ITV

Tag: Jayate

  • Will ‘Jayate’ spell success for InHouse?

    Will ‘Jayate’ spell success for InHouse?

    MUMBAI: “Last year was a disaster,” admits InHouse Productions CEO Uday Sinhwala.

    The production house, once known for its commitment to the studio show format, lost three of its six shows then on air – Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke, Movers and Shakers and Nazdeekiyan. Today, a chastened Sinhwala has shifted focus to fiction – a genre where he believes the future lies – and is ready with his new offering Jayate for Sahara, a police series with a difference.

    Billed as an ‘action soap’, Jayate that premieres 23 September, has the unenviable task of taking on Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki at 10 pm from Mondays to Thursdays. The show has had its own share of pre launch problems. It has been in the pipeline for nearly a year now, with the first launch date pegged at December 2001. Earlier scheduled as a one hour show, changed circumstances have forced InHouse to format it into a half hour daily. Two directors – Bijesh Jayarajan and Shahab Shamsi, who directed the show earlier have also shifted base, and the directorial mantle is now on Anshuman Singh. While 12 episodes are currently ready for telecast, Sahara has granted a 24 episode initial run for the show. The show itself seems promising. Shorn of the gloss and glamour that adorn soaps on other channels, Jayate takes a realistic yet engaging look at the life of police personnel, weaving together their professional and personal lives effectively. It sensitively brings out the shades of grey in police life, hitherto an uncharted territory on Indian television.

    Sinhwala acknowledges that demand from channels continues to be for soaps, though. “Everybody is looking for someone who can take the Balaji formula forward,” he says. Balaji’s main contribution in the last couple of years has been in drastically improving the look of the soap on the telly. This, he says, has put more pressure on producers to come up with better looking products in almost the same budgets. InHouse itself is tackling the toughening business cycles with co-productions. “Three of our five ventures currently are co-productions,” says Sinhwala, ” and that’s how things will be in the industry in the next few years.” The production house currently has a drama series, a mytho, a game show and a stand up comedy currently on air. InHouse is also doing a co-produced Telugu show, while the mytho, Darshan Do Bhagwan is a coproduction with Atul Pandey Productions, and Simply Shekhar a tie up with Shekhar Suman’s Seven Thirty Entertainment. Jayate is the first show InHouse will be doing for Sahara.

    With a lot of scattered talent in the marketplace, Sinhwala believes co-productions are the way forward for the industry and claims that InHouse will be one of the five major production houses to rule Indian television in the next two years. His current job on hand however is to pull the production house out of the slump that it hit last year and consolidate its position. “We intend to have at least one more major show on air before the end of this fiscal,” he says.

  • After ‘Haqeeqat’, Sahara looks at the other side with ‘Jayate’

    After ‘Haqeeqat’, Sahara looks at the other side with ‘Jayate’

    The Hindi entertainment television sweepstakes is hotting up and Sahara TV aims to be very much there on the viewerscope. After November’s launch of four new shows, the new year is going to see more offerings from the Sahara stable. Next month will see the launch of Jayate (winner), a show which is a reversal of its celebrated Haqeeqat (reality) in that it focuses on good cops and the sacrifices they make in the line of duty. Haqeeqat, which was introduced in June, has had quite an impact. Hosted by film director Mahesh Bhatt the programme was a breath of fresh air in an environment dominated by likeminded soap opera’s. It dealt with true incidents of human rights violation by lawmakers. It was produced by Anuradha Prasads BAG Films, for Sahara India Media Communications Ltd (SIMCL) and directed by Sourabh Narang. Jayate will be followed by Fateh (victory) which trains its guns on war heroes.

    Next up on the channel’s new offerings list is Har Mode Pe (at every turn), a daily soap. Sahara TV vice-president (publicity, promotions & PR) Priya Raj says there is even more coming from the Sahara cupboard but the shows are still being conceptualised. They run the gamut of genres and should provide telly buffs with plenty of food for thought, Raj promises.

    Meanwhile, the channel claims that two serials it launched in November Apnapan and Zindagi Teri Meri Kahani have drawn an excellent response. Both centre on the family and the channel claims that the immense popularity of these two programmes has helped it increase its viewership base. Apnapan shows from Monday to Friday at 1:30 pm and 11 PM Produced by SIMCL, Apnapan is directed by Chander Behl & V Menon. Veteran film actors like Kiran Kumar, Pramod Mautho, Shagufta Ali star.

    Zindagi Teri Meri Kahani airs every Friday at 10:30 PM It shows how today’s society is more individualistic in nature. So the need for self identity is important. The story deals with marital discord. Produced by AV Telefilms, Zindagi Teri Meri Kahani stars veteran actor Arun Govil who played Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana. Other stars include Rohini Hattangadi, Priya Tendulkar, Savita Prahune, Parmeet Sethi and Raju Samtani.

     

  • In House banks on soaps to bring in the dough

    In House banks on soaps to bring in the dough

    In House Productions is in a fever of activity these days.

    Flinging itself seriously into the TV software race, it has branched out into all kinds of programming, leaving no genre untouched in a bid to get the revenues rolling in.

    The staid five-year-old company floated by Sudesh ‘Mani’ Iyer is targeting hitting the number one position within the next two years, says Sameera Kohli, head of business development.

    Two celebrity-based shows – both of which aired on Sony Entertainment – got loads of media attention for divergent reasons. While the Sekhar Suman-hosted Movers and Shakers did well while it was on air, the gameshow Jeeto Chhappar Phad Ke – hosted by filmstar Govinda – fell on its face despite all efforts to push it.

    Now In House is moving into the safer territory of soaps. Jayate, a serial based on the life of cops, will go on air end-December on Sahara TV. A lot of research precedes the making of the serial that explores the human side of the police station and the personnel in uniform who man it. Irfan Khan and Irawati Harshe constitute the central protagonists.

    Also on the cards are a kids’ show anchored by Sunil Shetty, a reality show and a saas bahu soap of a ‘different kind’. In short, In House is pitching in with an effort in every genre and taking it to different channels to get what business it can bag. “The stress is on developing the content and doing it scientifically. We want to be radical, and want to make programmes that will take the genre forward,” says Kohli.


    In House’s hits-n-misses – Shekhar and Govinda

    The formula seems to be working. Mudivu Ungal Kaiyal, an interactive show made by In House on the lines of Aap jo bole haan to haan, aap jo bole na to na, now in its fifth week on Sun TV, is likely to be made into two more languages. Katha Kathi, a serial on rural stories by renowned Marathi authors, was number two for a long while on Alpha Marathi till it went off air. The production house is now making a celebrity interview show for the Durga Pooja season for Alpha Bengali, focusing on Bengalis who have shifted out of the native state.

    For the present, however, mega celebrity shows like Movers and Shakers and JCPK are out, thanks to the recession and the multiple hassles of personality management. “Today, prime time across all channels is full of soaps”, points out Kohli, justifying In House’s current love affair with the genre. “However”, she insists, “We are more in the quality game rather than the numbers game,” stressing that the focus would still remain on producing well made programmes rather than just TRP raking shows. The company has set its sights on the regional channels, as “that is where the market is developing right now.”


    A one-hour horror serial that aired on Zee    		 The frenetic pace that has been set in motion is the result of the efforts of the team, headed by Uday Sinhwala, who took over a few months ago. The results of the new programming strategy will start reaping dividends shortly, says Kohli. In House has maintained a 35 per cent growth since its inception in 1997, she says. Although revenues that hovered around Rs 250 million last year may not see
    an equivalent spurt at the end of this fiscal, the
    company is nevertheless maintaining a stable growth, she says.

    In House has already canned 1,200 hours of programming and plans to produce 300 more this year. With state-of-the-art infrastructure including an air-conditioned studio rented out to B4U, a chroma studio, linear and non-linear editing bays and dubbing and preview theatres, it is now a ‘complete production house’.

    All it needs now are soaring TRPs for the plethora of programs it plans to unleash on audiences.