ITV

Tag: Jayesh Patil

  • Star Pravah to launch ‘Dhabal-Ek Taas Time Paas’

    Star Pravah to launch ‘Dhabal-Ek Taas Time Paas’

    MUMBAI: Marathi general entertainment channel, Star Pravah, is gearing up for a new show format which draws upon Marathi folk theatre, where the narrator-cum-actor (sutradhar) speaks to audiences and brings up socio-political issues in a fun way.

    Called Dhabal – Ek Taas Time Paas, the show is set to replace the soon-to-end The Supriya Sachin Show, 12 May onwards. Marathi actor Swapnil Joshi will play host, narrator and actor in the show that will air every Monday and Tuesday at 9:30 pm. ‘Dhabal’ in Marathi means a place for youngsters to hang out. Dhabal – Ek Taas Time Paas will be a situational comedy with elements of fiction and non-fiction, and will discuss contemporary issues in the form of a skit.

    According to Shrirang Godbole, chairman and MD of Indian Magic Eye, which has produced and conceptualised the show, “The root of this show is in the folk theatre format in Maharashtra, in which narrators speak to audiences and bring up political issues.” Godbole is the scriptwriter-producer-director of Dhabal – Ek Taas Time Paas, and has four other writers assisting him.

    Programming head Jayesh Patil of Star Pravah, says, “This is a fresh concept and we are looking at bringing it as a seasonal show. This way, it gives good space to experiment with content and genre.”

    Dhabal – Ek Taas Time Paas will run for 26 episodes, following which, Star Pravah plans to come out with another new show to replace the one-hour slot.

    Shooting is in full swing at Filmcity, Goregaon, Mumbai and nearly four episodes have been canned. A studio equipped with nine HD cameras is used twice a week for the show; two episodes are shot in one day and the second day is used for rehearsals. One hundred and thirty two people are part of the production team working on the show. The set has been designed by freelancer Shyam Bhatia while costumes have been designed by Shrirang’s wife, Deepa Godbole.

    Sources peg the cost of the entire show at around Rs 4 crore, with the set itself costing approximately Rs 35 lakh and cost of producing each episode about Rs 15 lakh.                                  

    On the cards is a big marketing plan that will soon unfold across the state, including contests inviting people to attend a Dhabal organized by Star Pravah in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Kolhapur with characters modeled on the show taking up pertinent issues. Winners will get to watch Dhaba- Ek Taas Time Paas live and understand its format. The contests are slated to begin in a couple of days and will be conducted in various auditoria. Presently, the focus is on the digital space, though closer to the launch, radio and print campaigns will be rolled out. 3 May onwards, ads will do the rounds of other Marathi channels.

  • Star Pravah chalks out marketing strategy to promote new look

    Star Pravah chalks out marketing strategy to promote new look

    MUMBAI: The blue has given away to silver with a red streak and that is how Star Pravah aims to align itself with its parent network Star India. Starting 3 February, the channel came up with a fresh look with a new logo, tagline and a completely different philosophy.

     

    The new tagline ‘Swapnanna Pankh Nave’ (dreams have new wings) is to indicate that the focus is shifting towards a younger female audience. Three new shows launched are also promoting its new philosophy that of encouraging modern young Maharashtrian women to channelise their dreams. “The fiction shows we are coming up with talk about individualism of women. They aren’t regular saas bahu shows. Our story characters will support the tagline,” says Star Pravah creative head Jayesh Patil. The current shows are also going to have tweaks introduced soon to suit the younger CS 15+ SEC A B C audiences as opposed to the earlier universal audience.

     

    The three new shows are Be Dune Daha (produced by Dashmi creations), Lagori Maitri (Endemol India) and The Supriya Sachin show- Jodi Tujhi Majhi (produced by Sachin Pilgaonkar). More shows are slated for a mid April launch. Lagori Maitri has replaced Swapnanchya Palikadle at 8:00 pm while the latter has been shifted to 6:30 pm due to stagnant ratings. Be Dune Daha at 9:00pm has replaced Ambat God which has been taken off air. “We are looking to target a slightly more upscale audience. We have also altered the broadcast design by bringing in different visual grammar and stay away from the traditional way of storytelling,” says Star Pravah channel head Prem Kamath.

     

    Promotions of the new look have already begun in its marketing campaign and will run till mid next week. The focus of the campaign, created majorly by an in-house team, is outdoor and TV and not the usual print medium. Both BTL and ATL activities have been used across Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur for which sources say Rs 5 crore has been spent. “Given the exposure on TV, print wasn’t bringing additional reach,” says Kamath.

     

    ATL activities involve promoting it predominantly on Star Pravah and network channels as well as some other Marathi news channels like IBN Lokmat, ABP Majha and TV9 Maharashtra. Outdoor promotion is focussed in metros and 1 million plus towns in Marathi localities tipping more towards using stations than hoardings. An OBD service has been created inviting people to sample their new shows by making telephonic calls to them which will have recorded voices of the protagonists.

     

    The BTL campaign specifically involves a Mentorship Programme that will begin by 1 March for women who have dreams to achieve something in various fields. Five women from various cities will be selected after a round of entries. They will be brought to Mumbai for a day and given training by mentors from the profession they want to enter. The TG for this outdoor activity is women in the age group 18 to 34 years, both single as well as married. The first edition of this month long activity will be telecast somewhere in April. The radio medium will be used to call out entries for this event.

     

    Although the channel was aiming to refresh itself some time ago, it only took complete shape now. Soon, old shows will be giving way to new, modern and younger shows. Seems like even the regional channels are looking to tap the youth quotient of the country.

  • Now ‘Mahabharat’ on Star Pravah

    Now ‘Mahabharat’ on Star Pravah

    MUMBAI: Marathi GEC viewers are set to be taken back into time. Marathi viewers will soon be introduced to two popular mythological shows for the first time. Come 21 October, between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm, a new slot has been created on Star Pravah called Mahaparv that will start airing two of Star India’s biggest properties in this genre – Star Plus’s magnum opus Mahabharat and Life OK’s Devon Ke Dev… Mahadev. The difference being both the shows will be telecast, dubbed in Marathi.
    Jayesh Patil is confident that the two shows will work wonders for the Marathi GEC genre

    “The Marathi space has been missing this genre and these two shows are the network’s prime properties. The whole idea behind spending so much is that the whole network gets to share it,” explains Star Pravah programming head Jayesh Patil, pointing out that the astronomical costs involved in producing such shows was the very reason they hadn’t been tapped so far by the Marathi GEC space.

    Mahaparv will also serve as an experiment in how well (or otherwise) mythology is received by the Marathi audience. The question however remains whether Marathi GECs will be willing to spend several times more on original mythological shows.

    “We are spending a lot on dubbing to establish them. Once the market is open for mythology, we can shell out more,” replies Patil, adding that there’s a lot of scope for showcasing mythological tales from Marathi literature. As it is, each episode of either of the two shows takes nearly a day for dubbing in Marathi, with costs ranging between Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 lakh per episode, according to industry sources.

    According to Patil, 6:00 -7:00 pm is a good time to air these shows however Madison Media COO Karthik Lakshminarayan feels prime time would have been more suitable.
    Karthik Lakshminarayan believes that a good slew of advertisers would soon come on board

    So will these shows work for the Marathi audience? Life OK GM Ajit Thakur believes that mythological shows are universal so they will work everywhere. Mahadev has already been aired on the Star network’s Kannada, Oriya, Malayalam and Tamil channels, he points out.

    Lakshminarayan however feels Mahadev might fare better in the Marathi space. “Mahabharat has been treated like a movie and Marathi audiences are unused to such grandeur on TV shows. In terms of set and costumes, it may just be a bit too much for them,” he opines.

    Star Pravah is in the midst of negotiations to get advertisers on board and Lakshminarayan feels that shouldn’t be a problem considering both the shows are established.

    Will this time travel work for the Marathi audiences?

  • Jayesh Patil takes charge of Star Pravah’s programming

    Jayesh Patil takes charge of Star Pravah’s programming

    MUMBAI: A change of face will mark a change of programming strategy on Marathi GEC channel Star Pravah. Jayesh Patil has been roped in as the new programming head for the channel, filling in the shoes of Shrabani Deodhar who has been elevated to a higher position which is yet unknown.

    Patil was previously with Reliance Big Productions for nearly two and a half years where he led the programming as fiction head. Prior to that, he has been a writer for several popular shows starting off with Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka and continuing with trend setters such as Kumkum, Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi, Laagi Tujhse Lagan and more recently with Bade Achche Lagte hain.

    Taking charge on 26 August, he has already got to work to study the market and to strategise new plans. “Marathi space is very attractive. There is lots of scope for experimentation and there will be a lot of focus on events,” says Patil. He says he has had enough of writing and now it is time for him to reinvent himself as well as the programming strategy of Pravah.

    As far as competition is concerned Patil says that it is always good to have competition. Marathi as a genre has been lagging as compared to other regional genres but Patil says that this was the case a few years ago, but not anymore.

    Pravah faces competition from Zee Marathi and E TV Marathi but as of now it is leading in the genre.