ITV

Tag: fiction

  • Sab cooks up a storm to climb the TVT ladder

    Sab cooks up a storm to climb the TVT ladder

    MUMBAI: “We always offer differentiated and innovative content than the others in the general entertainment channel space,” says Sab TV EVP and business head Anooj Kapoor on the sidelines of the launch of Sab’s new show Jo Biwi Se Kare Pyaar today. The show goes on-air on 28 October at 7:30 pm. Currently, the channel has no fresh content in this time slot and it is adding to its prime time line up through its new offering.

    Jo Biwi Se Kare Pyaar is a light-hearted cookery show. “It is India’s first fiction based cookery show, which has romance, comedy and also teaches the audience a recipe in each episode,” informs Kapoor.

    This isn’t all. The show is also different than the rest, as it takes brand communication to a different level. The channel has partnered with TTK Prestige and developed a concept around the values of the brand. “We have taken communication beyond advertisement. It is an articulation of product with the content of the show, which comes out beautifully,” says TTK Prestige COO Chandru Kalroo.

    The show weaves in romance, comedy and cooking seamlessly. “With this show, we bring our old line Jo biwi se kare pyaar to the contemporary context of Woh cooking se kaise kare inkaar,” adds Kalroo.

    According to Kapoor, since the new series is not a non-fiction client sponsored show, “it becomes a logical part of our regular programming, thus strengthening our prime time band.”

    “As a brand that has a relationship spanning six decades, we believe that we have to communicate beyond the product itself. We need to constantly strike an emotional chord with the consumer. The partnership with Sab through the programme will further this effort through its wonderfully conceived situations, humour and high quality production. I am sure this will be a new landmark in marketing,” adds Kalroo.

    The show, according to Kapoor, is “of the family, by the family and for the family.” “The show retains brand Sab. It is a very unique concept, as there has never been a fiction cookery show with some added tadka,” he adds.

    The show stars Arjun Bijlani who plays Aditya Khanna and Shweta Gulati who will be seen as Suhani Khanna. It has been produced by Deepti Bhatnagar Productions and written by Rajat Vyas. Commenting on his association with Deepti, Kapoor says, “She has been associated with Sab for almost five years now and thus understands the brand Sab.”

    Deepti has in the past also been the spokesperson for Prestige. “She thus understands not only us, but also our clients,” he says. Not only has Deepti produced the show, but has also taken her cooking experience to another level through her characters on TV. “All the recipes are from my recipe book. I did not want to take it from a chef as we wanted to keep it simple,” says Bhatnagar.

    It was the channel’s idea to do a show like this. Talking about the concept, Kapoor says, “Well, the concept came from us and then we approached Deepti to work on it. Prestige, which is our client, wanted us to create a show which could help promote them. We developed the concept keeping our brand template in mind.”

    The story of Jo Biwi Se Kare Pyaar reflects the lifestyle of new age couples, who despite of demanding work-lives try to find interesting ways to spend time with each other. And, the show also offers an opportunity to the viewers to learn new and easy recipes.

    Two promos and various digital campaigns have been designed to promote the show. “We have not compromised on the marketing of the show,” informs Kapoor.

    Quiz Deepti about the challenges she faced while making the show and she says, “It is a different genre that has both fiction and non-fiction. Also, we had to ensure that the cooking is seamlessly integrated in the story. Everything had to blend very well. It was challenging as it is no saas-bahu saga.”

    Currently, of the 26 episodes that will be aired in the series, five have been shot. “We will take a call on increasing the number of episodes a week after the show goes on air.” A lot of detailing has gone into making the set of the show. “It took us one month to create the set in Kamalistan. The show has a working kitchen, unlike the dummy kitchen in a lot of cookery shows. Also, the glasses that have been used are from Turkey. The appliances are good looking. I have got a professional to design the plates for the show. I wanted to put a lot of stress on the production value,” says Bhatnagar.

    Sab hopes to climb the ladder of TV ratings with this show and is also working towards strengthening its weekend programming for which new concepts are being developed. In the past, the channel has been at the number three slot in the time spent by viewers on the channel and wants to return to that ranking.

  • Antara Kak joins the Colors fiction team

    Antara Kak joins the Colors fiction team

    MUMBAI: She started off her career as an assistant director working mostly on nonfiction shows and documentaries. Now Antara Kak has shifted gears and has joined the Colors team as a fiction producer. “I’ve always wanted to do fiction shows and this is a complete jump for me,” admits Kak who joined the channel on 16 September.
    Antara Kak is ecstatic about joining the Colors team

    Kak comes to Colors loaded with an experience of 20 years. She worked on Surabhi, which was produced by her father Siddharth Kak, for about eight years. Post that she directed a documentary- A life in dance- that won her the prestigious IDPA (Indian Documentary Producers Association) award for debutant director.

    She was also the creative director for ‘Mano ya na mano’ on the erstwhile channel Star One as well as the supernatural thriller ‘Sambhav kya’ on 9X. Till now she was a part of Cinemavision production house with her father and now she has been given the responsibility of handling her first show on Colors which is to be a relaunch, the name of which was not revealed. Work is on in full speed as the show is expected to go on air in one month.

    As producer, Kak will be responsible for producing shows for Colors along with Prashant Bhatt, who is the weekday programming head.

  • TV and film production companies have a bumpy FY’10

    Television content production companies have had a bumpy ride during the 12-month period ended March 2010 as broadcasters cut costs and restructured businesses to tide over the recession.The listed TV content companies – Balaji Telefilms, UTV Television, BAG Films and Media, Creative Eye and Sri Adhikari Bros – posted a combined revenue of Rs 3.36 billion, down 38.32 per cent from Rs 5.44 billion in the year ago period. Barring Sri Adhikari Bros, which has low revenues, each company’s turnover de-grew during the fiscal.

    Realisation per hour of programming fell dramatically and the content creators had to work on squeezed margins. The existence of too many content companies did not make the task any easier.

    The listed companies, in fact, swung into losses at an operational level. The combined loss stood at Rs 25.79 millon compared to operating profit of Rs 186.73 million in the year-ago period.

     
    Expenses were kept under tight control as projects fell, amounting to Rs 2.25 billion, or a drop of 37.48 per cent.

    (We have taken UTV’s content financials which include airtime sales as they don’t disclose them separately. Also, expenses and net profit are not available for UTV and BAG separately).

    The movie production houses also had a rough patch as it was caught in a row with multiplex operators, cluttered releases and high ratio of box office disasters.

     

    The combined revenues of the five listed companies – UTV Motion Pictures, Cinevistaas, Pritish Nandy Communications, Mukta Arts and Shree Ashtavinayak – dropped 20.48 per cent to Rs 13.78 billion (from Rs 17.33 billion).

     
    On an operational level, these companies, however, posted a profit of Rs 1.43 billion, up 2.6 per cent from the earlier year.
    Expenses fell by 24 per cent to Rs 8.13 billion, as against Rs 10.71 billion in the year-ago period.

    The content entertainment revenue pie, in fact, fell by 24.74 per cent in FY’10. Revenue of the listed film and television production companies stood at Rs 17.14 billion, down from Rs 22.77 billion a year ago.

     

  • Optimystix has format down pat; looks to widen view

    From being the first Indian production house to tie up with two international format owners to foraying into fiction, Optimystix has been experimental. The production house will be completing six years of their existence in October this year. And with a total of 11 non-fiction shows and one fiction show telecast on leading broadcasters like Star, Sony, Zee, Nick and Pogo, over six years of their existence, Optimystix this year, has its kitty full with a reality talent hunt show to be launched in October. The production house also plans to venture into film production and set up an advertising division by early next year.

    Sanjiv Sharma, cofounder of Optimystix

    On entering the Optimystix office, located at a suburb in Mumbai, the first thing that catches your eyes is the office décor, which highlights the colour used in the logo of the production house. Saffron, Blue, Green and Golden…

    Ask the “Optimistic duo” or the founders of the production house, ad film director Sanjiv Sharma and writer director Vipul Shah, about it and pat comes a reply, “It is a simple logo. Four bands of colours in the logo depict four earth colours. Saffron is the colour of India, Blue-the colour of water and sky, Golden depicts wheat and Green is nature. And as all these elements of nature don‘t meet, similarly the edges on the logo don‘t meet. It is symbolic to wide varieties of programmes that we have been making, which has no similarity with each other.”

    Sanjiv is quick to quote a line from Shakespeare, “Greatness is thrust upon you,” and this is what happened with Optimystix. While working on Khul ja sim sim in 2001, we got the understanding of the business. It wasn‘t the hottest formats like KBC. Yet it managed to capture the Indian audience. So the point is that it is not necessary that we get the most popular formats. It‘s about understanding the Indian mindset and getting the best format for adaptation.”

    Vipul adds, “Khul ja Sim Sim gave us the recognition as a production house in format business.”

    Optimystix tasted success with Indian Idol part one

    But it was Indion Idol part one in 2004 which reinforced their position in the market. At that time, Optimystix had a three-man leadership team that included Rajiv Vyas as well. Vyas joined Optimystix as its CEO in October 2003, soon after he quit cable MSO InCableNet where he was CEO. Vyas was with Optimystix till March 2006. It was during that period that the production house not only produced Indion Idol, but also struck a deal with two international format owners, Sparks Network and Zodiak International.

    Queried as to the reasons for Vyas‘ departure, Sanjiv says, “He got better opportunities and decided to move on.”

    While Indian Idol was a sort of watershed landmark in Optimystix‘s evolution, the production house could not be a part of the second series of Indian Idol. So the Vipul-Sanjiv duo continued their efforts to remain in the position of format owners.

    The Road To Victory:
    Founded by Sanjiv and Vipul in October 2000 with an aim of producing world class programming for Indian television, the production house has come a long way.

    Vipul started his career about a decade ago as writer with sitcom Dekh Bhai Dekh, after which he went to write popular shows like Philips Top Ten, Battle of Bollywood, Zee Horror Show, BSA Star ki Pasand and I Love You to name a few.

    It takes two to ‘tango‘, Sanjiv Sharma and Vipul Shah

    Sanjiv has had a successful stint as an ad filmmaker with nearly 1,000 ad campaigns to his credit. The talented twosome met during the making of BSA Star ki Pasand and since then there has been no looking back.

    Six years down the line, the production house has undoubtly managed to attain the objective of bringing quality entertainment into the television industry.

    And when asked, why a name likes Optimystix Sanjiv says, “Why not Optimystix?” Vipul then explains the meaning. He says, “Optimystix is a combination of two words. First is Optical, which deals with optics and the second are Mystix, which means mystery. Therefore, we relate story telling as being mystical.” The camaraderie between the two is such that that you are tempted to call it endearing.

    From format shows to reality shows… including fiction, the production house has done it all. A sneak peak into Optimystix through the eyes of its creators.

    Formats: Format shows are currently in vogue in the Indian television market, with every broadcaster having one or more reality format shows running. Optimystix has also managed to carve its own space by being the first production company in India to tie up with two international format owners to exclusively market their formats in India. Both tie-ups were announced at MIPCOM, Cannes October 2005.

    One is Zodiak Television, which is a leading international TV-format distributor based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kam Ya Zyaada launched on Zee Television on 12 December 2005 was based on a format owned by Zodiak TV, and adapted for India by Optimystix. And the other is Sparks network. But as Sanjiv puts forward. “With Sparks‘s network, it was not a tie up. Rather it was getting on board with 12 independent producers from Europe and one from South America. Optimystix, being the only Asian company in its network.”

    ‘Khul ja Sim Sim‘ was the first format show from Optimystix

    Some of the formats adapted from Sparks were Khul Ja Sim Sim (Let‘s make a deal) on Star Plus, Kismey Kitnaa Hai Dam (Night fever) on Star Plus, Indian Idol (Pop Idol) on Sony, Dum Dum Dum on Nick and Bum Bum Bum Gir Pade Hum on Pogo.

    And this year at Cannes, they plan to go a step further by not only buying formats but selling its indigenously developed format to production houses in France and USA.

    With their shows, Kam ya Zyaada (Zee) and Jet set go (Star one) coming to an end, with a lukewarm response this year, there has been a decline in the programming hours of Optimystix.

    But in 2007, Optimystix will once again be adapting a “Zodiak Format” (Stars on the Stage), which will be launched on Star early next year, “In this show, a trained singer would train a celebrity. For instance, Sunidhi Chauhan will train Ronit Roy and both of them will perform together. They will be judged on the basis of their performance. Besides this particular format two other formats will be locked soon,” informs Sharma.

    Stills from ‘Yeh Meri Life Hai‘, the first fiction show from Optimystix

    Fiction: The production house forayed into fiction with Yeh Meri Life Hai in 2004. The serial had a run of 323 episodes from May 2004 to November 2005. “It ran parallel to Jassi Jaisi koi Nahi, which was considered to be the most successful property on Sony,” says Sharma.

    Future plans on fiction: Plans are afoot to launch two fiction shows by March 2007. And each show will be targeted to a 600 episode running. As put across by Sanjiv, “Our team is already in place. Vipul, being a writer is working on the shows.”

    Film Production: In all these years, Optimystix have established themselves as major players in format shows on Indian television. With a script writer and director at home, Optimystix plans to get into film production next year. “Our objective is to be in every genre of entertainment,” asserts Sharma.

    Without revealing much, Vipul says, “There are two subjects that we have worked on. One would be a crossover film and the other film would depict a journey of a middle class girl.” But if given a chance Vipul says that, as a team they would like to make a comedy film. “A comedy film with a message-to be more precise… Something like Lage Raho Munnabhai.”

    Take on the Optimystix team:

    The optimistic team of ‘Optimystix‘

    We are a team of around 40 people. “We believe in having the best people with us… not necessarily experienced, but definitely bright people. The stress is on the creative mind,” says Vipul. Sanjiv adds quickly, “As a result of which we are proud to have a fantastic team of creative people as well as a management team. And as far as the production team is concerned, since most of them are with me since my advertising days, they have an eye for detail. And all of them have a hunger to prove a point.”

    Motto: To be the best… “We work as a football team and not a cricket team. As in a football team when you know that you pass the ball down to someone… the person will try to the best of his capabilities to take it to the net. Its teamwork and trust put together. “

     

    Future plans: There are three major divisions of Optimystix right now. One is the TV (India), the other is Focus (which deals with International projects and development work) and the third is the Emerging media division. Sanjiv elaborates, “Our plan is to set up an advertising division by January next year. In the next few months, say six months from now, we will tie up with Dentsu on a few productions. We will also be getting into a partnership with an Australian company Ambience Entertainment. It doesn‘t stop here. It‘s like an organic process. More people, more creative minds and better output at the end of it.”

    There are six ideas on which the creative team of Optimystix is working and by March end next year, Optimystix plans to have eight international properties in its kitty.

    On Cine star ki khoj 2: Zee has awarded the production duties of Cinestar Ki Khoj 2 to Optimystix. The shooting schedule has started and the show will be launched in October. We are involved largely in two key areas, “Production support and format. The set this time will be different from the one in first series. We have worked with Umang on the sets,” informs Sanjiv.

    Five years from now: Next to Walt Disney and Pixar. Sanjiv says, “Creative leadership propels the company, not the desire to amass wealth and going by our approach and vision will lead us to that position. After five years we see ourselves as an entertainment company working in association with a creative team which becomes the cynosure of media at that point of time.”

    Vipul Shah, cofounder of Optimystix in conversation

    Finally Sanjiv on Vipul:
    We are totally different but our goals and objectives are the same. When two people stand and look at a horizon and dream of reaching it one day following two different paths, the result will be unexpected. He is the man who understands the need of television as a medium better than anybody else. My advertising background gives him technical support.

    Vipul on Sanjay: It‘s about aesthetics. Latitude between two people. When two sets of values cojoin to the same people… the success rate is higher.