GECs
Is supernatural a winning formula for Colors?
MUMBAI: Remember shows like Aahat aired on Sony Entertainment Television, Woh and The Zee Horror Show on Zee TV? Recall those scary faces, the revolting dead bodies, flying furniture and conjured up fires from nowhere with special effects, because that was what was usually ‘patent’ for a horror show? Well, decades after such ‘horror’ shows almost vanished from prime time, supernatural is making a big time comeback on Indian television.
The 90s of the previous century saw a few broadcasters and production houses going gaga over supernatural or horror fiction series, but after a certain period of time the genre was almost wiped off. Now, from Daayans to a shape shifting wolf to Naaginsto Makhi, Hindi GEC has recently witnessed number of aspects of the supernatural element. But only Colors seems to have cracked the supernatural code. It started with Naagin and the trend of supernatural characters after that has become unstoppable.
In the first week of its launch, the weekend fiction show Naagin overtook the top five programmes on Hindi GECs. After breaking records with Naagin, its production house Balaji Telefilm’s is all set to launch a new show Kawach… Kaali Shaktiyon Se also on Colors, yet another supernatural show based on exorcism.
An industry source close to the people involved with Naagin revealed to Indiantelevision.com that the show cost is between Rs 20 – 25 lakh per episode. On the ad rates front, Naagin commands about Rs 1.5 lakh for a 10 second slot. A sources close to the channel informed that the production cost of Balaji’s Kawach has been estimated at between Rs 15-20 lakhs per episode.
Speaking on the success of Naagin Colors programming head Manisha Sharma said, “Series like Naagin are edgy, they move faster and you can experiment with them. They don’t follow the grammar of soaps. We had this 8pm slot vacant and luckily we were the first one to encash it.”
“We are truly a variety entertainment channel. We give audiences soaps like Naagin, comedy shows, reality such as India’s Got Talent and Fear Factor. Our strategy is ‘Let’s put up the variety and be ahead of the game’. We were first ones to do Naagin and we will be first ones to do Kawach. There is a huge bunch of people that watch such shows and we are just trying to open up that market in India,” explained Sharma.
Speaking about the trend, a senior creative director said, “The Makhi element was used in Sasural Simar Ka to increase TRPs’ that eventually didn’t happen. If we talk about Naagin, it is just a revenge story, but it is packed with good content and strong casting. Naagin undoubtedly is a well-crafted story. “
“Supernatural characters have been used by many in their shows, but for some they didn’t work out well. Shows like Vishkanyaand Adhuri Kahani Humari failed to generate positive ratings even after using power packed VFX. Ideas can be supernatural but they need to be well crafted,” said another creative head.
From the ratings it’s clear the Vishkanya launched by Zee TV on 28 March at 6.30 pm time band from Monday- Friday failed to garner positive ratings for the channel. According to the BARC data, in week 18 the show garnered 2029 Impressions ‘000s while in week 19 the channel witnessed a slight hike in ratings with 2107 Impressions ‘000s but in week 20 and week 21 ratings just nosedived with 1648 Impressions ‘000s and 1347 Impressions ‘000s respectively.
On the other hand, another Balaji show on &TV, Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum launched on 26 October at the 9.30 time slot fromMonday- Friday had to include the track of a cursed tiger with supernatural elements to pep up its ratings. In week 18, the show recorded, 1142 Impressions ‘000s while in week 19 and 20 ratings were slightly increased from 1255 Impressions ’000s and 1298 Impressions ‘000s. But again in week 21, the show saw a dip in ratings and recorded 1297 Impressions ‘000s.
Adhuri Kahani Hamari on &TV was about reincarnation also revolved around a snake went off air on 13 May. The show failed to garner positive ratings for the channel. In week 18, the show recorded 726 Impressions ‘000s, while in week 19, the show closed at 1025 Impressions ‘000s.
While speaking with Indiantelevision in an earlier interview, RBNL CEO Tarun Katial had said, “One horror show starts many starts, one crime show starts many others to make them, it’s a trend. People do enough of the genre and then they move to the next one.”
Katial further added, “I think that content is getting more innovative and more lateral. People are thinking of different ways of storytelling. We have to put imagination around this. You know if we were to call Naagin regressive then we should also callVampire Diaries regressive but we watch Vampire Diaries and we don’t call it regressive. All the sci-fi or supernatural that goes around on American television, we don’t call it regressive because it comes from Hollywood.”
“These all are disruptive trends In fact as far as regular story telling goes, every show needs to outshout others so either there is a high point or there is some action or outdoor that happened because when you do something like horror fiction or supernatural you draw lot of attention and if your story telling is strong you retain that attention which then converts into ratings. I think from time to time makers keep doing this to get that spike. But this can be a trap if you are doing things, those things should not damage the credibility of the show,” opined a senior producer.
Whether it is the broadcaster and production house that are producing such creative content just to create the buzz and for high ratings, it has definitely managed to engross audiences. Balaji Telefilms which is famous for all the typical Saas – Bahu dramas and reincarnation love stories is slowly moving ahead with the supernatural mantra.
Colors has already announced that it will come back with Naagin season 2 soon and now it’s Kawach that is all set to scare small screens viewers. These are interesting times and it will be interesting to see that how Colors and Balaji encash their new offerings.
GECs
ZEEL overhauls sales structure to chase growth across TV and digital platforms
New structure sharpens digital push as viewing habits fragment fast
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is reshuffling its sales playbook as it looks to keep pace with a fast-changing media landscape, where audiences are scattered, screens are multiplying and advertisers are following the data.
According to media reports, the rejig is anchored in the company’s push to build a more integrated, data-led monetisation engine, one that can straddle both traditional television and fast-growing digital platforms with equal ease.
At the heart of the move is a reworked sales architecture designed to deliver cross-platform solutions. With connected TV gaining ground and digital consumption surging, ZEEL is aligning its teams to move quicker, think broader and sell smarter.
The restructuring is being led by chief operating officer, advertisement revenue, Sandeep Mehrotra, at a time when the company says it is seeing tremendous growth. The idea is simple: match the right talent to the right opportunity in a market that is anything but static.
As part of the overhaul, several long-serving executives have been elevated to chief sales officer roles across regions and content clusters. Sanjoy Chatterjee will head the east market, while Gunjarav Nayak takes charge of the west along with high-margin verticals such as hmg, brand works, intellectual properties and digital sales. Rajnish Gupta will oversee bengaluru and chennai markets alongside the kannada and tamil clusters.
In other key moves, Divjyot Dhanda will lead hyderabad and kochi markets and manage zee tv, zee keralam and the telugu cluster. Roshan Vasu Kotian will supervise a diverse portfolio including Zee Marathi, &tv, Zee Punjabi, Zee Anmol, Big Magic and Zee Biskope.
The company is also strengthening its bench, appointing national sales heads across retail, regional clusters, digital and brand solutions. Ankur Kapila’s appointment to lead digital sales signals a sharper push into a segment that continues to outpace traditional formats.
Behind the scenes, dedicated strategy and operations roles have been carved out for both linear and digital businesses. Nitin Shetty, Rajkiran Shrivastav and Priya Nambiar will take on key responsibilities to ensure the new structure runs with precision.
The broader aim is clear. ZEEL wants a bigger slice of advertising budgets that are steadily drifting towards digital and connected TV ecosystems. By integrating its offerings, the company hopes to deepen client relationships while unlocking new revenue streams.
The new structure takes effect immediately, with Mehrotra continuing to report to chief executive officer Punit Goenka and steer the company’s advertising revenue strategy. Senior executive Laxmi Shetty will support the transition, with her revised role expected to be announced soon.
In a market where content is everywhere but attention is scarce, ZEEL’s latest move is less about rearranging the org chart and more about staying in the game.
