GECs

‘Karishma’ pivot for Sahara’s big league push

Published

23 years ago

August 22, 2003

Tent-pole programming — where one or two blockbuster shows are used to hook the viewers and ensure that they stay loyal to the channel just for those one or more programmes.

An oft-used term nowadays but one which certainly applies to the sheer weight of expectations that Sahara TV‘s Rs 600-million blockbuster daily soap Karishma – The Miracles Of

New CEO Sushanto Roy with Karisma – will the actor be Sahara‘s lucky mascot?

Destiny carries with it. Launching on the channel next Monday (25 August) in the 9.30 pm slot, Karishma will lead the charge of a crop of big-ticket items that will launch over the next six to eight months.

And if comments by the heir to the Sahara throne and recently-turned CEO Sushanto Roy are taken at face value, then mid-2004 could well see the biggest blockbuster soap of them all with superstar Amitabh Bachchan in the lead, taking its bow on Sahara TV.

MARKETING BLITZ
But Bachchan is a way off and might or might not happen. In the here and now is Karishma. A huge marketing blitz that industry sources say will cost Sahara an additional Rs 150 million is being planned for the show‘s coming out party around and beyond 25 August.

Fireworks will light up the night sky at select locations across nine key cities, reveals Sahara TV president Satish Menon. If these cities are what used to be earlier termed the Hindi “TRP” cities then it would be Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ludhiana, and Jaipur.

Will the mega scale promos be justified by the performance of the ‘mega series ever‘?

Then there are the tie-ups with retail outlets like Shoppers Stop, Ebony, Food World and D Mart to go with the painted trains and hoardings. After the initial burst of promo activity, the channel will start Karishma Clubs to build loyalty with the show. There will be mementos, coffee table books on Karishma and her lineage, says Menon.

“We are moving away from being a mere FCT provider to being a total solutions provider,” claims Menon. There will be ground level activities specific to geographical areas advertisers want to concentrate on, apart from tie-ups and other promotions.

NUMBER OF BIG-TICKET SHOWS LAUNCHING
Karishma, meanwhile, is not going to be one of those on-and-on-without-an-end serials but will have a finite duration. It will not exceed 262 episodes, channel officials have said. An added attraction is that the soap will feature 52 songs composed by Anu Malik.

Sridevi – Will the former superstar raise the comedy bar on Sahara?

And while it will be Karishma that leads the charge, there are more big-ticket programmes that will be launching on Sahara in the coming months, some with a “filmi” link and some without.

The second big upcoming attraction (with a filmi connection) is Hamari Bahu Malini Iyer featuring former Bollywood Queen bee Sridevi.

This sitcom, which goes on air by mid-October, will be telecast Mondays to Thursdays at prime time, in conjunction with Karishma and is planned for a finite 208-episode telecast. The comedy series, directed by Satish Kaushik and produced by husband Boney Kapoor, has reportedly been extensively re-shot.

Launching before the Sridevi show however, is Sagar Productions‘ Arzoo Hai Tu. The daily soap involves a love

triangle with Mohnish Behl, Aman Varma and Mrinal Kulkarni playing the lead characters. Arzoo…, which was initially slated for launch on 11 August, will now premiere on 1 September (a week after Karishma‘s first relaunch episode). The idea is that all new shows coming on Sahara should benefit from the pull that Karishma is expected to provide.

Mohnish Behl in Aarzoo Hai Tu

Soap factory Balaji Telefilms is also launching a soap on Sahara. It will be titled Kuch Kehna Hai Mujhe.

And if the queen of the daily soap Ekta Kapoor is on Sahara, so too must the current queen of the weekly soap Aruna Irani. Irani is currently building a bank of episodes for a daily

soap that has been titled Zameen Se Aasman Tak. A minimum of 60 episodes will be built up before the show goes on air, according to channel sources.

Aruna Irani – building on the success of ‘Des Mein….‘

That is not all. There is also the global song and dance championship titled Grooves (anchored by Jaaved Jaffrey) and a comedy show by ace comedian Johnny Lever that are ready and waiting for the green signal from the channel.

Coming back to the “filmi chakkar”, Bollywood sex-symbol turned serious actress Raveena Tandon joins the party by February-March in a period tele-serial Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, based on Bimal Mitra?s novel of the same title. Shooting for the weekly soap is scheduled to begin by mid-October.

The serial, which will be shot in Kolkata to lend an authentic ambience, is being directed by Rituparno Ghosh. Executive producer Pallavi Chatterjee, who has bought the telecast rights of the novel, has cast Joy Sengupta to play the Bhootnath character, while Ayub Khan will play the role of Chhoti Bahu?s debauched, aristocratic husband, reports Mid Day.

Another A list actor who is coming aboard the Sahara programming express is Rani Mukerji, but as a producer, not in front of the camera. Mukerji and brother Raja Mukerji‘s first TV production is set to start rolling for the channel on 1 September. The family drama is titled Pratima and donning the director‘s hat is Ashok Gaikwad, currently wielding the baton for producer-actress Aroona Irani‘s Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand.

Raveena Tandon – following in Karisma‘s footsteps

The series also stars big screen and television actors Anang Desai, Vivek Mushran and Kunika amongst others. If all goes according to plan, it should go on air in the first week of November.

AIM IS TO MATCH SONY BY YEAR-END AND THEN…
“Though our current GRP (gross rating point for television channels) is between 115-120, we should be able to cross Zee‘s GRP of 135 and match Sony‘s GRP of 190 by the end of the year,? Sushanto Roy asserts.

Roy says the marketing blitz around Karishma would kick into motion Sahara TV‘s serious drive into the big league. The positive spill-off from this would also benefit the news channels, he adds.

A penetration target of 66 countries across the world and in 30 million households in India is what Sahara is looking to achieve in the next year or so.

Sahara‘s new tag line is “Manoranjan” (entertainment). The next few months should determine whether the channel can lay claim to the line “Manoranjan matlab Sahara” (entertainment means Sahara) — doffing a cap here to Aamir Khan‘s celebrated ad “Thanda Matlab Coca Cola” (cold means Coca Cola).

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GECs

Sun TV posts steady revenue, profit dips amid rising costs

Published

1 month ago

February 7, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

CHENNAI: It appears there is still plenty of Sun to go around in the Indian broadcasting landscape, even if a few clouds have drifted across the financial horizon. Sun TV Network Limited, the Chennai-based behemoth that dominates airwaves across seven languages, has tuned into a steady frequency for the quarter ending 31 December 2025. While the numbers show a resilient revenue stream, the company’s latest broadcast reveals a few static-filled spots in its profit margins.

For the quarter in question, Sun TV’s total income climbed by approximately 3.31 per cent, reaching Rs 958.39 crores compared to Rs 927.66 crores in the same period last year. Revenue from operations also saw a healthy bump, rising 4.32 per cent to Rs 827.87 crores.

The real star of the show, however, was domestic subscription revenue, which surged by 8.86 per cent to Rs 472.99 crores. This growth highlights the enduring appetite for Sun’s diverse content, which spans everything from daily soaps in Tamil and Telugu to its burgeoning OTT platform, Sun NXT.

Despite the revenue growth, the picture quality of the profits was slightly blurred by rising costs. Eitda for the quarter stood at Rs 409.79 crores, a dip from the Rs 432.14 crores recorded in the corresponding 2024 quarter.

The profit after tax followed a similar downward trend, settling at Rs 316.44 crores against the previous year’s Rs 347.17 crores. Advertisers also seemed to have switched channels slightly, with advertisement revenues sliding to Rs 291.94 crores from Rs 332.17 crores.

Sun TV isn’t just playing on home turf; its sporting ambitions are becoming increasingly global. The network now owns three major cricket franchises: SunRisers Hyderabad in the IPL, SunRisers Eastern Cape in SA20, and SunRisers Leeds Limited in The Hundred (UK).

The foray into British cricket saw the company acquire a 100 per cent stake in Northern Superchargers Limited (now SunRisers Leeds) for approximately £100 million. While these franchises brought in Rs 14.61 crores this quarter, they also incurred corresponding costs of Rs 19.89 crores. Over the nine-month period, however, the cricket business is a major player, contributing Rs 487.64 crores in income.

The company’s bottom line took a minor hit from exceptional items, including a Rs 4.23 crore charge related to India’s new Labour Codes, which consolidated 29 existing labour laws. Additionally, the consolidated results reflect the amalgamation of Kal Radio Limited with Udaya FM, a move that became effective in May 2025 and required a restatement of previous figures.

To keep investors from reaching for the remote, the Board has declared an interim dividend of 50 per cent, that’s Rs 2.50 per equity share. This comes on top of earlier dividends of 100 per cent (Rs 5.00) and 75 per cent (Rs 3.75) declared in August and November 2025, respectively.

With a massive cash reserve and a dominant position in the South Indian market, Sun TV continues to shine, even if the current quarter required a bit of fine-tuning. For now, shareholders can sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

GECs

SPNI hires Pradeep M with responsibility for standards and practices in the south

Published

1 month ago

February 3, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India has hired Pradeep M to handle standards and practices for its southern market, bolstering its compliance bench as content rules tighten across platforms.

Pradeep, who has nearly 13 years in the entertainment media industry, takes on responsibility for content standards in a region that is both linguistically diverse and regulatorily sensitive. His brief spans television, OTT, sports and digital platforms.

He specialises in content review and compliance across shows, commercials, on-air promotions and international feeds, ensuring alignment with broadcast, OTT and advertising codes. He has also handled brand approvals and sponsorship integrations for heavily regulated categories—including online gaming, cryptocurrency, NFTs and lottery brands—offering guidance shaped by fast-evolving rules.

Before Sony, Pradeep worked at Jiostar as assistant manager for content regulation from November 2024 to January 2026. Earlier, he spent nearly seven years at Viacom18 Media, rising from senior executive to assistant manager in content regulation between 2018 and 2024. There he served as a key compliance touchpoint for the network.

His career began on the creative side. Between 2013 and 2018, he worked as executive producer on feature films and television shows, gaining hands-on exposure to production. He also had a stint as a non-fiction show director at Star TV Network in 2017. That mix of creative and regulatory experience gives him a dual lens—how content is made and how it must be managed.

As regulators, platforms and advertisers all tighten the screws, broadcasters are investing more in gatekeepers who can keep creativity within the lines. Sony’s latest hire shows where the industry is heading: in the streaming age, compliance is content’s quiet co-star.

GECs

Colors Gujarati rolls out two new shows from 2nd February

Published

1 month ago

February 2, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Colors Gujarati has unveiled two new prime-time shows as part of its push to strengthen culturally rooted storytelling for regional audiences. The channel will premiere the devotional saga Gangasati–Paanbai at 7.30 pm, followed by the romantic family drama Manmelo at 9.30 pm from February 2.

Inspired by Gujarat’s spiritual and literary heritage, Gangasati–Paanbai: Shyam Dhun No Navo Adhyay draws from the timeless bhajans and poetry of saint-poetesses Gangasati and Paanbai, weaving devotion and human values into a contemporary narrative aimed at younger viewers.

In contrast, Manmelo explores love and responsibility across social divides, tracing the lives of three middle-class sisters whose relationships with three affluent brothers reshape their futures. The show delves into ambition, emotional conflict and the realities of married life, offering a layered family drama.

A Colors Gujarati spokesperson said the new launches reflect the channel’s commitment to authentic Gujarati entertainment that blends cultural values with modern storytelling.