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Tag: Big Magic

  • Big Magic revamps historical comedy show ‘Akbar Birbal’

    Big Magic revamps historical comedy show ‘Akbar Birbal’

    MUMBAI: Big Magic has revamped its show Akbar Birbal, with contemporary content. The historical comedy will be seen in an all new avatar, bringing in freshness and innovation with quirky, relatable content and a new star cast. Triangle Films will continue as producers and the show will be shot on the set, which was redone recently.

     

    Reliance Broadcast Network network creative director Paritosh Painter said, “In our endeavor to provide fresh new content to our viewers, we have decided to revamp Akbar Birbal, one of our highest rated shows on Big Magic. The new story line will be relatable, fresh, surprising and unpredictable with a high degree of humor. Respected and hugely popular stars like Kiku Sharda, Delnaaz Irani, and Vishal Kotian amongst others have made this show iconic and the No. 1 show on the channel. By introducing a new, younger star cast, our focus will continue to build iconic characters which are stand out, quirky and funny.”

     

    The Akbar Birbal prequel will focus on issues, which are powerful, topical and relevant. It will feature a younger Akbar, who wants to make his own decisions, live life and rule on his own terms. Only one person encourages and allows him to do so – his biggest ally, his biggest critic, his friend, philosopher and above all, his guide, Birbal. A strong and powerful character, Birbal will act as an agent of change, a reformist as identified with today’s world, targeting solutions and transparency in governance issues, a strong protagonist who believes in democratic views and rights.

  • Big Magic undergoes revamp; observes 30% viewership growth

    Big Magic undergoes revamp; observes 30% viewership growth

    MUMBAI: Comedy is a serious business. It was in the year 2011 when Anil Ambani-led Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) announced its foray into regional television space with the launch of its Hindi entertainment channel – Big Magic (for Central India – MP /UP).

     

    In 2013, tailored to meet the preferences of Hindi speaking markets of India, it was launched across Hindi Speaking Markets (HSM’s) on the back of phase II of cable TV digitisation.

     

    In 2014, it launched as a national general entertainment channel for India, positioned as a humour destination which comprised light relationship dramas, rom-coms, sitcoms, movies and a historical comedy.

     

    This year, it has shed its current logo and gone for a complete makeover by launching a fresh new look and channel identity. The content as part of the renewed strategic vision will be unpredictable, cutting edge, quirky, contemporary, surprising, differentiated, hilarious and entertaining; targeting families, but predominantly the male audience.

     

    With original content including a high degree of humour, viewers will enjoy shows in the sitcom, non-fiction space, focused on building iconic characters which are stand out, quirky and funny. The content offered will be platform agnostic with a large play on the digital and mobile medium.

     

    Research, the key factor

     

    According to RBNL CEO Tarun Katial as the consumers’ taste changes dynamically and quickly, the channel wanted to sharpen its comedy positioning and appeal to the urban audiences’ mindset and bring about a relatable icon in its identity which is emoticon. “Today emoticon is used by everybody and it’s an extremely relatable form of communication amongst consumers,” he says.

     

    Including regulatory approvals, it has been a four month process for the revamp of the channel. Extensive research was done amongst the core TG to understand the kind of comedy and content consumers want. The research showed that the content being desired was extremely dynamic, vibrant, surprising and iirreverent comedy and the logo is build on that thought. The new look has been designed by Purple Pink agency.

     

    Talking about the new look identity, RBNL network creative director Paritosh Painter says, “At Big Magic, we strive to offer comedy content that is fresh, surprising, unpredictable and fully over the top. In line with our new campaign, we will continue our commitment to offer a comical line up of hilarious sitcoms, surprising and unpredictable short formats on topical issues, laugh out loud weekend special and festive specials.”

     

    With the new identity, the channel aims to build a strong line-up of content at both long and short formats. With currently two and half hours to three hours of original content running everyday with shows like Akbar Birbal, Tedi Medi Family, Total Nadaniyaan amongst others, the channel is all set to take the original hours of content to 4 hours a day. Big Magic will launch two new shows in the next couple of months, one of which will be an unscripted show in the late primetime band and an irreverent young comedy in the early evening.

     

    The channel will also air an animated series with Akbar Birbal and bring one of its Big FM 92.7 Radio show – Actor calling Actor on to television.

     

    “On the content front, our attempt is to build a certain amount of iconic characters around male irreverent comedy. We believe that Indians are ready to laugh at each other and themselves. This is predominantly young urban male skewed content that we want to launch,” explains Katial.

     

    In terms of marketing, the channel will strongly focus on digital and mobile. Katial believes that comedy content moves very quickly and goes viral on platforms like digital and mobile. “For us content is marketing and marketing is content,” he says.

     

    Katial further reveals that after Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India started rolling out data, the channel has witnessed a 30 per cent growth in viewership.

     

    For the record, the channel is available across all DTH platforms such as Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Videocon d2h, DD Free Dish, Dish TV, Reliance Digital TV along with all cable operators including the likes of Hathway Cable & Datacom, Incable, Digicable, Den Networks, 7 Star, ABS, Siti Cable, Star Broadband and GTPL amongst others.

  • Big Magic’s Hindi adaptation of ‘The Middle’ titled ‘Tedi Medi Family’

    Big Magic’s Hindi adaptation of ‘The Middle’ titled ‘Tedi Medi Family’

    MUMBAI: The Hindi adaptation of Warner Bros’ The Middle, which will be aired on Big Magic has been titled Tedi Medi Family. The show is slated to go on air from 8 June in the 8.30 pm slot.

     

    Bodhi Tree Productions will produce the 24-part Hindi adaptation.

     

    As was previously reported by Indiantelevision.com, Reliance Broadcast Network had acquired the adaptation rights of U.S television comedy-series The Middle created by Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline.

     

    Tedi Medi Family will be produced as a single-camera comedy and will follows the daily commotion of raising a family, in the middle of life. Set in a typical family household in Pune, the series will star Saloni Daini, Ami Trivedi and Iqbal Azad along with Sushant Mohindra and Dharmik Joisar.

     

    Reliance Broadcast Network EVP and business head Ashwin Padmanabhan said, “The consistently amusing and relatable scripts for The Middle are a perfect fit with our channel’s vision. The characters of a mother, father and three children and their universal journey to just succeed with everyday life means that The Middle has fantastic potential to be recreated for an Indian audience.”

     

    Warner Bros. International Television Production senior vice president creative format development and sales Andrew Zein said, “The Middle is an extraordinary comedy. This hugely funny and beautifully captured world of every day family life is a concept relatable to family audiences across the globe. Tedi Medi Family has found the perfect home in Big Magic with its commitment to high quality family comedy.”

     

    The launch of the show is supported by a multimedia marketing campaign, which includes television, digital and social media marketing, outdoor, radio promotions as well as extensive promotion through activation and branding.

     

    Padmanabhan added, “In line with our positioning of being a comedy destination, we hope to expand our channel reach and preference. With original content targeted metros and non metros, both long and short formats yet retaining the quality of being episodic, we shall strive to offer nothing but comedy in various ways to our viewers. We try to bring in assortment of shows that shall be attractive to our core target audience, kids for earlier time bands and young males for late nights. Apart from new content, we have refurbished existing content, made changes in production, look, story, scripting and even producers behind shows.”

  • Big Magic acquires adaptation rights of ‘The Middle’ from Warner Bros

    Big Magic acquires adaptation rights of ‘The Middle’ from Warner Bros

    MUMBAI: Reliance Broadcast Network’s Hindi comedy channel Big Magic has acquired the adaptation rights to Warner Bros’ popular American sitcom The Middle.

    Reliance Broadcast Network’s creative head Paritosh Painter and his production team will work closely with Warner Bros. to rewrite the script in Hindi for Indian audiences.

    What’s more, given the potential for the show, the channel is betting big on it. Plans are to market it via campaigns across TV, radio and digital mediums. The channel has earmarked marketing spends of Rs 3 – 5 crore for the same. 

     

    “Apart from our own radio and television platforms, we are looking forward to engage other media in promoting the launch of the show. Digitally, our in-house marketing team is engaging viewers with the campaigns. Excluding our own media holdings, we are looking at a figure of around Rs 3-4 crore in media spends, which can easily cross the Rs 5 crore mark if we take our media platforms into consideration,” said Reliance Broadcast Network EVP and business head Ashwin Padmanabhan, adding that there will be limited OOH campaign done for this show.

     

     

    This six-season-long show The Middle, which ran on the ABC network, draws its comic inspiration from the day to day lives of a highly dysfunctional middle class family. Big Magic believes that the theme will strike a chord with Indian viewers as well. 

     

    “The main characters of The Middle, the parents and their three kids are unique and very different from one another, which gives The Middle a huge potential to be recreated in an Indian setting. Moreover it fits well with the kids and family time slot we are aiming at for our evening band,” said Padmanabhan.

     

    Big Magic was in talks with Warner Bros, the television distributors of the original show, for some time and the deal was signed 45 days ago.

     

    With an aim to air the pilot episode by 1 June, the shooting for the show, which will have an Indian twist to the tale, started a week back with the new Indian star cast. 

     

    Actress Ami Trivedi has been cast as the mother while Iqbal Azad plays the father. Sushant Mohindra, Saloni Daini, and Dharmik Joisar have taken up the characters of the eldest son, middle daughter and the youngest boy respectively.

     

    Apart from the fact that the show will have a Hindi name, Padmanabhan refused to reveal further details about its title.

     

    While the crux of the sitcom’s story makes for engaging television content for Indian viewers, the social setting of the characters are vastly different. Keeping that in mind, when queried as to how much of the content Big Magic was looking to Indianise, Padmanabhan said, “We are keeping the main storyboard of all the seasons intact structurally, and the character personalities and their internal conflicts will also be true to the originals. But we are rewriting the parts where the story influenced by the character’s social and cultural surroundings.” 

     

    The channel is currently looking at two majorly distinctive time slots in terms of its target comedy consumers — the 7 – 9 pm slot where the viewers are mostly kids and teens, which gradually shifts to family audience by 11 pm. “Post 11 pm, our target viewers are mostly the male members in the family. Shows that will be scheduled post 11 pm will be more edgy,” Padmanabham said. 

    The campaign for the launch of this show will be closely followed by a bigger campaign for the entire channel where Big Magic is looking to engage in more OOH services. These campaigns are closely related to the new content strategy that the channel has adopted.

     

    Padmanabhan also hinted at two new show launches in a couple of weeks that will be aimed at the male audience, apart from another short form comedy show like Googly, which will have a topical and more dynamic format.

  • Big Magic launches short format ‘Big Googly’

    Big Magic launches short format ‘Big Googly’

    MUMBAI: To up the entertainment quotient, Big Magic has launched an innovation within its programming and content that goes with its character to have funny and unpredictable elements within the channel. 

    Titled Big Googly, it is a topical short format with refreshing comical scripts for two minutes. The format went live starting 4 May.

    Keeping in mind the nature of the fillers each capsule will last for two minutes and will be played throughout the day. The best comical interstitial will be featured at the beginning of the shows to ensure that the laughter riot continues.

    Big Googly has ace comedians Ali Asgar and VIP as its lead protagonists to be supported by other Big Magic comedy characters such as Kiku Sharda, Mantra, Upasana Singh and more.
     

    With a focus on serving wholesome entertainment for the entire family, Asgar and VIP will cover situational and topical issues, disguised as famous personalities from Bollywood, politics, sports and so on. Some of the episodes will feature iconic characters from the channel’s shows like Narad Muni. 

    Reliance Broadcast Network (RBNL) network creative director Paritosh Painter said, “Big Magic believes in bringing refreshing content and with Big Googly we want to look beyond the traditional sitcom space along with creating a niche position for ourselves as the ultimate comedy destination. In the coming few months, we shall have various such innovative and unique formats which will have element of surprise, fun and thus instantly connect with our viewers as a result of their topicality.” 

    The show launch will be supported by a multi-media marketing campaign.

  • Big Magic brings more madness & comedy presents ‘Total Nadaniyaan’

    Big Magic brings more madness & comedy presents ‘Total Nadaniyaan’

    MUMBAI:Big Magic revamps its popular come dy caper Uff! Yeh Nadaniyaan. Renamed as Total Nadaniyaan, this will begin on 27 April at 9:30 pm bringing in fresh characters, more madness and over the top comedy. Retaining the popular faces as Upasana Singh, Gaurav Sharma the show promises new characters with an engaging new storyline. 

     

    Total Nadaniyaan is set in the backdrop of Punjab will revolve around a righteous mother Tarawanti, her younger son Pappu who is a wannabe actor & teleshopping entrepreneur married to Canada return wife Jassi who is dumb yet solves the most complex problems with her simple and unfiltered take on things. The show will also introduce Jassi’s twin brother who shares the same name. 

     

    Viewers will be entertained with a heavy dose of humour as war between Pappu and Jassi the brother in law; as Jassi becomes immensely popular. The Pug Ghungroo can only talk to Pappu and speak his mind out and has a point of view on every situation which makes it funny thus adding uniqueness and freshness to the show. 

     

    Talking about the changes and more comedy, Reliance Broadcast Networkcreative director Paritosh Painter said, “At Big Magic, we strive to offer content that is only fresh and full of over the top comedy. Total Nadaniyaan, will bring in a sense of absolute LOL comedy followed by quirky characters represented by the madness of each character. Seeing the popularity of Uff! Yeh Nadaniyaan, we are confident of its acceptance in its current planned form.”

     

    Says Reliance Broadcast Networkchief strategy officer Sunil Kumaran said, “We believe comedy is emerging as a very relevant genre and we as RBNL shall be tapping into it more extensively across our TV and Radio media platforms.  BIG MAGIC as a  channel promise is to refresh, rejuvenate audience and this new show relaunch is  a step in that direction – poised towards the objective of creating an ultimate comedy destination.” 

     

    Additionally, BIG MAGIC aiming at building highoctane recall and popularity is promoting the show heavily on numerous radio stations apart from leveraging the popularity of their own BIG FM network. The channel, to garner maximum visibility is generating excitement through engaging content across social media platforms. 

     

    Ensuring ribtickling humor and sidesplitting comedy, the new season will endeavor to cater content for family entertainment, giving them the perfect doze of laughter and leisure. 

  • Star Plus wins big in week 12

    Star Plus wins big in week 12

    MUMBAI: In week 12 of TAM TV ratings, Star Plus and Colors were the only gainers. Further strengthening its viewership base, Star Plus recorded 624 GVMs, up from 592 GVMs.

     

    Colors, at number two, notched up and noted 457 GVMs, up from 428 GVMs last week. Zee TV, at number three, registered 394 GVMs, down from 407 GVMs.

     

    Life OK remained steady at number four with 302 GVMs, down from 307 GVMs. Sab too saw a dip in the viewership and stood at 275 GVMs, down from 288 GVMs. Sony Entertainment Television (SET) continued to remain at the bottom of the chart with 201 GVMs, down from 221 GVMs.

     

    The newly launched Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) from the Zee stable, &TV too lost eyeballs as it noted 99 GVMs, down from 105 GVMs.

     

    Sony Pal witnessed a hike and scored 49 GVMs, up from 42 GVMs. Zindagi reported 21 GVMs, down from 23 GVMs.

  • &TV gains big with 100 GVM mark; Colors reclaims second spot

    &TV gains big with 100 GVM mark; Colors reclaims second spot

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ newest baby &TV is riding high on success. With a brilliant opening of 90.6 GVMs last week, the channel further went on to create a mark for itself in the Hindi general entertainment space. In week 11 of TAM TV ratings, the channel crossed 100 GVM mark with 105 GVMs.

     

    For the rest Hindi GECs, it was a ‘bad’ week as almost all of them witnessed a drop in viewership. Colors turned out to be the only winner in the week 11 of TAM TV ratings for two reasons. Firstly, it was the only channel to gain and secondly, it jumped back to number two spot with 428 GVMs, up from 424 GVMs.

     

    Zee TV slipped to number three with 407 GVMs, down from 427 GVMs. Star Plus observed a huge drop and reported 592 GVMs, down from 604 GVMs. Life OK continued to enjoy its stability at fourth position with 307 GVMs, down from 314 GVMs.

     

    Both the siblings from the MSM stable, Sab and Sony too discovered loss in ratings at number five and six positions respectively. Sab generated 288 GVMs, down from 312 GVMs and Sony registered 221 GVMs, down from 247 GVMs.

     

    Big Magic reported a marginal rise and noted 42 GVMs, down from 40 GVMs. It seems re-runs of old shows from the Sony stable is working wonders for Sony Pal. It stood at 42 GVMs, up from 38 GVMs. Zindagi scored 23 GVMs, up from 22 GVMs.

  • Big Magic to experiment with mythological comedy

    Big Magic to experiment with mythological comedy

    MUMBAI: ‘Narayan! Narayan!’ chanted Naarad muni – the wise and mischievous character from Indian mythology. Reliance Broadcast Network’s Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) Big Magic is now looking at piggyback-riding on the popular character’s wit and humour by launching a mytho comedy show on him.

     

    “It is very easy to make someone cry but very difficult to make one laugh and that is what Big Magic is all about – making people laugh,” Reliance Broadcast Network (RBN) COO Lavneesh Gupta tells Indiantelevision.com.

     

    In keeping with the strategy followed since its re-launch in 2014, Big Magic’s show will be in line with the channel’s positioning as a humor destination.

     

    The show is expected to launch in the new financial year. Centred around the life of Naarad, the show will tell the story from his point of view, while highlighting the bitter sweet relationship between Vishnu and Naarad. The show will maintain the inherent light–heartedness of Naarad’s character, while giving him his due respect as Dev Rishi – a saint who has been given the status of a God. Vishnu also plays a very important role of a mentor or guru to Naarad. Ensuring a takeaway, the show will highlight a lesson at the end of each story, which will be imparted to Naarad by Vishnu.

     

    Speaking about the pre-release research for the show, Gupta says, “When we launch a show with a new concept, we take into consideration consumer insights. Moreover, our historical comedy Akbar Birbal, which contributes upto 45 per cent of our ratings, is the biggest example of that. Insights have been taken from the testimony of the HSM (Hindi speaking market) specially focusing on the towns of MP, UP and Rajasthan, which are major contributors of HSM. We received positive feedback and our market research indicates that the show will fare well going forward.”

     

    With this show Big Magic expects to enhance its positioning and invade into an unexplored territory. “Naarad would be the first mytho–comical show in India and we would like to reinstate the faith we created with Akbar Birbal. Mythological shows on television today are doing well. However, no one has ventured into the mytho-comedy genre as yet. With Naarad, we are looking at establishing this genre. A lot of research went into zeroing in on the perfect character for this genre and that’s where Naarad came in,” informs Gupta.

     

    The channel is planning a three-pronged marketing strategy to promote the show. Gupta says, “The marketing campaign of Naarad will be based on three pillars: idea, concept and show characters. Plans are to aggressively promote the show across different media with heavy priority on the digital platform. Zeno Group has been given the creative mandate for the show’s ad campaign. Since the digital medium has the power of popularising things in seconds with its viral nature, our focus will be more on digital.”

     

    The channel has also presented Naarad’s concept to potential advertisers and has received a positive response due to the freshness factor.

     

    “We have extended or distribution widely with expansion into LC1. Currently we are also available on DD Direct, which gives us a large and incremental reach beyond the top six GECs,” Gupta informs.

     

    Mythology, as a genre, enhances awareness and the younger generation is oft asked to follow the same. Gupta believes that this is one reason why this segment is working on television. 

     

    Sharing his views on the future of the channel, he adds, “Going forward, we will keep exploring and launching new shows till we reach the peak in our genre. However, we will never shift away from our USP – Chatpata Har Pal. By the end of this financial year, we aim to be the best destination for comedy in the media space.”

  • Zee TV clinches back second spot from Colors

    Zee TV clinches back second spot from Colors

    MUMBAI: It’s been a continuous game of tug-of-war between Zee TV and Colors, each vying for the second and third spot on the TAM TV ratings chart.

     

    Week nine saw Zee TV overtaking Colors and occupying the second spot. Zee TV gained the maximum viewership as it recorded 442 million GVTs, up from 418 million GVTs. On the other hand, Colors moved back to the third spot with a huge decline and noted 419 million GVTs, down from 444 million GVTs.

     

    Apart from Zee, the numero uno in the Hindi general entertainment space, Star Plus witnessed a growth in the viewership. It observed a marginal rise from 636 million GVTs to 638 million GVTs this week. 

     

    Talking about the losers this week, Life OK retained its number four position with 312 million GVTs, down from 316 million GVTs. Sab, at number five, stood at 265 million GVTs, down from 286 million GVTs. Sony Entertainment Television (SET), at the bottom of the chart scored 235 million GVTs, down from 254 million GVTs.

     

    Other players like Big Magic too lost some numbers and noted 40 million GVTs, down from 47 million GVTs.

     

    Sony Pal dropped from 39 million GVTs to 38 million GVTs this week, while Zindagi reported 20 million GVTs, down from 22 million GVTs.