Shemaroo ventures into 'alternate content'

Mumbai, May 27 (IANS) Shemaroo, a home video entertainment company, has ventured into a new area of home video infotainment called 'alternate content' by launching a DVD and a VCD on the discourses of spiritual leader Osho.

"We are venturing into 'alternate content' where we will bring CDs and DVDs which will be informative as well as educative in nature," said Shemaroo director Hiren Gada, releasing the DVD and the VCD on the spiritual leader here Monday.

Gada said videos are related more to films and the time has come when audience will look beyond it. "We are putting in effort to make audience look beyond films by providing this 'alternate content'," he said.

The company will be coming up with videos on various subjects like spirituality - consisting of teachings and discourses of various spiritual leaders, edutainment - mainly dealing with educative materials for children, literature - on the works of various literary personalities and their lives, history - life and events of various historical figures, science and technology, and topics of special interests such as travel, cookery and health.

The next project on the cards is a video on Yoga by Shilpa Shetty, he said.

He said Osho was the modern spiritual leader whose teachings have a high degree of relevance even today. Besides, "I want to make our younger generation aware of his discourses as it will help them a great deal in living a happy life in today's stressful environment".

Shemaroo has produced various films in recent times, including animation film "Ghatotkach" that was released recently.

So does Gada want to make film on Osho too? Gada said: "As of now, we have no plans".

Shemaroo's next release is a comedy film "Mere Baap Pehle Aap" to be released June 13. The film has been directed by Priyadarshan with Akshay Khanna and Paresh Rawal in the lead.

As far as future projects are concerned, Shemaroo has various films lined up for the year. Shahid Kapoor has been signed for a film to be directed by debutant Rohit, said Gada but refused to divulge any details.

"We have not decided on the title of the film as of now," he said, adding the shoot is expected to start some time in June or July.

The second project is a co-production with Vishal Bharadwaj titled "Ishqiya", to be directed by Vishal's assistant Abhishek Choubey. The film casts Arshad Warsi, Naseeruddin Shah and Vidya Balan. The film is expected to go to floors in September, he said.

"Besides, we are also working on a number of projects including an animation film, which are expected to be ready by December," Gada added.

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