Deceptive appearances of Jassi & Karishma

Cybermedia Research:

Appearances, they say, could be deceptive. How else would you explain plain Jane Jassi's success where Karishma's charisma has failed! Though it might be too early to pass any final judgement, the initial numbers churned out by peoplemeters across the country clearly indicate that Sahara Manoranjan's Karishma: The Miracle of Destiny with Bollywood star Karisma Kapoor in the lead hasn't been able to fire the couch-potatoes' imagination.

However, the dark horse surprisingly, has been Sony Entertainment's new offering Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. A random survey conducted over the last week by a Delhi-based research agency found a big chunk of the people surveyed hooked on to the serial during 9:30-10 pm. Just a week-old on the tube, Jassi's television ratings (TVRs) would take one more week to come out. Karishma, however, has already been handed out the report card. And the score is not at all impressive.

According to the figures released by TAM on Saturday, Karishma opened at 1.01 TVR on August 25, went to its intra-week high of 1.45 on Aug 26, only to fall to 0.48 the next day. And it closed the week at 0.7 on August 27. If comparing these TVRs with Kyunki Saas' 16.5 and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki's 15.75 during the previous week is considered unfair competition, Karishma doesn't come anywhere close to even Kya Hadsaa Kya Haqeeqat (4.23) and Astitva Ek Prem Katha (2.08) either. For the uninitiated, Kyunki and Kahani are the top shows on STAR Plus, Kya Hadsaa tops Sony and Astitva is number one on Zee TV.

Sahara, expectedly, has arguments like "it's too early to pass any judgement on the show", but insiders claim that the team is quite nervous as the channel has placed a big bet on the serial and the stakes are very high. With quite a few top Bollywood stars in its cast, the serial has many firsts to its credit. Sahara has invested around Rs 50 crore in the production. A Sahara spokesperson said the group was expecting a luke-warm response in the first week because of the delayed launch of the show. He hoped the viewership would catch up eventually.

Jassi, on the other hand, has beat Sony's own expectations. A coincidental telephonic survey conducted by Cyber Media during 9:30-10 p.m. last week found 26% of the 418 viewers interviewed watching Sony. STAR Plus has quite popular hourly shows, like Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand (average TVR 13), Kehtaa Hai Dil (11), Sanjeevani (11) and Saara Akash (9) during the 9-10 pm slot and competitors in the past have found it difficult to pull away eyeballs from the channel. But Jassi, despite her less-than-ordinary looks, has managed to win over quite a few STAR loyalists. The latter's monopoly on the tube, though, still continues. As the survey found maximum, or 31% of the viewers glued to STAR, 6% watching Sahara and rest 37% watching other channels.

The Sony team claims to have received similar response from all-India markets in its internal surveys. Says Sunil Lulla, executive VP, Sony Entertainment: "Jassi is a serial with a difference. It's a tested product offering viewers a refreshing change from the predictable love stories and boring family dramas."

Both Karishma and Jassi's launches were preceded by high decibel promos. So why has Karishma, at least initially, bombed while Jassi is buzzing? Is it a case of mismatch between the product and the promoter's image?