UTV World Movies aims to make its way into viewers' hearts through their stomachs

The world cinema channel has tied up with specialty restaurants across cities, to screen its titles and offer patrons specially created world cuisine.

With Valentine's Day around the corner, who doesn't want to find a special place in someone's heart? And, as a Spanish proverb rightly states, "The belly rules the mind and heart". UTV World Movies' latest initiative also aims to win people's hearts through this route.

In a bid to promote world culture, the channel is attempting to reach out to people with a combination of global delicacies and world cinema. In a festival called 'Savour the World Flavour', it has tied up with specialty restaurants to do exactly that.

The festival is a successor to several similar on-ground activities by the channel, which include Celebrate France, Celebrate Germany, music and movie nights and theatrical premieres, and shows by world-famous comedians and hypnotists in India.

Savour the World Flavour offers varied dishes from across the world for food connoisseurs, in conjunction with movies from various parts of the world. The interesting feature of this initiative is the customised menu, where the chef would create special dishes after viewing the movie, which is being screened at the restaurants.

Since January 24, the festival has been on at the European bistro, Casa Toscana in Kolkata. The films being screened are The Great Dictator -- an American film on Hitler, and 400 Blows, which is a French film. Both films will continue to be screened each week until February 24.

The festival was also held from November 15 to December 15 at the Korean eatery, All Stir Fry in Mumbai, with screenings of Korean movies, My Little Bride and 3 Iron.

In conjunction with the films at All Stir Fry, Chef Alfince Busnit specially drew up a menu with dishes such as '3 Iron Fish' (3 Iron is a story about the love and chemistry between three people and so suggests the recipe - a blend of three ingredients), 'Korean Passion', 'Wings of Desire', 'Green Bubbles' (in this vegetarian recipe, greens are blended with sizzled chilly flakes, while 'Bubbles' comes from the name of the little leading lady (Bubble) in My Little Bride).

Besides the customised branded menus, UTV World Movies-branded tent cards are seen on each table. Standees are also put up near the entrance to enhance the channel branding at the restaurants.

Discussing the festival, Kunal Mukherjee, head - marketing, UTV World Movies says, "The on-ground avatar of the brand encapsulates various facets of world culture -- dance, music, cuisine, theatre, comedy and so on."

He adds, "This was an easy marriage, because cuisine is an integral part of world culture. We always try to bring about a confluence of the kind of cuisine with the kind of movies we showcase."

To promote the festival, the participating restaurants send mailers to their patrons. UTV World Movies, on its end, uses social media and the BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) platform.

To extend this festival further, the channel is in talks with restaurants in Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai, whose patrons' profile is similar to UTV World Movies' target group.

UTV World Movies has an acclaimed line up on-air with 650 titles in its library from across 40 countries across the world, which they now plan to showcase across cities too, along with scrumptious meals.