GECs
Sony’s on ‘record’ with C.I.D, a date with Guinness
MUMBAI: It’s all for making a world record! And neither Sony, nor the production house Firework Productions is making any bones about it.
In an attempt create a new world record, C.I.D team shot continuously for duration of 111 minutes (one hour and 51 minutes). While this feat landed them in the Limca book of world record as ‘TV show- longest continual shot’, they are now staking a claim at Guinness records as well.
The special record breaking episode will be telecast on Sunday, 7 November 2004, without a break, from 8 pm to 10 pm C.I.D, which usually airs on Fridays at 10 pm comprises successful long running Friday line up for Sony.
Speaking about the record, SET executive vice president, programming and response, Tarun Katial offers, “We were more than happy to partner with the C.I.D team in their endeavour of creating a gripping, record breaking single-shot episode, thus giving the audiences of the show, a once in a lifetime opportunity to look forward to and treasure for a long time.”
When quizzed on the how the channel plans to cash on this ‘record breaking’ venture, Katial magnanimously offered that not every thing they did was for ‘commercial purpose’.
In addition to the actual telecast, the team has also canned a ‘making of C.I.D’ video, which they will be telecasting on Sony on a later date. The production house is also investing about Rs. 3.5 million in transferring it on film format and sending it to film festivals world over.
A brainchild of the director-producer B P Singh, the episode was shot on a digital video on 8 October 2004 at Lonavala in presence of five dignitaries from the world of media including screen writer Lekh Tondon.
“I had been toying with this idea for about seven to eight months now, but although the failure was assured and the chances to actually making it work were sparse, I had an unfailing support from my team and no constraint budget offered from SET,” gloats Singh.
While making a world record, as the actors chime in, ‘would make any Indian proud’, but for the fickle TV viewer it wouldn’t be anything more than just a news snippet. So the producers Singh and Uppoor zeroed on an action packed thriller and got in a few big names like K K Menon, Raj Zutshi, Avinash Wadhwan, Krutika Desai and Mukesh Rawal.
The original C.I.D cast had to rely on theater -opera techniques to memorise a total of 90 pages of dialogues. But the real heroes had to be the cameraman Nitin Rao, who held the 28 kg camera continuously for 2 hours and ran up and down for three floors of the under-contruction hotel, and the producer Singh who despite the recent by-pass matched Roa step-for-step.
As for the actual episode, SET will be airing five minutes of precursor ‘making video’ followed by the actual airing of the episode. A stop clock will be running on the screen on the screen as a bug.
Although the channel as of now is contented with the record making episode, the producers have put on their thinking caps and are thinking about their ‘mad cap’ venture – probably a three hour continuous shot.
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.
