The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : This could well set off a laugh riot

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 07, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

This could well set off a laugh riot

Staff Reporter

Hutch teams up with `Crazy' Mohan to offer comedy dramas to its subscribers

TEAMING UP: Samuel Selvakumar, operations manager, Hutchinson Essar South, `Crazy' Mohan and K. Sankara Narayanan, COO, Hutchinson Essar South, at a press conference on Tuesday. — Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

CHENNAI: The range of value-added services that mobile phones offer seems to be endless.

After providing news, flight schedules and railway tickets, it is the turn of the wireless telecom technology to place theatre in your hands.

In an initiative that could well set off a laugh riot, mobile service provider Hutch has teamed up with `Crazy' Mohan to offer his comedy dramas to post and pre-paid subscribers.

Caller tunes

Apart from the mobisodes (mobile episodes), six humour clips from the dramas will available as caller tunes.

"Often we mistake people using hands-free as talking to themselves. Now following the launch of the service you might find them laughing too ... don't mistake them," says `Crazy' Mohan.

25 mobisodes

Initially, Hutch's Voice Response Service will bring `Crazy' Mohan's popular play Satellite Samiyar in 25 mobisodes. The duration of each of the episodes would be between one and three minutes.

Those accessing the service by calling 123456 will be charged at the rate of Rs. 6 per minute.

Apart from listening to the `mobisode of the day' or archived mobisodes, subscribers can enter the daily contest - `The Crazy Mohan Question of the Day' based on the previous day's mobisodes.

The winners get to spend an evening with the comedian and scriptwriter and get a set of autographed CDs of his plays. Hutch is considering offering other comedy dramas of `Crazy' Mohan in future on the service, including the popular Alladin and 100 watt bulb.

Samuel Selvakumar, operations director, Hutchison Essar South, said that for Hutch the offering was in tune with its position as a pioneer of value-added services on mobile phones.

The chief operating officer (Chennai), Sankara Narayanan, said developing the content was a pleasure and the mobisodes were "fantastic stress busters."

First of its kind service

`Crazy' Mohan added that the service was the first of its kind and a good way to help people relieve their stress.

Noting that he was happy to be partnering Hutch, he said, "From now whenever I sneeze, it would be with a hutch."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu