ITV

Tag: Ranjeet Thakur

  • Star Plus targets common man with ‘Dance +’

    Star Plus targets common man with ‘Dance +’

    MUMBAI: From dance battles to face-offs, Star Plus is all set to find new dancing stars across the country. An open stage forum for solo, couple and group performers, Dance + (Dance Plus) aims to be a hard core dance reality show.

     

    The new talent hunt is produced by Frames Productions.

     

    According to Frames Productions founder Ranjeet Thakur, dance is a much loved genre in India for everybody. After the star studded dance show Nach Baliye (currently on-air), the channel wanted to target the common man. It can be recalled that in the year 2013, the channel had tried its hands with a common man’s dance programme in India’s Dancing Superstar (IDS).

     

    “After IDS, Star wanted to re-format a little, jazz it up in a different style and this is how Dance + was born. We came up with the idea of doing the show wherein solos, duo’s and groups will be performing with mentorship,” explains Thakur.

     

    The makers have roped in talented choreographer Remo D’Souza who will don the hat of a super judge. Moreover, the show will have three mentors Dharmesh Yelande, Shakti Mohan and Sumeet Nagdev who will be guiding and teaching the contestants and choreographing the act. “The idea was to have a dance show which would blend the dancing talent of a common man with the expertise of the mentor,” asserts Thakur.

     

    Just Dance

     

    The makers have been working on the show for the past one year. “Considering all factors like understanding the market, developing it, understanding the kind of dancers and talent that we can get etc, it has taken us over a year,” informs Thakur.

     

    Thakur believes that it is very important to get talent from across India on a show like this. The talent hunt has traveled to 18 odd cities and reached out to maximum people. This apart, the show also travelled to smaller towns, conducting silent auditions for six months to get the best of talent.

     

    Auditions started from 3 June in Guwahati followed by Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore, Vadodara, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru and Mumbai being the last destination on 28 June.

     

    To top it all, digital auditions were conducted by Frames in-house. “Because we have our own network also for finding talent, we knew our own talent, co-coordinators and people across India. Many people are sending us their dance videos even now,” he says.

     

    The 12-week series will have the channel first airing audition episodes followed by the mega audition episodes. The grand premier will have top 12 contestants divided into three teams (four in each) who will then battle it out for the title.

     

    The show will go on floors in July and will be shot at Yash Raj Studios, Mumbai. It plans to go on-air by end of July or first week of August. 

  • Star packs a punch to celebrate 15 years of ‘Star Parivaar Awards’

    Star packs a punch to celebrate 15 years of ‘Star Parivaar Awards’

    MUMBAI: Star India is leaving no stones unturned to celebrate 15 years of its in-house award ceremony – Star Parivaar Awards.

     

    Fifteen years ago, the network started telling a story, which has until now spun many wonders. Star Plus’ successful awards property Star Parivaar Awards is like a sumptuous platter served for viewers where one gets to watch different forms of entertainment and see their favorite stars sizzle on stage.

     

    This year, the channel is packing a punch to its lineup with a new producer on board for the gala event. Unlike last year, where Cineyug had produced the awards for the channel, this year Frames Productions has donned the production hat.

     

    To celebrate 15 years of the awards, the set design this time round is going to be different from the usual sets seen at multiple award shows.

     

    Frames Productions founder Ranjeet Thakur tells Indiantelevision.com that the sets this time round for the Star Parivaar Awards will be interactive.

     

    Thakur says, “There won’t be a fixed set this year. We are going to change the look, feel and dynamics of the set depending on the demands of the act that will be performed. This year, projection will play a key role in enhancing the entire look and feel of the awards ceremony.”

     

    With almost 45 graphic artists from UK and India working on the awards, the network will be doling out oodles of cash to ensure that top quality graphics are used throughout the show. “It is not a structured or a fixed set like we are used to watching in award shows. Special attention is being paid to the graphics this time round and that costs money,” laughs Thakur.

     

    From shooting the graphics to portraying it on screen, the process took almost four months. “We wanted to ensure that our vision for the look of the show was being realised by each and every one who was working on the Star Parivaar Awards,” states Thakur.

     

    On the content front, Frames Productions has created multiple small gimmicks that will keep the entertainment quotient high. “For the first time ever, we are stringing the show via musical acts. What we are looking at is an interactive LED digital space,” explains Thakur.

     

    Unlike previous years, where set designer Omung Kumar worked on the awards, this year the design is being provided by Kunal Bandola.

     

    A new award category has also been added this year, with the introduction of the special ‘Five Scroll of Honors’ (big achievement of each show).

     

    Moreover, to celebrate the 15 glorious years, Star India has invited some iconic faces, who have been associated with India’s leading GEC over the past 15 years. Some of them include the likes of Smriti Irani, Sakshi Tanwar, Shweta Tiwari and Ronit Roy amongst others.

     

    “To bring alive the magic of 15 years, we are getting popular faces on-board. However, confirmation is still awaited from them,” informs Thakur.

     

    The network also had a jury meeting today in Mumbai to decide 11 categories. Senior Bollywood journalist, writer and film critic Bhawana Somaaya,  Indiantelevision.com group founder, CEO & editor in chief Anil Wanvari, ABP News executive editor Vibha Kaul Bhat, and Cinevistaas writer, producer & creative head Siddharth Malhotra.

     

    Star India SVP network programming and events head Anil Jha (he has been behind the hugely successful awards show every year) took to twitter to thank the jury. “Love the opportunity to meet this August body (the Star Parivaar Awards jury) every year,” he tweeted.   

     

    The Star Parivaar Awards 2015 will be held on 17 May at The National Sports Club of India (NSCI) in Mumbai. The awards will be aired on Star Plus in June.

  • With live audience, Sab sets another landmark

    With live audience, Sab sets another landmark

    MUMBAI: In a country which loves melodrama, comedy had little space until Sab came along. The family channel from the Multi Screen Media (MSM) stable, which can be credited to the rise in the comedy genre with its popular shows Tarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, Lapataganj and Chidya Ghar, is setting new level with Tu Mere Agal Bagal Hai.

    The new sitcom isn’t like any other. What is different this time around is the people. The cast will act in front of a live audience which the channel says will be the USP of the show as it will add an element of spontaneity to the entire humorous offering.

    A first from a general entertainment channel (GEC), its makers didn’t hesitate once before making it a reality. “This is how American sitcoms are shot, and we wanted to go the same way. No one in the GEC space has done this before, like always we wanted to start a trend,” says Frames Productions producer Ranjeet Thakur who is debuting in the genre with the show.

    The star cast will perform in front of 100-150 live audience “without any prompting unlike other comedy shows where audiences are told when to laugh and clap,” adds Thakur who believes that the script is strong enough to get the desired reactions.

    Sab’s latest offering Badi Dooooor Se Aaye Hai broke records, when it opened with 1.8 TVTs highest for any new show across channels. The channel believes that the same can be achieved with the yet-to-go on air show.

    Sab senior EVP and business head Anooj Kapoor says, “Sab’s policy has always been differentiation through innovation.” The fictional comedy series will replace FIR, which will go bi-weekly and will be aired every Saturday-Sunday at 9pm for an hour. With this move, the channel plans to scale up its programming line-up for seven days.

    The channel which showcases the positives in the society also propagates joint family issues and has delivered hits after hits.  The newest entrant will revolve around the lives of the owners and the tenants living under the same roof of Bungalow no. 5.

    The star cast includes actor Alok Nath who will have his first trysts with comedy TV series on the small screen. The rest comprises Rajesh Kumar, Shweta Gulati, Apara Mehta, Ami Trivedi, Samir Shah, Sugandha Mishra, Dhaval, Abhishek Awasthi, Monica Castelino and Sukesh. It will also see actress Supriya Pathak back on television after ‘Khichdi.’

    The channel’s business head has been vocal about the late development of the genre in the country and limited pool of talent in the industry. However, he is thankful to theater which has produced many talented actors. “Be it Hindi or regional theatre, we are getting a lot of talented actors from there,” he says.

    Agreeing with him, Thakur adds, “Casting sometimes does get difficult because you want people with a certain flare and not just comedians on the show. It was a bit of a hassle at the initial stage, but then eventually we managed to get the right people on board.”

    It took six months for the makers’ from planning the show to its execution. As of now, 20 episodes have been canned with the set being located at SJ Studio, Andheri.

    The show will be promoted through a 360 degree marketing campaign. The pan-India OOH campaign comprises hoardings across 50 HSM towns, bus shelters etc. The channel will also leverage multiplex audiences by branding at key touch points.

    Apart from that, a three-week long campaign is being planned for news, youth and movies channels. A national print campaign with leading publications will be seen for over these weeks and more than 15+ regional publications will have daily inserts.

    There are also plans for tying up with major radio stations. The recent popularity of Alok Nath in the social media will be used on mobile and digital platforms to promote the show. The channel also plans to undertake a multi-city tour with the stars.

    Media planners believe that comedy as a genre is increasing and broadcasters are cashing heavily from the space. “Broadcasters are not shying to spend on the genre anymore as it has become a trend. Sab owns the genre, but hope the new show gets good numbers for the channel.”

  • Another TV executive bites the TV producer bullet

    Another TV executive bites the TV producer bullet

    MUMBAI: With the general entertainment genre getting hyper-competitive, the demand for out of the box content is exploding. And nobody understands the needs of a channel’s creative and executive producers than somebody who has worked there before.

     

    Hence, it is no surprise that executives from channels are leaving their relatively comfortable jobs to turn entrepreneurs or partnering with producers as creative producers. Saurabh Tewari (Nautanki Films, Colors), Ranjeet Thakur, Hemant Ruparel (Frames, formerly with Zee TV), Bimal Unnikrishnan (India Dancing Superstar), Siddhartha Tewari and Vikas Seth (formerly with Sony). The latest to do so is Vaibhav Modi, formerly with Endemol and later Star Plus as non-fiction programming head.

     

    He put in his papers in September 2012, and set up his own production house calling it Bolt Media. His initiative is being funded by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms and hence it is being talked about as its subsidiary. Modi has taken along with him an old Star hand Rajkamal Patra as commercial head and has hired a team of creatives, production professionals and writers on a project basis.

     

    The production house has already wrapped up eight ad films for Kissan which were aired in March 2013 and featured Punar Vivah’s Kratika Sengar. Now it is working on two fiction shows one of which is in the mythological genre and the other in the historical documentary drama space

     

    Modi is loath to reveal any further details on the shows. All he was willing to say was that “Bolt Media was incorporated to independently create and produce cutting edge TV concepts across mainstream and regional television. We will be covering genres like youth, humour, neomythology, reality, scripted reality, factual entertainment besides exploring branded content like digital brand solutions and short form programming. We are also looking at creating intellectual property like TV formats, events and digital content. “

     

    Going by how other TV-broadcast-executives-turned-entrepreneurs have fared in the past, expect Modi to notch up success.