GECs
Jodha Akbar completes 500 episodes
MUMBAI: Zee TV’s historical magnum opus Jodha Akbar completes a glorious run of 500 episodes and the entire Mughal empire was seen rejoicing and celebrating this milestone on the sets of the show. The show began with a ruthless Mughal emperor Akbar (played by Rajat Tokas) marrying a Rajput princess – Jodha Bai (played by Paridhi Sharma) and traced the journey of how Jodha, with her power of love and humane qualities, softens the hrd edges of the Mughal emperor’s fierce personality. It has followed how two strikingly different personalities fall in love eventually. The show currently focuses on their journey as parents of the adolescent Salim and his iconic love story with courtesan Anarkali and the evil forces trying to work against Emperor Akbar.
The cast and crew of the show called in for a grand celebration on the sets. A cake cutting ceremony followed by a lot of cake smashing saw the actors along with the crew of the show having a blast. It looked like young Salim, played by actor Ravi Bhatia was the favourite prey for all the smashing.
Ruling the hearts of its audiences, the show is one of the most loved costume dramas currently on Indian Television and has been running for over a year now.. With fans in India and abroad, the show has paved its way into the hearts of millions of fans all over the globe, making actors Paridhi Sharma (Jodha) and Rajat Tokas (Akbar) household names.
Sharing her excitement Paridhi said, “”It feels great to have completed 500 Episodes! It requires a lot of hard work, endurance and Jodha Akbar is a unique show with requirements quite different and sometimes trickier than your usual shows. But the show has managed to strike a chord with the audiences since it’s beginning and we all are very happy that we have reached this milestone. I am really grateful to all our fans for showering us with so much love. It’s been a beautiful journey and I hope we celebrate many more such milestones!”
With its gripping storyline, the show has managed to hold the interest of its audience right since its launch. The show will now see the entry of the devious Laaboni (played by Melanie Pais), who with her black magic on Akbar will enter the Mughal palace to wreak havoc in their lives.
GECs
Zee scales syndication with global tie-ups, 350 plus channel MCN
Vertical, dubbed and audio formats boost digital reach
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is giving its content library a fresh passport. The company has stepped up its syndication push, signing global partnerships, experimenting with new-age formats and building a multi-channel network that now spans more than 350 channels.
With the newly secured MCN licence, Zee can manage, distribute and monetise content across leading digital platforms at scale, strengthening its presence in the fast-growing creator and short-form ecosystem.
To keep pace with changing viewing habits, the company is also reshaping its content into formats built for the small screen in your hand. In a tie-up with micro-drama platform Story TV, select titles are being reworked into vertical, short-duration episodes tailored for mobile-first audiences.
Beyond India, the syndication team is widening its global footprint with foreign-language dubbing and regional partnerships across Europe, Africa and Latin America, opening up fresh markets for Indian stories.
Zee is also tapping into the audio boom. It has begun licensing audio remake rights for legacy properties such as Zee Horror Show, with several more titles lined up for audio-first adaptations.
On the digital front, the company has made progress in monetising non-exclusive rights for library films, while converting select shows and movies from horizontal to vertical formats to improve discoverability on short-form platforms.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. business head syndication Vinod Johri, said syndication has emerged as a strong growth lever for the company. He noted that the combination of a large MCN network, global partnerships and new formats such as vertical video and audio is helping build a future-ready engine that extracts more value from the content library.
Together, these moves signal a platform-agnostic approach to storytelling, as Zee repackages, localises and redistributes its IP across geographies, formats and screens, ensuring its catalogue keeps working long after the first broadcast.
