A poster of Kramer Vs Kramer, to be shown on PIX; (below) Goldie Hawn will have a festival of her films

It is called PIX and it has a million stories to tell. After STAR Movies, HBO and Zee Studio, make way for the latest English movie channel on TV, this time from the Sony stable. To go on air from this Saturday, PIX was launched late last month by Hollywood superstar Will Smith in Mumbai.

With its unique tagline ? We Tell Stories ? PIX promises to bring some of the greatest film stories to your living room. While the other channels focus on premiering the latest blockbusters on the small screen, PIX aims to beam over 100 Hollywood movies that may not be new but have ?never been shown in India? before.

?Coming into a market that already has three successful players, we do not want to duplicate any of the existing channels,? Sunder Aaron, business head of PIX, tells Metro. ?We want to present our movies in such a way that viewers not only remember the films but can also recall the channel it was shown on, something we can?t do these days.?

And here comes the storytelling bit. ?From the time of cavemen who would get together to listen to a story till today, when we get around a water cooler to discuss what happened the night before at the party, we all love hearing stories,? explains Aaron. ?We at PIX have taken great pain to tell a good story with every movie that we are going to show.?

So, in true Sony tradition, there will be an introduction to the film along with exclusive information about the cast and crew involved with the movie. ?We will try and give a significant background to the film, like a context to the viewers,? Aaron adds. ?Say, if we are showing On The Waterfront, we will explain why Marlon Brando?s acting in the film was considered to be so trend-setting; how acting used to be before him and how it changed because of him.?

Going with the thematic break-up of weekdays that STAR Movies has championed in the past few years, PIX too will go for special time bands on select days of the week. From Mondays to Thursdays at 8 pm, Great at 8 will feature titles that are light and engaging, ?something people can just surf into after work?. At 10 pm, on the same days of the week, Perfect 10 will bring stronger, character-driven stories, which ?are more demanding and need more concentration?.

On Fridays, at 8 pm and 10 pm, PIX will go for Cheap Thrills Fridays beaming movies that are light and frothy while Damn Good Dramas on Saturdays, at 8 pm and 10 pm, will be all about drama. There will be star festivals, of course, with Goldie Hawn one of the first to be featured with movies like Cactus Flower and Butterflies Are Free. Then there will be premieres of classics like Kramer Vs Kramer, The Way We Were and At Close Range.

Targeted primarily towards urban areas, PIX will also go for locally produced programming. ?At the end of the day, the channel should look and feel like an Indian channel,? Aaron signs off with a smile.