News Broadcasting
SABe TV launches sitcom targeting youth
A day after the Adhikari brothers’ SABe TV celebrated two years on air, the “relief channel” yesterday launched another rib-tickler – Doli Leke Aiyee Hai Dullhaniya.
Directed by Kanchan Adhikari, the serial hopes to strike a chord with younger audiences. The plot revolves around two brothers – Prabhakar and Pradeep – both of whom are opposed to marriage though for different reasons. Prabhakar, the elder one is prejudiced him against women, while Pradeep is a compulsive flirt and hence does not want to settle down.
Imran Khan, Raju Kher, Sunil Tawde, Makesh Thakur & Deepshikha in Doli Leke Aiyee Hai Dullhaniya
Says Kanchan Adhikari: “In the case of a comedy, it is very important that the initial episodes hold up the laughter and concretely establish all characters, hence the first few episodes will focus on Prabhakar’s dilemma – his prejudice against marriage and the attempts of everybody to get him married. Of course, each episode will throw up an interesting incident around this theme. Later on we will deviate towards other aspects.”
Kanchan Adhikari, who has also directed SABe TV’s sitcom Abhi To Main Jawan Hoon and Damini (DD Sahyadri’s top soap), among others, says that even though she likes to work on different genres, she took up Doli Leke because this is the age of comedies and a good comedy tends to keep a viewer rapt more than a soap can.
If the preview of the first episode is anything to go by, SABe TV may well have an ace up its sleeve this summer.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
