ITV

Tag: Nachiket Pantvaidya

  • Sony re-jigs weekend programming for ‘Indian Idol Junior’

    Sony re-jigs weekend programming for ‘Indian Idol Junior’

    MUMBAI: While it may not have found favour with audiences on its fiction fare recently, Sony Entertainment Television is all set to enthrall audiences with the second season of its popular singing reality show format – Indian Idol Junior.

    The show, which will launch on 30 May, will be aired at 8.30 pm on weekends. With this, Adaalat, which was aired from 8 – 9 pm on Sony, will now get a new time slot and will be aired from 7.30 – 8.30 pm. Additionally, Bhanwar, which aired at 9 pm will be taken off air. The show’s last episode will be on 24 May.

     

    Indian Idol Junior, this time round, will see the juniors paying a tribute to the maestros of Indian music at the season’s grand launch. With the success of the first season, Sony Entertainment Television is upbeat about giving talented youngsters this platform to exhibit their talent yet again.

     

    What’s more, the talent quotient for this season has gone several notches higher with the inclusion of actor Sonakshi Sinha as one of the judges.

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com at the launch of the show, Sony Entrainment Television senior executive vice president and business head Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “The unique thing about this show is that for the first time ever, we are using a celebrity i.e. Sonakshi Sinha as a representative of the common people. You normally find that the judges are experts in their own fields but with Sonakshi, we want to explore the connect further.”

     

    “With the second edition of Indian Idol Junior, we intend to bring the entire family together and recreate the entertainment quotient of this season substantially while gifting the music industry with some really outstanding talent,” Pantvaidya added.

     

    Sharing insights on her television debut, Sinha said, “Playback singing is unique to Indian cinema. For our films, music is as essential an entity as the story. With every era of movies, there has come a whole generation of musicians who have almost immortalized some movies through the music. I’m really excited and happy to be associated with Indian Idol Junior, a reality show that celebrates music and creates platform for young talent to follow their dreams and reach out to the stars.”

     

    Sony Entertainment Television chief creative officer Ajay Bhalwankar added, “The whole selection process, auditions, theatre took about a year. The gala rounds episodes will go on for fourteen weeks and will have the normal voting system like previous formats.”

     

    Fremantle Media India managing director Anupama Mandloi said, “It’s always been nice to work with this format. We have been doing it for years now and this time it’s special because we found talent across the country – north, south, east and west.  Also in time to come, you will see what surprises this season will bring.”

     

    Sony has brought on board three sponsors for the second season of Indian Idol Junior. While Horlicks is the ‘presenting’ sponsor, Lifebuoy and Aquaguard have associated with the show as ‘co-powered by’ sponsors.

     

    Apart from Sinha, the show will have judges like Vishal Dadlani, Salim Merchant and Shalmali Kholgade. It will be hosted by Hussain Kuwajerwala and Asha Negi.

  • Sony to embellish ‘Hanuman’ with VFX and stunts

    Sony to embellish ‘Hanuman’ with VFX and stunts

    MUMBAI: Taking a cue from the popularity of mythological shows on the small screen, Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) general entertainment channel Sony Entertainment Television is all set to roll out a show on Hanuman.

     

    With an emphasis on the creative aspect, Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman will showcase Hanuman’s unique voyage in a manner, which is hitherto untapped. The channel, along with the production house Contiloe Productions, will be using state of the art visual effects and stunts to give the show a larger than life look and feel.

     

    Contiloe Productions CEO Abhimanyu Singh said, “Contiloe has always experimented with multiple genres. This would be our first mythological show and we are pretty excited about it. The show will project the tale of the Hanuman ji from his childhood. We will be using state of the art visual effects and stunts to tell this great tale of Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman. I hope the audience enjoys the show as much as we have while creating it.”

     

    The show will go on air from 4 May, 2015 and will air from Monday to Friday at 8 pm. 

     

    SET India senior vice president and marketing head Gaurav Seth said that Indian viewers would be treated with extensive visual effects and high technological developments. “In this series we will show a number of never seen before imagery of Hanuman and large scale of visual effects to make the end product look as allusive as possible. It will be a larger than life avatar of Hanuman and that makes the series interesting. We cannot change the concept as Hanuman is a mythological character but we added whatever we could to make it a worthy experience for viewers,” Seth said.

     

    Sony has backed the launch of Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman with innovative marketing activities. “We have organised a drone that will fly Hanuman in 12 cities across the Hindi speaking territory. This is something that we are doing for the first time and is witnessing success so far. In the 12 cities, we take a busy location and fly Hanuman with the help of a drone and people gather to enjoy the sight. Besides that, we have built huge creatives of Hanuman in various cities. We also constructed a mobile friendly interactive website to connect with people and are also distributing the Hanuman Chalisa in different temples. Besides the normal marketing activities, these are the extra efforts that we put for Hanuman,” informs Seth.

     

    With Leo Burnett as the creative agency on board, Sony ran the outdoor campaigns in 35 cities across the Hindi Speaking Market.

     

    The entire show will be reverberating around courage, power and faith, which are few words synonymous with the mighty Hindu God, Hanuman.

     

    Sony Entertainment Television senior executive vice president and business head Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “We, at Sony Entertainment Television, would like to bring a mix of various genres to our viewers. We feel that adding the mythology genre to our offering, completes the channel and we are happy to present the story of Lord Hanuman in a very unique format to our viewers. The show explores a mix of untold and popular mythology around Lord Hanuman, in a never seen before format, with mindblowing visuals and powerhouse performances. We are delighted to collaborate with Contiloe Productions once again, with whom we have tasted phenomenal success with the show Bharat Ka Veer Putra Maharana Pratap. We are confident that Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman will set a new benchmark on how mythological shows are presented on television.”

     

    Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman will see Nirbhay Wadhwa as Lord Hanuman.

  • Sony on correction course; set to launch 4 new shows

    Sony on correction course; set to launch 4 new shows

    MUMBAI: 2014 was a middling year for Sony Entertainment Television (SET). Though the audience saw the channel experimenting with new concepts and shows, a few earned some fame, while the others failed to grab eyeballs.

    SET made some smart moves, whether it was getting out of the studio and moving closer to the audiences in season eight of Kaun Banega Crorepati or Amitabh Bachchan’s television debut in the fiction format – Yudh, which was touted to be India’s most expensive show in that segment (Rs 3 crore per episode). While the channel’s hopes were riding high on the latter, the dark content was unpalatable for the audience.

    On the fiction soap front, the channel’s high bet with Itna Karo Na Mujhe Pyaar starring Ronit Roy did not do as well as expected. Other fiction series like Humsafars, Hum Hai Na and Tum Aise Hi Rehna only saw a glimmer of hope.

    Reason: Female audiences didn’t stick on and male audiences continued to come on to the channel’s popular shows like CID, Aahat, Crime Patrol and Bhanwar.

    However, now the channel is on a correction course and is all set to woo its existing audiences once again as well as rope in new viewers. SET SVP and business head Nachiket Pantvaidya revealed that in order to up the channel’s entertainment quotient, five new shows will go on air over the next two – three months.

    Not just to intrigue the audience but to also provoke thought and reactions from them, the channel aims to attract newer audiences (mainly female) with high-concept shows backed by a powerful star cast.

    First up, starting 13 April, the channel will launch Reporters, revealing the challenging world of news in a contemporary way. As reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the show, produced by Rose Audio Visuals, revolves around the life of journalists with an intense underlying love story.

    It will air every Monday-Thursday at 9 pm competing with shows like Diya Aur Baati Hum (Star Plus), Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat (Colors), Laut Aao Trisha (Life OK), Chidiya Ghar (Sab) and Kumkum Bhagya (Zee TV).

    Second up, the channel kicked-off auditions for its singing reality show, Indian Idol Junior 2 in Kolkata on 4 April. After Kolkata, the audition process will move to Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai on 11 April, 18 April and 25 April respectively. The show is expected to go live in the month of May.

    The third new show from SET’s stable is the mythological show titled Sankat Mochan Mahabali Hanuman. Produced by Contiloe Productions, it will depict the life of Lord Hanuman. The series is set to hit television screens from 4 May. For the record, Contiloe Pictures is currently producing Maharana Pratap, Adaalat and Bhanwar on Sony.

    With growing popularity of the mythological genre, Sony will add yet another show to its kitty titled Suryaputra Karn. The show is produced by Swastik Pictures, which had also produced Mahabharat for Star Plus.

    Suryaputra Karn will cover life journey of the Great Archer of Indian history Karna, who always craved for legitimacy, had been extremely loyal to his friend and the only one who could defeat Arjun. The promos for the same have already created a buzz. Sources close to the channel say that the show will hit airwaves in May.

    Last but not the least, the channel is set to further awaken the masses with period drama called Rani Mahal. Produced by Lost Boy Productions, it stars Sakshi Tanwar in a leading role and will hit television screens in June.

    Rubbishing media reports of it being a remake of Game Of Thrones, producer Vikas Gupta said, “This is nowhere close to Game of Thrones.”

    It may be recalled that as its first step towards a revamped programming strategy, Sony launched the Ram Kapoor starrer Dil Ki Baatein on 23 March, which is telecast from Monday to Thursday at 9:30 pm.

    It remains to be seen whether Sony’s fresh line-up of shows manages to propel the channel up on the ratings chart.

  • Sony ushers in new programming with ‘Dil Ki Baatein’

    Sony ushers in new programming with ‘Dil Ki Baatein’

    MUMBAI: It has been struggling to regain lost ground in the Hindi general entertainment space for quite some time now. But, undeterred, the MulitScreen Media owned Sony Entertainment Television is taking another shot at attracting hordes of viewers to its prime time fare. In its first step towards that, the channel has launched a show called Dil Ki Baatein starring the popular TV actor Ram Kapoor in the lead. 

     

    “Sony has always prided in telecasting innovative shows. In the next 100 days we will be launching five new shows with interesting concepts as we believe there is an audience out there that exists for such content,” says SET senior executive vice president and business head Nachiket Pantvaidya.

     

    Dil Ki Baatein will be Kapoor’s come back to TV. He will be seen opposite Gurdeep Kohli. The show also stars Pankaj Dheer as Kohli’s father, whereas Mahima Makhwana and Ratna Shinde will essay the roles of the couple’s daughter and son respectively. 

     

    Dil Ki Baatein has been helmed by filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and SET together. Sony took note of Bhatt’s narration about the concept a year and half ago.

     

    Talking about the concept of the show, SET senior vice president and marketing head Gaurav Seth says, “It is an unusual love story that brings out the struggle and various emotions of the family to the fore. It questions how far one can go for a loved one and to what extent? The show explores the complexities of human relationships and one’s emotional downfall when fate intervenes.”

     

    According to Seth, the biggest USP of the series is the role essayed by Kapoor. He will be portraying the role of a supportive husband to his cancer stricken wife, who faces a blood cancer relapse after two years. The programme has been produced by Guroudev Bhalla and Dhaval Gada from Bhatt’s production house, which also produced the show Udaan for Sony previously.

     

    “We have shot five different promos where Ram Kapoor is essaying a different role and emotion. In the first promo, for instance, he is seen conversing with God about his problems,” informs Seth.

     

    The promo was first launched on digital media, where along with active engagements from fan clubs, it trended at the top spot for five to 10 minutes. “For the first time, the promo itself registered one million views on YouTube,” says Seth.

     

    A robust marketing campaign has been planned across 35 Indian cities along with active OOH campaigns. Seth informs that the communication showing Kapoor along with a bald headed Kohli, has generated the necessary buzz. It has also generated 21 crore digital impression so far across various social media platforms. On Twitter, SET invited reactions from fans of how far would fans go for their loved ones.

     

    The show has LIC as the presenting sponsor and advertisers such as Otriven, Cadbury, KFC, Samsung Galaxy among others on board.

     

    Dil Ki Baatein, which went on air on 23 March, will be telecast from Monday to Thursday at 9:30 pm on Sony.

  • From IPL to BCL, Sony continues its love for cricket

    From IPL to BCL, Sony continues its love for cricket

    MUMBAI: Cricket is nothing less than a religion in India and when mixed with a high-dose of glamour and drama, it serves as the ultimate form of entertainment.
    So, what happens when reality television meets the passion of the nation, cricket?

    Giving viewers the combination of both, Sony Entertainment Television (SET) is all set to launch India’s first ever sports reality show – Box Cricket League (BCL).

    However, this is not the first time that Sony is associating itself with cricket. Who can forget the launch of Indian Premier League (IPL), which saw entertainment and cricket getting hitched? However, the host Mandira Bedi’s noodle-strapped sari blouses made more headlines than the pre and post match show.

    “Everyone criticised us and we did not receive good responses for the same. I was there at Sony at that point in time and today after 14 years, we are back at it but with a twist,” says SET SVP and business head Nachiket Pantvaidya.

    For Pantvaidya, the show conceptualised by Marinating Films and produced by Balaji Telefilms, is like coming back full circle. When he heard the concept, he immediately locked it. “Cricket toh sirf bahana hai (cricket is just an excuse), there is a lot more than just cricket,” he says.

    BCL consists of eight teams, comprising of 120 popular television celebrities, who will compete against each other, playing a total of 19 matches of 14 overs each. The teams would be divided into two groups, A and B.

    For Ekta Kapoor, who will make her debut in reality with BCL, sports has alienated itself from women, so with this she wants to get all the bahus and girls get into the game and play with the boys. “I have never touched reality shows. So today I am doing a combination of both. Kudiyon ka zamana hai, cricket toh sirf ek bahana hai,” laughs Kapoor.

    Marinating Films director Sunny Arora aims to deliver a very good product. In the month of April, it had conducted a trial season with more than 100 actors and received a good response.  He believes that cricket is seen for entertainment and played for entertainment.

    “We had organised a trial to understand how the format will work. Men and women playing together, what are the flaws…so now we have come up with a concrete plan. We have just increased the scale,” says Arora.

    He further believes that the major reason why it worked in the trial was because of the presence of female players.

    Matches will commence with a face-off between the two playing teams, where they will perform signature moves on their team anthem. Giving the mundane coin toss a skip, BCL has introduced a ‘filmy toss’ with options like ‘Jai or Veeru’, ‘Basanti or Dhanno’. Upping the glam quotient will be two BCL titlis, Noorin Shah and Vrushika Mehta, who will perform acts during time outs and the ball change.

    Making the game more entertaining, viewers will also get to see behind the scenes action, locker room gossips and some extremely creative awards like Gentleman of the Match and Most Stylish Player of the Match amongst others.

    While the spirit of cricket remains intact, the introduction of new twists in the game is sure to keep the audience entertained. To step up the excitement, during the sixth and tenth overs, the batting captain will challenge the bowling captain to hit a certain number of runs in a single over with a particular bowler.

    If they manage to hit the number of runs they have challenged them for, then they earn double the runs. If not, they will lose the number of runs they challenged the bowling team. The seventh over will also see a ball change procedure where the players can strategise their next game plan.

    Balaji Telefilms group CEO Sameer Nair shares the genesis behind the entire concept of the show. “When Ekta first heard about it was through a friend of her who owns a team and Marinating Films, she wanted to buy a team with the marinating team boys. Then she thought, why to buy a team when we can invest in the league.”

    Balaji Telefilms has a joint venture with Marinating Films and have invested in the company. “Cricket is India’s most popular sport. Daily soaps are most popular form of television entertainment and the marriage of these two promises to be quite electric and exciting,” believes Nair.

    The shoot for the series will start from 20 November and will take place in Filmcity, Reliance Studios.

    So how does one qualify to be a BCL player? “Out of 11, nine have to be actors. How do you qualify as an actor? There is a bible to it. For example, depending on the number of shows he/she has done. And if one is a non-actor, he/she has to be either a director or a producer. The selection is done by the individual team captains and the owners. They should have experience,” answers Arora.

    Apart from the formal announcement, the channel has not started any marketing activities yet. According to SET SVP marketing head Gaurav Seth, eight teams have created their own anthems and he plans to pitch it in a different way. “The series is six weeks away. We have some interesting ideas in our heads and will soon execute them when the right time comes. In this country, you can never be short of celebrities. Fans will come to see the fights, victories, high and low moments.”

    Digital will be a special focus for Seth considering the amount of fan clubs each of the celebs own on the digital platforms. “One star will tweet, others will pick it up. There will be war, fights but at the end it’s all about entertaining viewers,” he says.

    Initially the project was pitched to Sony Six, but Sony realised the power of the concept and thought it will be apt for a GEC channel. “The moment we came to know it would be aired on a GEC channel, we had to change the entire look and feel to ensure that it’s up to the mark,” states Arora.

    The promos of the series will go on-air from end November. Though the date is not finalised yet, it will run for four weeks and be a weekly property.

     

  • KBC 8: Stays true to its message, wins hearts at Surat

    KBC 8: Stays true to its message, wins hearts at Surat

    MUMBAI: It was a night to remember for people in Surat who were entertained by none other than Amitabh Bachchan and Kapil Sharma.

     

    Sony Entertainment Television took its property, ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, out of its sets for the first time and created magic at the Surat Stadium for the 7000 plus audience. The live event held on 2 August saw Big B open the season in his inimitable style along with a bevy of dancers with whom he grooved to songs sung especially by him for KBC.

     

    The event was hosted by Kapil Sharma, who left the audience in splits with his impeccable comic timing. He also experienced the tension contestants go through as he sat on the hot seat for the first time. Sharma expressed his happiness of working with Sony again and sharing the KBC stage with Bachchan. “It is always a pleasure to work with him,” he said.

     

    SET senior EVP and business head Nachiket Pantvaidya added that getting Sharma on-board was a good move, considering his popularity among the masses. “He has added a lot of value to the show. Plus, he has worked with Bachchan before so there is a certain chemistry between the two which was an advantage for us,” he informed.

     

    Adding to the excitement were the iconic cops, Dayanand Shetty and Abhijeet from Sony’s popular crime show, ‘CID’, who interacted with the audience.

     

    If that wasn’t enough to leave the audience spellbound, then the valiant warrior and Rajput hero, Faisal Khan from ‘Maharana Pratap’ surely did that with his stellar dance performance. The trio of Neeti Mohan, Meiyang Chang and Anirudh Dave also added to the entertainment quotient of the evening keeping the audience engaged in a musical banter. The charming Shillong Choir gave a heart- warming performance.

     

    This year, the channel wanted to target the cities which usually are ignored. Pantvaidya believes that it is either the state capitals or the metros that get their share of entertainment. “Thus, there was a need to target the smaller cities which are otherwise ignored and not paid much attention to,” he said.

     

    “If we connect across these smaller cities, we will be able to fulfill all those aspirations and we did that with Surat,” added Pantvaidya.

     

    According to SET SVP head marketing Gaurav Seth, it is also a good way to test how both, the brand and the channel, is doing in these cities.

     

    The channel is quite happy to take the show outside the sets for the first time. “I am quite happy that everything went as per plan,” opined Seth.

     

    So what is new this season? Though the prize amount remains the same, Rs 7 crore, to make the show more interesting, two additional features have been added.

     

    The expert advice lifeline has been converted into a panel of three wise men who will sit amongst the audience called ‘Triguni’. Upon being called, these three wise men will give the correct answer along with interesting trivia around the question.

     

    Another interesting lifeline called ‘Code Red’ will let the family of the participants tell them to quit, if needed, by pressing a buzzer placed in front of them. According to Pantvaidya, “This will also increase the number of factors in the game theory. This is not just a knowledge game but it is also about uncertainty in people’s mind.”

     

    At the marketing front, the channel is leaving no stone unturned to create the buzz.

     

    After Surat, it will be travelling to three other cities which have not yet been finalised. However, the aim is to keep the buzz alive at the same scale.

     

    Seth believes that this season’s core message ‘Yahan Sirf Paise Nahi, Dil Bhi Jeete Jaate Hain’ will be the constant catchphrase for the show.

     

    “Keeping in with the promise of our brand, we are happy that we are able to integrate our thought into the content,” added Pantvaidya.

     

    To increase the level of engagement with the consumers, the channel has created a KBC app. For the first time, this year, wherein people sitting at homes can experience in real time and play by answering questions and win prizes.

     

    Apart from this, social media is going to play a major role to drive the point. The channel has rolled on a 100 ground events, where people will share their experience of sitting on the hot seat on Facebook.

     

    Though both the officials refused to disclose any financial details, sources from the industry estimate that around 30 per cent of the entire budget is being spent on marketing.

     

    Four episodes have already been canned and are at the edit phase right now.

     

    Though the channel is betting big and spending loads and loads of cash, media planners believe that like last year, this season will also not add value to the ratings and give the channel those numbers as expected.

     

    Produced by Big Synergy, it will hit the television screens from 17 August, five days a week at 8.30 pm.

  • KBC8: Strumming the heart strings of viewers

    KBC8: Strumming the heart strings of viewers

    MUMBAI: It’s Big B time on Sony Entertainment Television.  Almost 14 years after he mesmerized the nation with his baritone voice as the host of the first season of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), Amitabh Bachchan  made his fictional debut in  a drama series Yudh on the Hindi GEC earlier this month. Come mid-August, and viewers of Sony will get to see more of the thespian as the first episode of the eight season  of the quiz game show hits TV screens.

     

    KBC8 – as it is being called – promises a lot and the channel is banking heavily on it to boost its viewership and pull it out of its fifth placed spot amongst GECs.  Like previous years, Sony Entertainment’s marketing mavens are putting their best foot forward to help it build a better connect with audiences.

     

    “We sat and thought about what we have said and done in the past so that we can come up with a new concept this time,” says SET senior VP and marketing head Gaurav Seth. “The conclusion we came up was that whatever be the case, Big B and a few contestants over these past years have been able to win million of hearts. Hence, came the new communication, which is – Yahan Sirf Paise Nahi, Dil Bhi Jeete Jate Hain. ”

     

    Conceptualised by Leo Burnett and executed by Opticus,  the underpinning thread of KBC’s promotional campaign this year will center around social issues gripping the nation.  Three films, each with a different story, character, set-up and theme, will be aired over the coming few days on TV and released in social media.

     

    The first of these titled ‘Kohima’ touches upon the sensitive issue of racialism or discrimination that people from the northeast face.

     

    Just over a minute long, the TVC  opens with Amitabh Bachchan asking Poornima, a young contestant hailing from the northeast, “Which country is Kohima in? (A) China (B) Nepal (C) India or (D) Bhutan.”

     

    The contestant opts for an audience poll (a lifeline in the game show) and 100 per cent of the respondents say India. Bachchan tells her, “it’s India, everyone knows this answer” to which the young contestant replies, “Everyone knows the answer, but how many people actually acknowledge it?”

     

    The film ends with the message ‘Yeh khel kuch aisa hi hai, yahan sirf paise hi nahi dil bhi jeete jaate hain.’

     

    It took three-four months of brainstorming, a lot of hard work by all the concerned entities (Sony Entertainment, Big Synergy, Leo Burnett) to weigh the pros and cons, before the theme was finalised.

     

    Leo Burnett executive creative director Nitesh Tiwari says the first challenge for him was to be innovative and avoid repetition. Says he: “This is the fourth year I am being associated with the channel. In the last three years, we had done it all, so the biggest challenge for us was how to make it different this season.”

     

    The creative agency’s CEO Saurabh Varma believes Tiwari and his team have come out with a winner as the KBC8 ads effectively use the power of communication to raise the collective conscience of the nation.

     

    He asserts: “Over the years we have noticed that people wait for the KBC promos as much as they wait for the next season of KBC. And the participants who reach the hot seat take more than just money from the KBC stage. Our latest promos take this insight to a larger, national and social canvas. The ads effectively use the power of communication to raise the collective consciousness of the nation.”

     

    Pantvaidya too is pleased with the way the three TVCs have been filmed (for the first time in Gujarat), adding that stereotypes have indeed been broken.  What must be making him happy is the number of views that the Kohima film has garnered on Youtube since its release on 8 July:  584,251 views, at the time of penning the article.

     

    Promos aside, Pantvaidya is pushing below the line activation in a big way in the coming weeks to build a face-to-face connect between KBC8 and Indians on the streets.  Marketing spends according to sources have been upped by 30 per cent or so.

     

    “We believe that we need to address these consumers by reaching out to them and that is the real thought behind all our campaigns,” adds Pantvaidya.

     

    The direct-to-consumer push includes Amitabh Bachchan  hosting four events across four cities; Surat being the first one. Another100 ground events are slated to be held in smaller towns which will give small-town-ers an opportunity to play along and get a chance to sit on the hot seat and try his/her luck to win the cash price of Rs 5 crore. This aside, viewers will also be encouraged to play the game real time through the KBC8 application on their hand held devices like mobile phones and tablets.

     

    As far as each episode of KBC is concerned, its length has been cut to an hour as against an hour and a half last year. Then, a new lifeline has been added called the community lifeline, which allows contestants to call any one in the community for help if they find a question tricky.

     

    Production for KBC8 is in the able hands of Siddhartha Basu’s Big Synergy Productions with filming slated to start in end July.

  • MSM reshuffles senior management

    MSM reshuffles senior management

    MUMBAI: Multi-Screen Media(MSM) today announced that Sneha Rajani, will assume the position of deputy president and head, MSM Motion Pictures. Nachiket Pantvaidya, who has recently joined the network, takes over as senior executive vice president and business head, Sony Entertainment Television (SET). Anooj Kapoor, will assume additional responsibilities as senior executive vice president and business head, SAB, and also a new initiative in the Hindi entertainment space.

     

    Sneha who was formerly business head, Sony Entertainment Television will have end to end responsibility for MSM Motion Pictures and will chart the success and future of that business as a key force in movie production. In this role, Sneha will also continue to handle film acquisitions for the network. Sneha has been associated with MSM for over 15 years and has previously been business head, MAX, which she launched and led for 10 years, before assuming responsibility of the flagship GEC, SET. She has played a key role in MSM’s movie buying strategy and was also instrumental in leading its cricket properties, such as, the ICC World Cup and IPL.

     

    Nachiket, who was the business head of STAR Plus and also held several roles in the STAR TV network, including being the Head of STAR Pravah and MD of FOX Television Studios will now head SET. An IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, Nachiket has had stints with BBC and Disney in the past. He has also held several positions in MSM from 1996 to 2004.

     

     

    With the success of SAB, Anooj has demonstrated capability for building differentiated audiences for the network. Anooj has been with MSM since 2007. Prior to joining MSM, Anooj worked with Colgate Palmolive as product manager, Lowe Lintas as Creative Director and also ran his own production advertising company. He has a Masters in English Literature and a MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management Studies.

     

    Speaking on the occasion, MSM  CEO N. P. Singh said, “I am certain that Sneha, Nachiket and Anooj will revitalize and provide fresh perspective to their respective areas of responsibility. Each brings unique strengths to grow the business & we wish them the best in their new roles. I am confident that 2014 will be a year of innovation and growth for MSM.”

     

  • Star Plus gets a new GM

    Star Plus gets a new GM

    MUMBAI: There is a change at the top in the Star Plus office. The leading general entertainment channel has a new General Manager — Gaurav Banerjee, who will fill in the space for Nachiket Pantvaidya, who quit in September this year. He will report to Star India COO Sanjay Gupta.

     

    Gaurav was the executive vice-president, content strategy of Star India. He joined Star Plus in October 2009 and played a pivotal role in shaping the content around the theme, “Rishta Wahi Soch Nayi”. In his previous role at Star India, Banerjee had helped in content development for Star Plus as well as Life OK for shows like Mahadev, Diya aur Baati Hum and Sasural Genda Phool.

     

    An alumnus of St Stephen’s, Delhi University and MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia, Banerjee joined Aaj Tak in 2000. He anchored The War Room that covered the Afghan war and elections. He then joined Star News and anchored the 9 pm news and was the executive editor of prime time news. He also played an important role in the launch of Star Ananda that was a big success from day one. He also set up Star’s regional channels and is credited to take Jalsha to the number one spot.

  • Nachiket Pantvaidya goes back home to Sony

    Nachiket Pantvaidya goes back home to Sony

    MUMBAI: It’s like a homecoming of sorts for senior television professional Nachiket Pantvaidya. Pantvaidya has reportedly put in his papers at Star India and will be joining Mulitscreen Media (Sony Entertaintment). He will be taking charge as the business head of the MSM Motion Pictures, which is a division of MSM. A formal announcement is expected next week sometime.

    MSM Motion Pictures has a slew of films planned under its banner over the next two years. Among these: Bajate Raho (already released) and Mango among others are lined up for release.
    Nachiket Pantvaidya will head the motion pictures division of MSM

    Last year, Star India had elevated Pantvaidya to head its flagship Hindi general entertainment channel Star Plus as its general manager. Prior to this, Pantvaidya was heading Star India’s Marathi GEC Star Pravah.

    Pantvaidya had joined Star Group in November 2009 as MD of Fox Television Studios India. Later he was moved to Star Pravah as EVP and GM.

    Prior to that, Pantvaidya has worked with Balaji Telefilms, BBC Worldwide, Disney and Sony Entertainment (now Multi Screen Media).