Zee Telugu is a Telugu-language cable television channel in India. It is offered by Zee Network, part of the Essel Group. By 2004, the Zee Network already had a strong presence in northern and eastern India, with channels in Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, and Punjabi; their proposed Telugu-language channel marked their first venture into the southern India entertainment market. In June 2004, they expected the channel to launch by August. Their actual launch finally arrived in September. Initially this channel is launched with the name Alpha TV Telugu.Later they renamed as Zee Telugu.They initially featured a large amount of American films dubbed into Telugu; in August 2005, they also dubbed popular Bollywood film Sholay from Hindi into Telugu as an experiment.