Business news: Indian Hotels opens Gateway to better branding

Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), that runs Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, launched its third brand, The Gateway Hotel (upscale brand), on Thursday in addition to the already existing brands including Taj (luxury) and Ginger (economy). The group will be soon launching a fourth brand as well.

“We plan to have specific brand to cater to a different set of travellers. Some of the properties did not match up to the demand of the customers. Taj kept acquiring properties that were not matching what the Taj stands for and there was a need for positioning the brands in such a manner that the customers get maximum satisfaction,” said Ajoy K Misra, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Indian Hotels Company Ltd.

Under the Gateway brand, Taj group is aiming to have 50 hotels in the next three years. “We will be bringing 16 existing hotel properties under this brand, 10 new properties will be added soon, and 15 properties are under negotiation,” said Misra.

“The Gateway Hotel will be a new brand catering to the emerging set of contemporary travellers. Gateway is a part of the Taj Group’s strategy to have a large footprint across India,” said Raymond N Bickson, managing director, Indian Hotels Company Ltd.

Bickson said that the group is looking at scaling up the brand to a large number of hotels across India. The group is open to both owning and management model for the brand. The brand will be present in all business districts and leisure locations across India.

Currently, the group has about 1,300 rooms already under the Gateway brand, which it plans to double in the next three years. The average room rate of Gateway brand hotels will range from Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000 depending upon the location.

The hotels that will be re-flagged under the Gateway brand are in cities like Agra, Bangalore, Calicut, Chikmagalur, Coonoor, Jaipur, Jaisalmer,Madurai, Mangalore, Nasik, Sasan Gir, Surat, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vijayawada and Vishakhapatnam. While the new locations looked at for the Gateway brand are Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Jullunder, Mysore, Navi Mumbai, Raipur and Gondia.

On investment, Misra said, “Around Rs 40 lakh per room will be invested in the new Gateway hotel project, while investment in existing projects that are being refurbished is much less. The properties under this brand currently have around 100-200 rooms.

Source:financial express.com

Tamil Cinema: A different route for a Tamil film

I DIDN'T know anything about this movie when I went to see it except that it starred popular actors Prakash Raj and and Jayaram (a Malayalam film comedian).

So, it was a surprise to find 2½ hours passing by quickly. These veteran actors were not the main characters in the movie, however, they were five new youngsters.

Saroja is unlike most Tamil movies in that it's a kind of road movie with lots of action and suspense.

Four friends (Vaibhav, S.P. Charan, Premji and Shiva) decide to go on a long-distance trip — from Chennai to Hyderabad — to see a cricket game.
At some point in the journey, they are forced to take a shortcut that takes them through hell. They become involved in a kidnapping of a girl called Saroja (Vega) and have to use their wits to stay alive and also flee from criminals.

There is plenty of humor throughout the movie and, and the songs are mercifully kept to a minimum.

Director Venkat Prabhu's first directorial venture Pacecode Chennai 600028 (also about cricket) proved to be an unexpected hit.

While most scenes have been handled well, a few show up the director's inexperience. For example, the four face death at every turn, but for some strange reason, they don't arm themselves with the knives and guns they seize from the bad guys.

Some scenes look grainy, probably because many of them were filmed at night.

Running the goof-ups at the end of the film's credits seems out of place in an action movie.

Prakash Raj plays Saroja's father while Jayaram is the police officer assigned to rescue her.

Rather than the actors, it is the story (inspired by Hollywood's Judgement Night) and its treatment that is the winner here.

Saroja will satisfy moviegoers looking for a Tamil film with a difference