ALTBalajiforays into regional space with the launch of original Tamil thriller – Maya Thirrai!
Chennai, 26 th May:India’s largest online platform for original shows, ALTBalaji announced the release of
its first Tamil show#ALTBalajiOriginalMaya Thirrai.All 16 episodes of the show are now available
exclusively on ALTBalajiplatform.To mark ALTBalaji’s entry into Tamil regional entertainment space, Ekta
Kapoor brought together distinguished team of director Kaushik Narasimhanand
producerKuttyPadmini. Maya Thirrai- a romantic thriller has southern superstars Nandha Durairaj,
Eden Kuraikose and Lakshmi Priya making their debut on the digital platform.
Maya Thirrai, which means illusions is a mysterious tale of a woman named Sandhya, tangled in her own
reality. Despite having everything, she always felt a void and finally after years of waiting, she bumps
into the handsome Prakash, who comes with a promise of all she ever wanted. Little did she know that
her picture-perfect marriage was nothing but just an illusion. The dramatic storylineas well as the
shockingtwists and turns definitely promises to make this digital show a compelling watch!
“With the expansion of internet and smartphones, the way audience consumes entertainment has
changed drastically. ALTBalaji is targeting urban masses in over 60 cities, reaching out to about 75
million people via our app. The online entertainment option available to this section is either to watch
non-Indian English or Hindi shows. There is definitely a gap here and a huge potential which could be
tapped with our exclusive regional shows.ALTBalajiaims to penetrate into deeper pockets of Indian
market through regional shows hence, 25% of our shows will be in non- Hindi languages including Tamil,
Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi etc. Maya Thirrai is our first step in this direction and we are
confident that the audience will be thoroughly entertained by it”, saidNachiketPantvaidya, CEO,
ALTBalaji.
Producer KuttyPadmini adds, “I am glad to bring Maya Thirrai to the Tamil audience, it is gripping and
has great surprise elements. Digital shows are future of entertainment, hence the show is very special
and marks an important move for us. Collaborating with Ekta Kapoor has been a great experience, it’s
gratifying to see how our vision has transformed so beautifully on the canvas. I am hopeful that our
audience will love the show.”
On his digital debut and association with Ekta Kapoor, Kaushik Narasimhan said, “Digital is the core
focus of the entertainment industry today and I am glad to be venturing into this space with, who better
than ALTBalaji. As a director, I am always on the lookout for fresh and creative storyline and Maya
Thirrai is such addition. The plot is very exciting and each episode will surely get the audience stunned
and looking for more.”
About ALTBalaji
Balaji Telefilms foray into original shows on digital platforms, ALT Digital Media Entertainment Limited is
a wholly owned subsidiary of Balaji Telefilms Ltd. A multi-device Video On Demand Platform, ALTBalaji
gives audiences the content they want to watch – whenever, wherever and however. ALTBalaji’s
offerings include premium, disruptive content and original series across genres. With originality, courage
and relentlessness at its core, ALTBalaji’s content stands out for being avant-garde, non-conformist,
inclusive and effervescent. ALTBalaji is here to set new standards and benchmarks in giving digitally
connected contemporary audiences.
A team of doctors at the Kauvery Hospital performed a very rare and complicated surgery, successfully saving the life of a newborn baby. The baby was born with a huge tumor that was prenatally detected during pregnancy, and was operated on the 12th day of her life.Dr Aravindan, Executive Director at Kauvery said, “This case was referred to Kauvery from a private Medical College hospital , because of the fact that Chennai Kauvery has an expert team of Spine and Neurosurgeons ,Paediatric Surgeons , Paediatric Anaesthesiologist and a state-of-the-art Paediatric ICU .We are keen on doing such complex surgeries, as we are equipped with internationally trained doctors and world-class infrastructure .” Addressing the media, Dr G Balamurali, Spine and Neurosurgeon said, “She was detected with a very large tumor during the 20th week of pregnancy. The tumor was almost the size of the child’s head and increased in size within 5 days after birth. She was taken up for a major surgery on the 3rd of April 2017. The baby could not lie on her back as the tumor was located on the back of the spine t was very aggressive-looking and vascular. Pre-operative workup with MRI, blood tests including tumor markers were done to study the case thoroughly.” 
A team of doctors led by Dr G Balamurali, Spine and Neurosurgeon, along with Dr Sivasankar Jayakumar, Paediatric Surgeon, Dr Sathish Manivel, Plastic surgeon and a team of Pediatric Anaesthetists at Kauvery hospital, Chennai performed the surgery for seven hours and successfully removed the entire tumor, with very minimal blood loss.Dr Sivasankar Jayakumar, Paediatric Surgeon added, “The tumor is most likely to be a Teratoma or a Rhabdomyosarcoma which was eroding the vertebrae of the spine. The baby was well on the third day, following surgery without any problems and will be ready for discharge soon. We are very happy that the parents acted quickly and decided to keep the child though the tumor was detected early.“The patient was operated under the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Scheme as the parents are very poor and could not afford the normal surgery cost.” he added Dr Sathish Manivel, Plastic surgeon, said, “We also want to highlight that this is a very rare tumour of this size for which we are awaiting the biopsy results. The incidence of a Rhabdomyosarcoma is about 1.5 per million newborns and rare to grow to this size at birth. This is a malignant tumour and requires further chemo radio therapy. Such rare tumours can be detected during routine ultrasound during pregnancy and should not be considered for termination. Careful planning of delivery by an expert team and immediate surgery can lead to good outcomes in such cases.”“The reason to highlight this case is that such babies born with Spinal Cord Congenital problems or tumors should be transferred to higher centers, having expertise in dealing with complex conditions,” he added.