If you thought Asian parents did not have enough Indian dramas to choose from, fear not, now there is even more choice of lightning special-effects and extended crying scenes.

Indian broadcaster NDTV, known for its leading news channel of the same name, is launching NDTV Imagine in Britain this week. It hopes to challenge rival Star Plus in its dominance of soap operas.

The lifestyle channel is being given added star power with the recruitment of director Karan Johar as Creative Consultant.

Announcing its international expansion, CEO of NDTV Imagine Sameer Nair, said: “We are delighted with the response that NDTV Imagine has received in India, cementing our place in the minds of our audiences. We have received a lot of positive feedback and plenty of requests to make the channel available in key international markets and we are pleased to present NDTV Imagine on Sky’s EPG 834 to audiences in the UK.”

NDTV was launched in 1988 and rapidly became one of India’s largest news networks. It airs three channels nationwide: NDTV 24×7 focuses on English language news, NDTV Profit is a 24-hour business channel and NDTV India is amongst the country’s leading Hindi news channels.