Filmy gets more filmy

Filmy, the Bollywood movie channel from the Sahara group, will undergo a change in its brand packaging and alter its look and feel starting today, August 18.

The new packaging is conceived and designed in-house by Filmy, which looks at depicting alter egos and mirror images through the audio-visual medium. As a prelude to the repackaging, Filmy revamped one of its shows, Meri Bhains Ko Anda Kyon Maara, a month ago.

He adds that the new, slicker packaging is being supported by acquiring fresh titles, apart from the recently acquired rights for movies such as Golmal Returns, Welcome, Singh is King and Ghajini.

The three and a half year old channel is introducing a mascot as well for the first time, called Inspector Late (pronounced Latte). This character has the dubious distinction of being late for everything, except when it's time to watch films on Filmy. While doing so, it will underline that 'Filmy par ek bhi film miss karna paap hai! Kyunki maa kasam Filmy sabka baap hai'.

The tagline of the channel, Maa Kasam Filmy Hai, is being extended across the media platform including television, radio and print. Chakrabarti informs that in the second phase of the marketing campaign (once the on-air change has been communicated effectively), the channel will exploit on-ground and digital media.

As a tribute to the Bollywood fans, the channel has decided to focus on Bollywood characters during the end plates and commercial breaks, rather than the graphic elements. The channel till now had a voiceover as the channel id, but the re packaged version will play video as well.

For the record, Filmy is a part of Sahara One Media and Entertainment, which also includes Sahara One Motion Pictures, the motion pictures business; and Sahara One Television, the general entertainment channel.