ITV

Tag: Deepak Rajadhyaksha

  • Zee Marathi beefs up its late prime time slot

    Zee Marathi beefs up its late prime time slot

    MUMBAI: Zee Marathi, the no 1 channel in Maharashtra has beefed up its late prime time slot with the launch of 2 new shows at the 9 PM and 9.30 PM slot. The new shows will launch on 18th August 2014 and are expected to further fuel the growth of Zee Marathi. The show at 9 PM called ‘Ka Re Durava’ is a story of a married couple who work in the same organization but are unable to disclose the fact that they are married due to the rules of the organization. The 9.30 PM show; a light hearted non-fiction comedy Chala Hava Yeu Dya is a story of a mad family comprising of amnesic father played by Bhau Kadam and his 2 sons Nilesh Sable and Kushal Badrike. The show will have guests from the movie and theatre fraternity visiting the show and will be interspersed with interesting comic characters. Ka Re Durava airs Monday to Saturday while Chala Hava Yeu Dya will continue in the regular non-fiction slot of Monday & Tuesday.

    The channel has launched an extensive marketing campaign for both shows with heavy promotions across TV, print, radio and outdoor apart from focus on the digital medium. The campaign has an interesting hook to it which shows a happily married couple behaving like complete strangers once they step into their office space. An engagement initiative with the Mumbai Dabbawalas is planned in the city which sees the most incidences of married couple feeling the pain of distance and lack on time in their marriage.

    For Chala Hava Yeu Dya, the channel promo team has penned and shot a rap song that has quickly caught on with the masses. The song has been sung by Nilesh Sable and presents the characters in a never seen before avatar.

    Speaking on the launch of the 2 shows, Zee Marathi business head Deepak Rajadhyaksha said “Zee Marathi has always ensured that shows are not dragged beyond their life and have aimed at ending shows at a high always. The shows previously on these slots were coming to a natural end and we needed an apt replacement for the slots.”

    He added, “21:00 has always been a slot where we have got novel and very progressive concepts and the show Ka Re Durava is an attempt to highlight the status of today’s generation where a married couple has to balance their professional and personal lives. The show captures the modern day couple who both work with little or no time for each other and to top it they work in the same organization which adds to the complexity”. While Ka Re Durava is a love story; speaking on the new non-fiction comedy show Chala Hava Yeu Dya, Deepak adds “The show gives us the platform to add further muscle to the strong comedy franchise we have built. With this show we will not only provide unmatched humour to the viewers but also bring celebrities from the Marathi cinema and theatre fraternity to be part of the show”.

     

    Zee Marathi is aiming that the 2 shows will enrich its offerings and believes that adding another emotion to the existing range will strike a chord with the audience. The channel currently boasts of numbers that has put daylight between them and the nearest competitor and recently completed one year at the helm with no other Marathi channel able to reach the heights the channel achieved through successful show launches, events and big ticket movie premieres. Adding to the aura of the channel was the launch of a special slot for theatre which has proven yet again that Zee Marathi leads not just in numbers but in innovative programming and marketing initiatives which have propelled the channel to greater heights.

  • Zee Marathi’s Unch Maza Zoka Awards 2014

    Zee Marathi’s Unch Maza Zoka Awards 2014

    MUMBAI: Zee Marathi takes pride to announce lifetime achievement Award of UNCH MAZA ZOKA AWARDS 2014 to committed and motivated life activist SumanTai Bang for this year. Sumantai Bang is a a founder member of the NGO “Chetana-Vikas”, and great activist’ for social development and women empowerment.  She has been a leading participant in National Movement for village republics and voluntary land reform movement (Bhoodan movement).  She is a current trustee and executive member of Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust – a national organization for women and rural development. She is also a pioneer activist on various issues related to self-reliant and holistic empowerment of rural women.

    Zee Marathi, Maharashtra’s leading Marathi channel, media and entertainment conglomerate with its entire spirits takes pride to announce Unch Maza Zoka Puraskar 2014, which is an unique step taken by the channel in recognizing the women achievers of Maharashtra. Zee Marathi is one of the most popular Marathi channels in regional space and number one channel in Maharashtra has carved a niche for itself by creating pioneering content that engages audiences. Zee Marathi has created shows that have inspired and shown the way to society at large.

    Continuing with this legacy, Zee Marathi had launched ‘Unch Maza Zoka’ based on the life and mission of great social reformer Ramabai Ranade. As we are all aware, Ramabai Ranade was an awe inspiring activist who pledged her life for the cause of women. Through our serial we gave a fresh perspective to the meaning of ‘women empowerment’ and with a view to laud the efforts of women who have worked tirelessly and fearlessly for others we take another initiative to recognize their efforts.

    Deepak Rajadhyaksha, Business Head, Zee Marathi has expressed his feelings on UMZ Awards 2014, “ After successfully touching millions of lives with Unch Maza Zoka Award’s initiated last year, Zee Marathi continued to aim at highlighting women achievers who had the zeal to think out of the box and go the extra mile to realize their dreams for the society. It gives us immense pride and great pleasure to announce the “UNCH MAZA ZOKA”s Lifetime Achievement Award to the Great social activist  Smt Sumantai Bang for this year.

    The awards have been adjudged by an esteemed panel of experts; noted journalist Mr.Kumar Ketkar, Ex-Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University Dr. Snehalata Deshmukh & noted writer Smt. Vijaya Rajadhyaksha and features women achievers from varying fields including Social work, education, healthcare, sports, arts & literature, science, environment, agriculture etc.

  • Zee Marathi to launch Jai Malhar

    Zee Marathi to launch Jai Malhar

    MUMBAI: If Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) are treating audiences to a growing number of mythology-based shows, why should regional channels be far behind?

    Following in the footsteps of Mahabharat, Mahadev and Maa Durga will be Zee Marathi’s Jai Malhar, a mythological show based on the reincarnation of Lord Shiva as Lord Khandoba aka Lord Malhar, Maharashtra’s most revered warrior god.

    Produced by actor-filmmaker and head of Kothare Vision, Mahesh Kothare, the show has been mounted on a lavish scale and promises to be like none other before it. Slated to premiere on 18 May, Jai Malhar will replace Tu Tithe Mee at 7:00 pm. Only the first episode will be for one hour and will be beamed on a Sunday.

    Zee Marathi business head Deepak Rajadhyaksha says, “Mythology has always appealed to Indian audiences but nobody in the Marathi industry has touched the subject owing to the extensive research and heavy investment involved in recreating it. Zee Marathi has made an ambitious attempt to transform the saga of Maharashtra’s Lord Khandoba into a gripping and thoughtful show with state-of-the-art visual effects and presentation. The original mythological narrative hasn’t been disturbed but what has been modified is the style of storytelling, making it riveting and in tune with contemporary screen techniques.”

    Jai Malhar has Kartik Kende as executive director, Rupesh Tatkari as director of photography, Nilima Kothare and Neeta Khandke as costume designers, Santosh Ayachit as creative head and scriptwriter, Pankaj Padghan as music director and Chandrabhan and Abhijat in charge of graphics. The 60-strong team is largely constituted by young and promising talent.

    For now, a deal for producing 312 episodes has been signed. With shooting having commenced on 31 March at Film City in Goregaon, the plan is to can seven to eight episodes by the end of this month, with 12-hour shooting schedules. For a show of such epic proportions, set designer Satish Panchal has re-created elements from Lord Khandoba’s palace, the fort of Jejuri, temples and ashrams to make it look as real as possible. Sources say nearly Rs 1.3 crore has been spent on the set itself. As for the central characters of Lord Khandoba and his two consorts, Mhalsa and Banai, were selected from more than 2,000 participants who auditioned in the cities of Mumbai, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik and Kolhapur among others. The names of the protagonists have not yet been revealed. Two cameras are being used on the set for shooting in HD. In keeping with regulations, a medical officer is available on the set every day to oversee that the animals used for the shoot are treated ethically and not harmed in any way.

    “Once we were firm on the idea, we approached Zee Marathi and they instantly said yes to it,” says Kothare. “The show will appeal to all. For youngsters it’s a tale of a lover; for the elderly, it’s the tale of a God; and for kids, it’s the tale of a superhero. No show has ever been made on this scale in the Marathi genre.”

    Apparently, Kothare has been conceptualising the idea for the past three years and has been in talks with the channel for about a year and a half. Sources say that each episode could cost anywhere between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, pegging a year’s exercise at approximately Rs 10 crore to Rs 12 crore. Nearly Rs 50 lakh has gone into costumes alone including clothes, headgear and weapons.

    A marketing campaign has already begun in TV and print. On-air promos have already begun while a full-page ad spread was already published in leading Marathi newspapers such as Maharashtra Times and Divya Bhaskar. The full-fledged campaign will break approximately 10 days before the launch of the show on 18 May. The creative agency for the show is FCB Ulka while media planning has been done by GroupM.