Ever since founder-chief executive officer of popular television channel TV9 V Ravi Prakash was sacked from the channel on Friday last, there has been talk that he has already started his alternative plans to launch another channel to sustain his image.
On the same day of his exit, there were reports that he would take over a loss-making channel I-News, which was once one of the popular Telugu news channels.
He reportedly struck a deal with the management of I-News presently owned by Nallari Kishore Kumar Reddy, brother of former chief minister of combined state Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy.
The speculations went to such an extent that there was talk about Ravi Prakash starting recruitment of new employees for I-News from Sunday itself.
Already, the sacked TV9 CEO has been heading Mojo TV, a relatively not so popular channel, which was running mostly with the infrastructure of TV9.
Now, there is another rumour doing rounds in the media circles that Ravi Prakash is likely to launch the Telugu version of News18, an English channel promoted by Network18 group owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group. It had already taken over several channels of ETV, except the Telugu channels.
So, the Reliance group doesn’t have a Telugu channel of its own. Apparently, Ravi Prakash flew down to Mumbai a couple of days ago to hold negotiations with the Reliance management to convince them about launching a Telugu channel under Network18.
If the reports are true, then Ravi Prakash would be heading Network18 in Telugu and expand its business network here. But one wonders whether Mukesh Ambani trusts Ravi Prakash after watching the recent ugly controversy and the forgery cases filed against him.
Let us wait and see!
