Star Plus sports revamped look

Leading Indian general entertainment television channel Star Plus has undergone a major brand revamp that will include a new logo, tagline and signature tune even as it seeks to establish a clear lead in the Hindi entertainment television market. It is locked with in a neck-to-neck race with rival channel Colors for eyeballs of Hindi-speaking audiences, which form by far the largest chunk of India's population.

From 12 July, the channel, which is the flagship channel of Star India Pvt Ltd, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, will sport a ruby red star as well as a new tagline - Rishta wahi, soch nayi. This would roughly correspond to saying ''same relationship, new thinking''.

It is being given to understand that the entire rebranding exercise has cost the channel around $4 million. The new signature tune has been composed by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy, and sung by Shreya Ghoshal. The make-over has been overseen by Piyush Pandey, chairman, Ogilvy and Mather.

News Corp has persisted with the services of UK-based design firm Venture 3 for the new logo. The same firm has created designs for other TV platforms owned by News Corp globally.

The last time Star India went in for fresh programming was in 2000 when it launched path-breaking programmes such as Kaun Banega Crorepati, (Kyunki) Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki.

These shows allowed it to consolidate at the top till early 2009 when it was dislodged from the top slot by Colors, owned by Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd in April.