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Tag: Suron ka Eklavya

  • What’s exciting Gajendra Singh about his new shows on DD

    MUMBAI: There’s a lot of excitement in Gajendra Singh’s voice. Most of us know him as Gaj – the creator of the super-successful musical formats on Zee TV — Antakshri, SaReGaMa in the early part of the cable and satellite TV revolution.  Today, as the founder of production house Saaibaba Telefilms, Gaj  is quite gung-ho about his  new show that is making its debut on the national pubcaster Doordarshan.

    Titled Suron Ka Eklavya – it’s intention is to find singing talent in an interesting format which seeks reversion to retro songs of three singing legends – Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi – with the help of well-known music directors  Bappi Lahiri, Jatin Pandit and Ismail Darbar, who will serve as mentors to the contestants.

    “Music has been my forte and  I have always endeavored to produce innovative shows. The idea is to build a bridge between the old era and the young generation,” says Gaj.  “Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd Rafi and Kishore Kumar are the pillars of film music, and therefore, even today, their songs and music are a reference point for the new generation. This show will present the songs in their signature styles but with fresh voices and innovative performances.”

    Launched on World Music Day, ‘Suron Ka Eklavya will begin  airing on Doordarshan from 29 July in the 8-9pm time slot on weekends.

    Gaj says it has taken his production house close to a year to get his show on air. “We went through the bidding process,” he says. “We were shortlisted and had to pass all the criteria that Doordarshan asked us to. And, I am happy to have got this far.”

    Suron Ka Eklavya will feature three teams which have been labeled as gharanas (houses) –  Lata Mangeshkar Gharana, Kishore Kumar Gharana and Mohammad Rafi Gharana. Contestants will sing old songs in fresh voices retaining the signature style of the respective legends with the help of their mentors and will be judged on their craft and talent. The tagline of the show is: “Andaaz Wahi Awaaz Nayi” (Retaining the style, but in a new voice).

    Going forward, Suron Ka Eklavya will also witness celebrity guests including both, actors and musicians. The production house is in talks with singers such as Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan.

    The 52-episodic talent hunt has been conceptualised by Singh and will be directed by Ashok Singh. The set has been executed by Bhavik and Munna.

    The title track of Suron Ka Eklavya  has been sung by Shaan and Anwesha, the lyrics have been penned by Swanand Kirkire and the show will be hosted by the young and dynamic Abhas Joshi.

    Filming is on at Mumbai’s Filmalaya Studio with a 15 camera set-up. “We are not maintaining a bank of 15- 20 episodes as we will be shooting live and editing on the fly and in post thereafter every week,” says Singh. “We have created a wonderful set with the best lights,  music and technicians, and have invested around Rs 2-3 million in audio, so  that we can get the best acoustics.”

    And what’s good is that Gaj is on the way to recouping his investment of around Rs 450,000 per weekly slot on DD National and production cost of Rs 2.5 million per episode. Indian Oil Corp has come on as a title sponsor whereas Vicco has come in as associate sponsor.

    “The powered by slot is yet open and we are also looking for other associates as well,” says Gaj.

    He reveals that Saaibaba Telefilms is also working on another fiction show MBA Sarpanch which is a biopic of Chhavi Rajawat who left her corporate job and city life to help develop rural India. She became the sarpanch (head of a village administration) of Soda, a village 60 kilometers from Jaipur, Rajasthan. Her grandfather Brig Raghubir Singh had been the sarpanch of the same village 20 years before Rajawat’s election.

    The  half hour show is slated to launch in August and will aired at 7:30 time from Monday – Friday on DD. It has been written by veteran Shanti Bhushan, and has been directed by Sanjeev Chadda who as done a couple of shows with Balaji Telefilms.

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  • Doordarshan slots Rafi, Kishore & Lata tribute show from Sat

    NEW DELHI: Just over six months since Doordarshan declared the results of the prime time auctions for DD National in December, the first of these programmes is finally all set to go on air. Commencing on 24 June, the unique music reality show ‘Suron ka Eklavya’ will be telecast every Saturday and Sunday from 8 pm to 9 pm.

    The show has been produced by the multifaceted media company Saaibaba Telefilms which had won slots, as did Balaji Telefilms.

    While Balaji won four slots, Saai Baba Telefilms bagged two. Saai won the bids for 7.30 pm to 8 pm from Monday to Friday, and 8 pm to 9 pm on Saturday and Sunday. As the RFP (request for proposal) document had made it clear that no party could bid for more than three slots in a week, DD sources told indiantelevision.com that Balaji had to surrender one of the slots it won in the bid.

    ‘Suron ka Eklavya’ will mark a tribute to the three pillars of playback singing – the legendary — Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, and Lata Mangeshkar with gharanas named after them.

    The concept of the show is to present the gems of Bollywood music from the golden period of Hindi music with fresh voices retaining the signature style of the legends. The weekly show will feature the best of the industry and will engage the audience with spell bound music, anecdotes, interaction with judges and much more.

    The show has a mixed bag of young talent, veterans from the fraternity, and stunning sets making it visually appealing. The contestants will be groomed and nurtured for their future music careers by celebrity mentors.

    While there are many music reality shows, Suron ka Ekalavya is expected to stand out with its innovative and unique format, details of which will be revealed soon. Link for the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWZ8lnQZbJg

    In the auctions held and for which results were announced in the second week of December last, no bids were received for three slots: 10 pm to 10.30 pm and 10.30 to 11 pm from Monday to Thursday and the 7pm to 8 pm slot on Sunday.

    After two failures at auctions in 2016, Doordarshan had after a Prasar Bharati Board meeting in October last announced a series of concessions once the programmers come on board, including lowering base price for a 30-minute slot to Rs. 150,000.

    Earlier this slot had been fixed at Rs 250.000 when the auction was first announced in June last year and was further decreased to Rs 200,000 when the new date was set for a second auction in early September 2016.

    Producers/production houses that have produced at least 200 hours of general entertainment programming, including feature film productions in any Indian language in the last three years, and have a turnover of minimum Rs 30 million per annum in the field of TV and film production in the last three financial years are eligible to apply.

    Applicants for weekend slots in the genres of reality, game and quiz were required to have produced 100 hours of such content in the last three years. However, DD sources said that certain changes had been made for successful bidders to promote their programmes.

    Successful bidders will now also be allowed to approach and obtain advertisements from public service undertaking for their programmes on Doordarshan, which was not permitted earlier. Doordarshan has also laid down a compulsory number of promotional commercials, which will be free, on various channels of Doordarshan network.

    In addition, successful bidders will be allowed to ‘bank’ their free commercial time. That is, in case a successful bidder has not exhausted the number of promotional commercials (totalling 240 seconds) permitted before the telecast of a particular programme, the balance can be used as and when the programme picks up in popularity.

    The exit option has also been relaxed: in case a producer decides to opt out of the scheme, he will need to give only 45 days notice instead of three months. The lock-in period for this has also been reduced from one year to six months.