GECs
‘Code Red’, a darker shade of humanity
MUMBAI: A crime thriller has always been sold like hotcakes. And it stands true to television as well. The genre has been a potboiler for the general entertainment space for a long time now.
While serials like Byomkesh Bakshi (1993), Karamchand (1980s) and Tehkikat (1994) on Doordarshan laid the ground for fictional crime shows, a more advanced form appeared in the reproduction of real life crime incidents in shows like India’s Most Wanted (Zee TV, 1999) and Crime Patrol (Sony, 2003).
Along with a plethora of fictional crime series, a dramatised real life crime depiction has also gained traction over the years; CID’s run on Sony for 17 years justifies the popularity of the genre.
Following the trend set by the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs), youth channels too took the same route. Channel V got Gumraah to focus on youth-based crime incidents in 2012.
The only channel which hadn’t dabbled in the genre was Colors. Realising the importance, after six years of existence, it is finally launching a finite reality series christened Code Red with a tagline ‘Andhere me Umeed Ki Ek Nayi Kiran’.
The first promo hit the television screens on 13 December and showed popular actress Sakshi Tanwar advising people to raise voice rather than suffer in silence.
The show will focus on social issues like suicide and crime against women and children. Sources close to the development say, “The motto of the show is to spread awareness and bring to forefront the crime against women and children in the society.”
Though the channel tags it as not a crime series, sources say that it will give a broader outlook that would deal with crime and its different components. “It is going to be a very different show than what viewers have seen on television till now. It is a reality show where every episode is going to give out a message of not giving up and to fight back,” says a source from the channel.
The show is a joint venture of Fremantle India, Optimystix and Shlok Entertainment, a production house helmed by three eminent people – directors of Crime Patrol, Subramanian S Iyer and Neeraj Naik along with prominent actor and anchor Anup Soni.
Launched as a daily format, it will air for six days a week. The three production houses will helm two episodes each every week.
Penned for a limited number of episodes, it is set to launch in January 2015.
GECs
EPIC Company unifies all brands under single EPIC identity
IN10 Media rebrand aligns TV, digital and films into one ecosystem
MUMBAI: The EPIC Company, formerly known as IN10 Media Network, has announced a sweeping brand consolidation, bringing its television channels, digital platforms and content IPs under a single identity, EPIC.
The move is aimed at simplifying the company’s structure while creating a more connected content ecosystem spanning television, digital and films. By aligning multiple verticals under one umbrella, the company is looking to present a sharper, more cohesive face to both audiences and partners.
As part of the transition, several channels have been rebranded to align with the EPIC identity. EPIC will now operate as EPIC TV, while Nazara becomes EPIC Bharat, Filamchi is now EPIC Bhojpuri, Gubbare transitions to EPIC Kids, and ShowBox is reintroduced as EPIC Music. Ishara will continue under the identity EPIC Parivaar, maintaining its core positioning.
The company has also refreshed EPICON, its streaming platform, to reflect a more unified and modern brand experience. The overhaul is designed to improve content discovery and create a seamless experience across platforms.
This consolidation follows the recent launch of EPIC Studio, a unified production arm that brings together Juggernaut Productions and MovieVerse Studio, as the company expands its footprint across films, OTT and television.
The EPIC Company managing director Aditya Pittie said, “As our scale has grown, it has become important to simplify how we operate and how we present ourselves to the ecosystem. This consolidation gives us a clearer, more future-ready structure to partner, invest, and build at scale, while ensuring that for viewers, the experience is more seamless and intuitive.”
With the rebrand, The EPIC Company is positioning itself as a platform-agnostic content network, focused on scale, simplicity and integrated storytelling. By bringing everything under one banner, it is aiming to make its content universe easier to navigate and harder to ignore.
