Hollywood action heroes belt out Telugu on outdoors in Andhra Pradesh

The new Telugu channel, UTV Action Telugu, has action-packed scenes and local language dialogues in its promos in electronic stores, across cities in the state.

Picture Will Smith in his 'Men In Black' avatar or Spiderman, delivering hard-hitting dialogues in Telugu -- well, for the Telugu-speaking Hollywood fans, this is now a reality with the recently launched UTV Action Telugu channel.

UTV, which had launched the 'Action' Hindi channel that showcases dubbed Hollywood movies last year, launched the same in Telugu on June 26. To promote the launch, the channel has tied up with electronic retail stores in Hyderabad to air promos of the channel across their displayed TV screens.

Eight electronic stores including NEXT at A S Rao Nagar, Nallakunta, Malkapet, Croma at Jubilee Hills, Punjagutta, E-Zone at Hyderabad Central, Punjagutta, and City Center at Banjara Hills, as well as HomeTown in Punjagutta are running the UTV Action Telugu promos. The promos will play on the TV screens for one month.

The channel has also plastered key cities in Andhra Pradesh with an outdoor campaign that comprises about 150 hoardings, bus backs and bus shelters at prominent locations. The campaign is designed around the theme, 'Action invades Andhra'. The new channel is being promoted through a high intensity marketing plan to ensure optimum visibility across platforms including print, television, outdoor and an extensive on-ground activation.

The entire communication is in Telugu. However, interestingly, it is not inspired by any specific movie, but rather, is inspired by the language used in Telugu action movies. This outdoor campaign will be on for a month. The creatives have been done by the Mumbai-based agency Xtrathin, while the media has been handled by OAP.

Giving insights on the electronics retail store promotion idea, Kunal Mukherjee, marketing head, UTV Action Telugu, says, "Consumers go to the electronics stores to experience the TV viewing of new models and missing out on the channel promos across all was a very small possibility. Apart from the regular traditional advertising through outdoor, print media and TV, we needed to reach out to our audiences in places which will definitely grab their attention."

On the UTV Action journey and the launch of the new Telugu channel, he says, "UTV Action was born from the insight that only action content permeates across languages. Traditionally, male audiences accumulated on news and cricket channels. With UTV Action, we broke this trend and right from the launch, gave men a destination on television to call their own. After the success of UTV Action Hindi, it was evident that action as a genre cuts across all barriers and appeals to all kinds of audiences."

He further adds that Telugu is the second-most preferred language of release for Hollywood action films in India, with Andhra yielding the highest returns for Hollywood films when dubbed in the local language.

For instance, blockbusters such as Avatar and 2012 grossed more than Rs 30 crore in Telugu alone. Through UTV Action Telugu, the channel intends to become the ultimate action destination in that region.

UTV Action Telugu is also associating with single screen theatres in more than 25 cities and multiplexes across key markets such as Hyderabad, Vizag and Vijaywada, as these are heavy movie-viewing markets.

The channel also plans to launch in other languages, but these are still in the pipeline.