MAM
Star Plus readies return of Nach Baliye after 3 years
MUMBAI: Star Plus is bringing back one of its most popular shows, Nach Baliye, after a gap of three years.
Star has roped in Vaseline as the presenting sponsor for the fifth season of the big-ticket reality hunt property.
Nach Baliye will have 11 real-life television celebrity couples fighting it out in the dance floor to win the favour of the audiences as well as judges.
Starting 29 December, the show will air every Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm. At present, the channel airs two of its fiction shows in this time zone.
The show will compete against Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Colors’ Bigg Boss 6 and Sony Entertainment Television’s Kaun Banega Crorepati-6.
Mindshare principal partner- client leadership Anita Kotwani feels there might be a fragmentation of audiences, but Nach Baliye has an opportunity to do well as it has no direct competition . “The show has a legacy in its favour and the format is unique as it is all about the chemistry between real life couples. Also, there are currently no other dance shows on air. So it does not face any direct competition with the other reality content in that sense. However, the other reality show formats are established properties and have their share of fan following. So it will be interesting to see how it goes, ” she says.
ZenithOptimedia SVP Navin Khemka also expects Nach Baliye to deliver. “Star Plus is coming up with a reality show after a long time. Since Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa did decently well, we are expecting Nach Baliye to work well too. And though it will compete with Bigg Boss and KBC initially, both of them will go off-air. So the slot has good prospects,” he says.
Nach Baliye will end just before Indian Premier League starts. “So it’s a good option for brands and we are looking at investing in the property,” avers Khemka.
The show will be produced by Frames Production Company and hosted by Karan Wahi and Gautam Rode. It will be judged by Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Sajid Khan and Terrence Lewis.
The essence of the show is that when a husband and wife join hands to forge a partnership of equals, the power of the duo becomes unbeatable.
Comments Star Plus general manager Nachiket Pantvaidya, “Star Plus has been a pioneer in introducing innovative non-fiction formats on Indian Television. Nach Baliye, as a property, has always been very popular with the viewers and we are confident that its return on a exciting and bigger scale will be something they will really enjoy. Weekends are all set to get more entertaining with the return of Nach Baliye.”
The contestants of Nach Baliye 5 include Rahul and Dimpy; Jay and Mahhi; Kushal and Elena; Deepshikha and Kaishav; Ravi and Sargun; Suhasi and Jaisheel; Amar and Charlie; Shefali and Parag; Smita and Ankush; Karan and Nisha; and Arvind and Neelu.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
