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Balaji Telefilms launches two new soaps with NDTV Imagine https://www.saveondish.com/forum/balaji-telefilms-launches-two-new-soaps-with-ndtv-t-9023.html

NDTV images joins hands with Balaji Telefilms

October 13th, 2008

NDTV Imagine today announced that Balaji Telefilms will produce a prime-time daily on the channel. The creative team of NDTV Imagine and Balaji Telefilms have had a successful relationship in the past, creating some of the most popular and highly rated shows on Indian television.

The show which will air at 10.30 pm is a daily prime time drama and is slated to go on-air in a couple of weeks.

Announcing the association with Balaji Telefilms, Shailja Kejriwal, EVP- Content, NDTV Imagine said, "We are delighted to be working with Ekta once again. She has a great understanding of the pulse of our viewers and together we will create stories that will refresh and delight our audience. It is also quite a coincidence that the first time we interacted with Ekta was for the 10.30 pm slot, just like this one."

Adds Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms, "This is like home coming; to be back working with Sameer and Shailja. They are the ones who gave me my first break and I treat them like my bosses. I am pleased to be working with them again as they give me all the support and freedom and I will work with the same passion as I used to earlier".

About NDTV Imagine
NDTV Imagine is the new entertainment initiative from NDTV Ltd. Spearheaded by Sameer Nair, the company has planned strategic forays into key businesses in the media and entertainment space. Ace director and producer, Karan Johar is a creative consultant and brand ambassador of this initiative. This is further strengthened by the experience of Dr. Prannoy Roy and other seasoned professionals. The company launched its Hindi General Entertainment channel, NDTV Imagine on January 21st, 2008, which promises to 'Entertain and Delight' audiences with a whole new world of Hindi entertainment. Catering to the needs of the entire spectrum of television viewers, the channel offers a wide variety of fresh programming across genres ranging from light-hearted family soaps to period dramas and from music based shows to the most glamorous events of the industry. As part of its larger plans for this dynamic and exciting business, the company has also recently launched NDTV Lumire, an initiative which will bring contemporary cutting edge world cinema to discerning Indian audiences.

About NDTV
NDTV Ltd, founded in 1988, is India's largest news and infotainment network. It is home to the country's best and brightest reporters, anchors, camerapersons and producers; 23 offices and studios across the country host India's most modern and sophisticated production, newsgathering and archiving facilities. NDTV has an unmatched track record of successfully launching three news channels in India and two abroad: NDTV 247 is a clear leader in the English news segment, NDTV Profit, a 24-hour business plus channel, is India's number one business news channel, NDTV India is amongst the country's leading Hindi news channels, and NDTV MetroNation is fast emerging as one of the most watched city specific channels. It is credited with pioneering several broadcasting and programming initiatives in Indian television and has expanded into one of the nation's biggest broadcasting houses by growing beyond news broadcasting and venturing into non news verticals.

NDTV Networks, a subsidiary of NDTV was incorporated to seize opportunities in areas 'beyond news'- entertainment, lifestyle, media technology and outsourcing. NDTV Good Times is the leading channel in the lifestyle space. NDTV Astro Awani in Indonesia became the leading news channel within three months of its launch. As an organization, NDTV is committed to one cause: to use its extensive expertise, technology and reach to create unparalleled coverage of the latest in domestic and international news, sports and entertainment for viewers at home and around the world. For more information visit www.ndtv.com <https://www.ndtv.com/> -(SAMPURN)

https://www.realbollywood.com/news/2008/10/ndtv-imagine-to-introduce-a-new-prime-time-daily-produced-by-balaji-telefilms.html

Old relationship, new beginning? ALChougule
Posted online: Jan 16, 2009 at 1439 hrs

: NDTV Imagine launches two back-to-back Balaji shows in the 10 to 11 pm slot. Will it spawn the magic of Kyunki.. and Kahaani.. which was a result of creative association between Ekta Kapoor and Sameer Nair when he was at Star?
Keeping its promise of being imaginative, creative, fresh and different, NDTV Imagine began with a mixed bag of programming line-up that included action, adventure, music, dance, mythology and closer-to-life dramas. That was a year ago, January 21, 2008, to be precise. What was conspicuous by its absence was the a Balaji show on Imagine's prime time. At the time of launch Imagine's CEO Sameer Nair had said that Balaji will make some exciting shows in the latter part of 2008. It didn't happen though. Finally a year after its launch, Imagine begins its association with soap queen Ekta Kapoor with two back-to-back shows in the 10 to 11 pm time slot. "As we enter the New Year, it's time to make way for new experiences. The creative association of talented individuals that spawned a series of memorable and blockbuster TV shows will now unveil two great tales yet again," goes the press release. Obviously the reference is to the Star-Balaji (read Sameer-Ekta) alliance that led to a plethora of successful K shows which ruled the roost on prime time television for almost seven years. Probably both Sameer and Ekta are hoping to repeat the magic of their earlier successful association with Bandini and Kitni Mohabbat Hai which will premiere on January 19. In recent months, daily soaps have moved away from the conventional form of story-telling of the last eight years. By and large, aspirational programming - read larger-than-life, dreamy and heightened dramas of black and white characters and illogical happenings - has got thumbs down. Keeping with the new trend, Ekta's Bandini also promises to break away from the cult of conventional soaps. A tale of a young girl who is forced into marriage of convenience with an elderly man twice her age, the show traces the journey of Santu and her tryst with destiny. Set in rural Gujarat, Bandini is a volatile saga of age, class and caste divide with newcomer Aasiya Kazi as the young Santu and Ronit Roy as Dharamraj Mahiyavanshi, a self-made, egoistic and obstinate diamond merchant. If Bandini is a rustic saga of pride, greed and deceit targeted at family audience, Kitni Mohabbat Hai is an urban love story of Arohi and Arjun, two completely opposite individuals who think and behave differently. Arohi hails from the picturesque valley of Panchgani and is a vivacious young girl who believes in the power of love, while Arjun is a cool and clam Casanova who dislikes women and refuses to believe that 'someone somewhere is made for you'. It is a passionate story of loving, losing and living set against the backdrop of music which, according to Ekta, is for the young and young at heart viewers. "It has different colours of romance and love. Though it has issues of ideologies, it is essentially a fun show," she adds. Ekta is not only pleased with the line-up of her two shows on Imagine but is equally excited to be back with a 10 to 11 pm time band. Obviously she is nostalgic about this late prime time band where she tasted amazing success with Kyunki and Kahani and created history. But Kyunki and Kahani came at a time when there were only three general entertainment channels. Today there are as many as seven GE options and around 72 shows competing for eyeballs. Also, Imagine doesn't have a show like KBC to funnel viewers into late prime time to sample Bandini and Kitni Mohabbat Haias the case was with Kyunki and Kahani. Ekta knows pretty well that it's not going to be easy to relive or repeat past magic when some of her on-air shows are struggling for ratings. It is probably why she blames the media for calling her 'television czarina' or the 'queen of TRPs'. "I did my work to the best of my ability but the media gave me over credit for everything," she chuckles. Call it modesty or a shrewd way of passing on the blame to others when the ship is not sailing smoothly, Ekta knows it is better to talk less about TRPs. "I don't know why the ratings are bad," she shrugs. What's quite difficult to fathom is how the 'queen' of television fiction who 'knows' the pulse of audience has no clue why her shows are not delivering numbers. "Let's not compare yesterday with today or tomorrow," she pleads. The past may be perfect and present bit uncertain but Ekta is quite excited about working with old buddies Sameer and Shailja Kejriwal (Imagine's executive vice president, content) with whom she enjoys comfort level and creative freedom. Ask her why she didn't make a single show for Imagine for one year and Ekta says she didn't have a slot. "I started talking to Sir (Sameer) in August and after that things started moving," she adds. However, according to Sameer, Ekta couldn't make shows for Imagine because she was under an exclusive contract with Star. " She could make shows for rival channels only for the 9 pm slot. At the time of Imagine's launch she already had shows on Zee and Sony at 9 pm. So we decided to wait. Now that the contract doesn't exist we are re-launching our 10 to 11 pm band with Ekta's shows," he explains. Imagine had a decent launch with 55 GRPs. It did pretty well for the first few months and also made it to the third place in the GE space before losing steam. Since the past six months it's been performing average as fifth or sixth GE channel. "A lot of things happened in 2008. IPL was a big surprise and an unexpected success which came just three months after Imagine's launch. A new channel entered the fray a few months later and then came economic slowdown and workers' strike. But the year was good for us as without going overboard on budgets and indulging in stunts we delivered reasonable numbers," says Sameer. He doesn't think programming has changed much.

"Nothing has changed. Programming evolved and ended in a certain way. That's perfectly natural. What's Ghajini? It's nothing but a Badle Ki Aag kind of formula film of the '80s. But it's a well made and well-told story. Innovation is the key word. What's Balika Vadhu? It's a saas-bahu show. But it's well-made and well-told and I am glad that it has proved that a well-made story can break new ground," says Sameer who is confident that 2009 is going to a good year for Imagine. Bandini and Kitni Mohabbat Hai are just the starters. Main course is yet to come. In the next three months as many as five new shows will be launched. With Jassuben moving on to weekends and Red Chillies' weekend sitcom Ghar Ki Baat Hai slated for telecast in another two weeks, Imagine will also get its weekend band in place.

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www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=3cbca208-00a5-4f2c-869d-9be76d98ccc1

Edited by bones88 - 21 January 2009 at 4:28am