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Sony, MTV in together ‘@ Fame Gurukul ‘
MUMBAI: Fame Gurukul @ MTV. Before lawyers out there start licking their chops, a clarification. The music channel has NOT stolen the idea of SET’s latest reality show Fame Gurukul. What it has done is stitch together a programming and promotion deal with Sony.
Buoyed by the success of its big ticket reality show Indian Idol, Sony is pushing its new offering in the genre in all ways possible. Gurukul is slotted on SET at 8:30 pm Monday to Friday.
Quizzed on the tie-up, MTV marketing director Vikram Raizada said, “MTV believes in providing platforms for people to exhibit their talents. MTV stands for music and Fame Gurukul is essentially tilted towards music. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to tie up.”
Fame Gurukul @ MTV launches 11 July on the channel. The show will beam on MTV at 9 pm for 15 minutes from Monday to Wednesday and for half-an-hour on Thursday and Friday.
Raizada points out that everything MTV does is basically based on youth passion. “With our music channel having its finger on their (youth’s) pulse, it makes sense for this marketing/content tie-up.”
Sony’s latest reality talent venture, Fame Gurukul is a show in which, after some auditions, 16 participants were chosen. These young people study in an academy for three months where each of the students will learn the nuances of singing and dancing.
Each student is given a random song that he/she has to practice for a week after which the candidates have to render the song at a show.
At this juncture, the jury checks out each candidate and decides which of the students have to leave the academy or the gurukul.
MTV does its own ‘Gurukul’ spin
Raizada explained that the MTV show is not a repeat of what is shown on Sony, but the music channel’s version of the Sony show with a spin to it.
The high point of the show would be an insight into what’s going on at Gurukul and the contenders who are eliminated will be shown on the MTV show with their reactions and expectations.
Raizada feels that that it’s a good programme because it helps people who have the gift for singing, but do not have the wherewithal to record their music.
“It is ultimately a marketing tie-up and we are looking at having a campaign by the end of the week that will help promote Fame Gurukul on Sony. We are here to build the property,” Raizada explained.
The campaign has been designed essentially to attract eye balls on Sony and MTV and will be used on-air as well as for outdoor promotions. At the end of each episode, Sony will promote the MTV show with a scroll that runs ‘there is ‘more’ to be seen on MTV’.
All characters who appear on Fame Gurukul, including presenters of the show, Mandira Bedi and Manav Gohil (chief of the academy), Ila Arun and jury members Javed Akhtar, KK and Shankar Mahadevan would appear also on Fame Gurukul @ MTV. VJ Sophie would add some zing to the show.
Fame Gurukul is the Indian name for a licensed adaptation of the Spanish reality show, Operacion Triunfo. This Spanish show has been sold to networks in countries including Russia, Italy, Britain, Greece, Mexico, Brazil and Portugal where networks are doing their local versions.
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‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
