Update: The portal has been de-cloaked and is now accessible - here. Some sections, like blogs are also live now.

(Originally posted on 2007-06-24 07:12 PM PST) TV18 will soon be launching an entertainment portal called Buzz18, that features a substantial amount of Bollywood and celebrity content, as well as short films, audio tracks, music videos, event and TV listings, blogs, rumors and even listings for photographers, choreographers, dubbing artistes and PR agencies. Parts of the site are still under development, and when contacted, Surya Mantha, CEO of Web18 said that it’s due to be launched within the next week. The site has since been cloaked, but we took a few screencaps.

Buzz18 has a section called Citizen Paparazzi, where users can upload celebrity photos, and monetization it seems will be by means of advertising, as well as ticket sales powered by Bigtree Entertainment, which TV18 had acquired earlier. The site currently lists events from Mumbai and Delhi. There’s a jukebox which, much to my surprise, also features Indian metal band Demonic Resurrection. Users are allowed to upload their own music and videos, but its not clear whether that will be monitored. The forums (Talking Points) are powered by PHPbb. Lots of celebrity/Bollywood related content - news, interviews, gossip, music videos…ye olde “What’s Hot, What’s Not” kind of celebrity magazine focus. A large chunk of the content seems to be sourced from entertainment shows of CNN-IBN, and could be used as a platform for TV18s film and general entertainment ventures - Studio18 and Viacom18.