MAHABHARAT TRP thread last week --8.5 tvm ( no 3 across gec's) - Page 83

Star Plus to scale new heights with Everest'

Filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker is the Writer & Producer of the new fiction show, while AR Rahman has been roped in to provide music

Sarmistha Neogy | Mumbai | September 17, 2014

Star Plus and filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker have come together to launch a weekday property on the channel titled Everest'. The date and time of airing of the show has not been decided yet. AR Rahman has been roped in to provide music for the series.

Everest' is the story of Anjali, a young girl who aspires to conquer her own personal Everest. At the age of 21, she gets a rude shock when she discovers that her father, who she hero-worships, never really wanted a daughter. Faced with the biggest conflict of her life, Anjali is forced to question her very existence. To redeem herself and find a place in her father's heart, she decides to fulfil her father's unfulfilled dream - to summit the greatest and highest of all mountains - Mount Everest.

The channel, in the last few months, has been experimenting with different formats of shows. Its biggest weekday property Mahabharat' recently went off air, and has been replaced by Nisha Aur Uske Cousins'. We asked Gaurav Banerjee, General Manager, Star Plus, whether Everest' will be able to compensate for the absence of a big-ticket property like Mahabharat' and this is what he said, "Both of them are very different and unique stories. However, a lot of young, urban people - who are not the traditional TV viewers - watched Mahabharat'. My belief is that even Everest' will find its unique viewers who will come to the channel to watch the show."

Nikhil Madhok, Senior Vice-President, Marketing & Programming, said, "The marketing plan will revolve around the thought Everybody has an Everest in their life' - something everybody will be able to relate to. The high points of the show would be the great storyline, which is narrated in the context of Mount Everest- it is the emotional story of a girl for whom scaling the distance between her room and her father's room is more difficult than climbing Mount Everest. Secondly, the technology and settings being used are all in an attempt to push the agenda of television forward."

Writer and Producer of the show, Ashutosh Gowariker, said, "Everest' is symbolic of every person who struggled in their life to accomplish something. The crew has been a very integral part of this show and Everest' wouldn't have been possible without their invaluable contribution. Considering the extremely challenging nature of the terrain, the process of making Everest' has forced each one of them to push beyond their own creative, physical and mental fitness boundaries. In a way, this show has been everyone's personal Everest."

"The theme for the title track has been made keeping in mind the scale of Mt. Everest. The show has high impact visual and, now that we have HD and 5.1 sound, audiences are in for a better audio experience. It's a great platform to express music and play around with textures," said music composer AR Rahman.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Originally posted by: Acidic_San

Tfs Megha

I pray SP retelecast SBthis time i will watch without missing even a single epi

Will Ashutosh Gowariker's Everest' help Star Plus scale new heights?

The show is slated to go on air with 104 episodes from November 3, 2014 at 10 PM, replacing Sooraj Barjatya's Pyaar Ka Dard Hai'

Sarmistha Neogy | Mumbai | October 17, 2014

Star Plus has announced the launch of its much-awaited weekday fiction show Everest' which also marks the television debut of ace Bollywood director Ashutosh Gowariker who is the writer and producer of this show. Everest' is slated to go on air with 104 episodes from November 3, 2014 at 10 PM, replacing Sooraj Barjatya's Pyaar Ka Dard Hai Meetha Meetha Pyaara Pyaara' (PKDHMMPP).

Everest' is the story of Anjali, a young girl who aspires to conquer her own personal Everest. At the age of 21, she gets a rude shock when she discovers that her father, who she hero worships, never really wanted a daughter. Faced with the biggest conflict of her life, Anjali is forced to question her very existence. To redeem herself and find a place in her father's heart, she decides to fulfil her father's unfulfilled dream - to scale the summit of the greatest and highest of all mountains - Mount Everest.

The show has brought together some of the finest actors of both television and Bollywood. It launches Shamata Anchan as the protagonist, Anjali Singh Rawat. The stellar cast also includes Suhasini Mulay, Mohan Kapoor, Milind Gunjai, Rajat Kapoor, Kishori Shahane and Manish Choudhary.

Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India, said, "Star India has always endeavoured to bring our audiences innovative content that takes the Indian television viewing experience to the next level. Everest' is another big leap for us in that direction. We are proud to have partnered with a visionary like Ashutosh Gowariker who is one of the most adept storytellers of our country. Everest' is a stunning visual delight and an attempt at presenting something never seen before on television. I am sure that the story of Anjali will resonate with millions in India and inspire them to conquer their own Everest."

Commenting on the reason behind choosing the 10 PM slot for Everest', Gaurav Banerjee, General Manager, Star Plus, said, "This slot is such that it guarantees good eyeballs and as this time band was occupied with PKDHMMPP of Sooraj Barjatya which was going off air, we decided to bring in another big director, Ashutosh Gowariker, with his work Everest' in the same slot."

Everest is presented by Fair & Lovely and co-powered by Godrej Ezee, while Vinod Cookware has signed up as Associate sponsor.

The show has embarked on a 360-degree marketing plan across television, radio and on social media asking viewers #WhatsYourEverest. The channel has also tied up with presenting sponsor Fair & Lovely's Fair & Lovely Foundation' through which select individuals will get monetary and other assistance to conquer their own Everest and fulfil their dreams.

Can Everest be scaled? Hear the experts

Bollywood actors, directors and producers venturing into television have now become common. Most hyped shows with the biggest stars have also fallen flat on their face because of different reasons. Therefore, there are several factors which come into play for a particular show to work. Bestmediainfo.com spoke to a few media planners and production houses to understand if there is any success formula behind a hit show.

Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media Group, India & South Asia, said, "Looking at the promos of Everest', it looks different and interesting. But whether the show will work or not will depend on the stickiness of the content. No matter how big the show is, it has to deliver. We have seen earlier as well that shows with big stars and big directors being launched, but once the initial craze or excitement fizzled out, the shows have bombed. Coming to the question if Everest' will give good ratings, I would say it is better to wait and watch!"

When a show of this stature is being launched on television, there are a lot of expectations from it. On being asked whether Everest' can compensate the absence of a show like Mahabharat', Nayyar said, "Both the shows are of two different genres and they cannot be compared.Mahabharat was enjoyed by a wide gamut of audience owing to its huge popularity and mythological reason. I feel that Everest' can't replace the popularity of Mahabharat, but it will also gradually find its own audience."

After the channel's mega fiction property Mahabharat' went off air in August, the channel has witnessed a decline in viewership. According to Week 40 of TAM 2014 (September 28 - October 4), Star Plus retained leadership position despite losing maximum eyeballs; it lost a maximum of 44 TVMs and recorded a viewership of 549 GTVM with a relative share of 24.81%.

Last year, Star Plus launched its much talked about show Saraswatichandra' which was based on the famous novel by Gowardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. In spite of all the hype surrounding it, the show never put the TRP chart on fire, and that is the reason it was pulled off air on September 20, 2014.

Praveen Sharma, Co-Founder & Director, The Square Peg Films, said, "Expectations are huge like always. Ashutosh Gowariker is a visionary artist, and he would never try making another lousy TV series for the heck of it. His creations have been epic and worth remembering. This one should really take the bar up! Gowariker's name is surely the biggest credibility factor in the show. However, the first few promos and initial episodes will decide the fate of the show."

"Nowadays, audiences know what they want to see, and invest only in the thing they get excited about, and it doesn't matter how much the hype is. We have been witness to that in the past. Big names and faces can only get the initial attention of the viewers. But it is the merit of the content that sustains their interest. Everest' will have to offer something new and unseen to the audience. If not unseen, but at least a well-made and an engaging story to look up to. The audiences may like first few glimpses but it is story that sustains the interest of the viewers," added Sharma.

Explaining the importance of time bands, Sadhana Sanbhag, Media Director at Forecast Advertising, said, "For a show to click with the audience, other than good content it is also very essential in which time slot the show has been slotted. Everest' has been given the 10 PM slot, which falls under the bracket of primetime viewing and therefore enjoys good viewership. One of the reasons why a show like Saraswatichandra' didn't do well is because it was given a 7:30 PM slot, which is too early for viewers. Regional GEC shows also act as competition to Hindi serials. And finally, a show must also have a healthy repeat pattern, which will enable the GEC audience to enjoy the serial at their preferable timing."

The other shows in the competing channels in the same time band are Meri Ashiqui Tum Se Hi' on Colors, Maharana Pratap' on Sony and Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya' on Zee TV.

It is over to viewers. Whether Everest will be scaled by Star will be clear by the end of November.

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p.s.---i am really looking forward for everest. it looks different.