Star India to telecast Telugu and Bengali feeds of IPL on its regional movie channels

Star India has announced the telecast of regional feeds of the Indian Premier League 2018 on regional movie channels. The Telugu feed will be telecast on Star Maa Movies and will be endorsed by actor NTR Junior, while the Bengali feed will be available on Jalsha Movies and will be promoted through TVCs featuring actor Prosenjit Chatterjee.

It was recently announced that the Kannada feed will be launched on Star Suvarna Plus and endorsed by actor Shiva Rajkumar.

Alok Jain, EVP and Business Head, Star Maa Network, said, "India has always been passionate about sport and IPL being the biggest sporting property on the calendar every year. We want to give fans the opportunity to watch the #BestvsBest cricket action in their preferred language. Who better to advocate IPL in Telugu than NTR Junior. The mutual love and respect he has for his fans and vice-versa made him the right person to take the message to the fans, who are at the heart of this experience. As we continue to Re.Imagine IPL in 2018, we hope the fans watching the matches on TV will enjoy the Telugu commentary.”

The Telugu commentary team for IPL 2018 will feature former Indian cricketers and some distinct voices, including Venkatapathi Raju, Venugopal Rao, Kalyan Krishna, C Venkatesh, Chandrasekhar P, Sudheer Mahavadi and Rj Koushik.

The 11th edition of IPL starts on April 7 with defending champions Mumbai Indians taking on Chennai Super Kings. The match will be telecast live across Star Sports network and Hotstar.

The TVC featuring NTR Junior captures a scene in NTR Junior’s home, where his friends are debating why the need for Vivo IPL in Telugu commentary. NTR Jr, surprisingly asks, “Telugu aite yenta?” (What’s so special about Telugu?), and goes on to say how you always need a special something – Imagine chicken without mirchi; Pakoda without onion; A car without petrol and sleeping on a mother’s lap. As his friends agree to his reasoning, NTR Jr. wraps up with “Asalu maza, Telugu ra!”

The film opens with Prosenjit in his living room, looking for something. As he strolls about, he excitedly starts talking about possible match scenarios. As the film progresses, the viewer realises that it’s his TV remote that Prosenjit is looking for, following which he reveals that IPL 2018 will be more special this year as the Bengali cricket fans will get to catch the Best vs Best action in their mother tongue, Bangla. The driving thought behind the initiative is that the pride of watching your favourite sporting spectacle in your own language is an experience like never before.

Star India will broadcast the IPL 2018, in six languages – Hindi (Star Sports 1 Hindi), English (Star Sports 1/ HD and Star Sports Select 1/ HD), Tamil (Star Sports 1 Tamil), Kannada, Bengali and Telugu with each language having individual commentary teams. The IPL will also be beamed live in these six languages on Hotstar.

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