 2015.
“Our two-year journey has been great. Zee World has been getting such positive responses from viewers across the continent. This has taught us about the demand of Bollywood movies in Africa and how the story lines resonate with other cultures in Africa,” said Zee Entertainment Enterprise media liaison officer, Tanelle Naidoo.
“Following a success rate with our series, we will introduce this project as an offspring to our existing channel, which will have an assortment of Bollywood films to suit everyone’s taste.”
MultiChoice announced on its website that DStv Premium, DStv Extra and DStv Compact subscribers would get to experience this along with Zee World on channel 166 at no extra cost.
“Zee World is currently the leading Bollywood channel in Nigeria and the African influence is greatly received,” said Naidoo.
Enthusiasts can still enjoy their favourite cooking shows and series.
However, they will now be spoilt for choice between the two.
Naidoo said if fans subscribed to the smaller DStv packages, they too would enjoy the Bollywood movie channel if there was positive feedback.
“Until 2014, we used to bring Bollywood with English subtitles. We brought Bollywood in English for the first time on Zee World. This decision has grown our viewership three times more.
“After Zee World and its success, we decided to do this for another channel,” said the chief executive officer of Zee Entertainment Africa, Harish Goyal.
Goyal said viewers included the black, white and coloured communities.
“We have been giving audiences fresh content. Since 2014, we now have four Bollywood dubbed channels.”