Press Releases

B4U and Sulekha.com Announce Write Angle, Pioneering Movie Idea Contest

A groundbreaking venture to inspire great content for the Indian entertainment industry

LONDON, UK, MUMBAI, India and AUSTIN, US, Nov 6: Hundreds of millions of Indians worldwide routinely walk out of Indian movies, exasperated and exclaiming, 'Gosh, even I can come up with a story better than that!' B4U and Sulekha.com have come together to offer an unprecedented opportunity for talented men and women worldwide to gain fame and fortune while creating exciting, original content for the Indian entertainment industry.

B4U and Sulekha.com today announced their joint venture Write Angle, the first such initiative in the Indian entertainment space that brings together traditional and new media and leverages the awesome creative ability of Indians worldwide. B4U (http://www.b4utv.com) is a global production and distribution powerhouse of Indian music, TV and filmed entertainment; Sulekha.com(http://www.sulekha.com) is the world's biggest and most acclaimed online Indian community, showcasing creative talent of Indians from around the world.

The groundbreaking Write Angle venture is being launched with a global contest, open to Indians and Indophiles worldwide, opening the floodgates of great movie story ideas. The winner of this contest will win $4000/Rs. 2 lakhs, a globally telecast interview, a paid trip to Mumbai, India and an additional $10,000 when the idea is put into production. (Details of the contest can be found at http://www.sulekha.com/b4u or by writing to writeangle@sulekha.com)

Ravi Gupta, CEO of B4U, said, "In partnership with the popular Sulekha.com, we are revolutionizing the way ideas and content are generated for Indian TV and movie industry. For the first time ever, we have defined a mechanism by which any talented person, no matter where he or she is located, stands a fair and fabulous chance to break into Bollywood and see his or her idea produced into a film." Mr. Gupta added, "We will find the talent and help it flourish in an amazingly short amount of time by providing access to the right people and financing."

The winner of the Write Angle contest will be determined by a panel of highly respected and successful film-makers: Shyam Benegal (Manthan, Zubeidaa), Javed Akhtar (Sholay, Deewar), Santosh Sivan (Asoka, Terrorist), Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Kama Sutra), Honey Irani (Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Maasoom), Tanuja Chandra (Zakhm, Sangharsh), John Matthew Mathan (Sarfarosh) and Farrukh Dondy (Salaam Bombay, Bandit Queen).

Satya Prabhakar, CEO of Sulekha.com, said, "People the world over are yearning to tell their stories. Sulekha has combined its unparalleled track record in harnessing the creativity of Indians worldwide through its member-contributed website with the industry expertise and reach of B4U to bring the vast hidden talent to the fore." Sulekha.com will leverage its existing reach among thousands of creative writers to launch a vibrant online community for those interested in the Indian entertainment industry. "The idea behind Write Angle is not just to inspire individual creativity but also to enable networked collaboration among closet dreamers and writers worldwide, leading to powerful, exciting ideas."

R. Parameswaran, Chairman of Smart Information Worldwide, said, "Write Angle is about two media innovators, Sulekha and B4U, creating a platform to harness the amazing and diverse creative powers of Indians by bringing together the power, reach and allure of the Internet, TV and Bollywood." Hari Srinivas, US country head of B4U, said, "The Indian movie industry is the biggest in the world and Indians and many non-Indians all over the world have a voracious appetite for good, exciting movies. Write Angle will become a vast reservoir of ideas and talent that will inspire Bollywood well into the future!"

The deadline for submissions to Project Write Angle is February 15, 2002. Participants in the contest will have to send in a 5-page summary of the movie plot in a specified format. 15 finalists and three winners will be declared in May of 2002. Details, instructions and registration are at http://www.sulekha.com/b4u

About Sulekha.com

Sulekha.com is the flagship service of Smart Information Worldwide, Inc., a leading Internet media and services company with operations in US and India. Sustained by the creative contributions of thousands of Indians from over 50 countries, Sulekha has become the biggest online community for Indians, winning the unexampled loyalty of hundreds of thousands of visitors and acclaim from the media. In addition, Sulekha is also the leading provider of ticketing, membership and fundraising services to Indian organizations and is today the biggest online ticketer for Indian events and movies in North America. Web address: http://www.sulekha.com/b4u

Contact:Satya Prabhakar, Sulekha.com, satya@sulekha.net, 512-762-7317

About B4U

B4U is the leading vertically integrated Indian TV, music and filmed entertainment company with operations and reach in US, UK, India, Scandinavia, Africa and Middle East and set to enter Canada, Australia and New Zealand soon. With a reach of over 15 million households worldwide and ownership of the largest film catalogue for satellite and cable distribution, B4U captures Bollywood excitement at its best. Web address: http://www.b4utv.com

Contact:Hari Srinivas, Country Head, B4U,harisrin@hotmail.com, (201) 558-9055