Posted:
I am aware this might have been posted before by the poster simply posting the link...however that post was not viewed by many so thought of reopening and posting only the MKAP bits...Apologizes if it has been read beforehand.. š
Vivek Bahl, who had earlier worked with Star Plus as the Executive Vice President and is now associated with the launch and setting up of Mahua Channel, shares the many what, where, how's and why's of daily soaps.
Rangmunch.TV: Pratigya started as a show that was to fight eve teasing and harassment, but ended up becoming a show where the victim married the harasser? What is the logic behind showing something like this?
Vivek Bahl: Since I haven't been with Star on the content for some time now, I don't know where the story is headed right now. We were trying to tell a story involving a girl from an educated middle class family, struggling today in India, and a guy from an uneducated family having much more money because of his contacts, and muscle power. Despite that, for me, he is not a bad guy and neither is his father a bad person even though everyone thinks he is one. The father loves his son a lot and the guy has turned out the way he is due to the way his parents have brought him up in an uneducated society.
The message primarily is about finding education even though the promotion has been about eve teasing, which was designed, keeping in mind the factors that sell in a show. The larger part of Pratigya message is the importance of education which I think is the track they are coming to right now where the husband is trying to work, learn, and study and make something out of his life contrary to what his family has brought him up to be. Through the influence of an educated girl, he is trying to make himself worthy of her. I am saying that money is not everything.
Rangmunch.TV: In an ideal scenario a girl like Pratigya will never marry a guy like Krishna under the circumstances in which he forced her to get married.
Vivek Bahl: I agree, it can be seen as a wrong message, but we had a larger right message in mind. That was tricky for us to pull off as to why she should marry him. At that time, we were clear that whatever he was his love for her was pure. He was bad in the way he had been brought up, he had an attitude and all the wrong habits and everything, but at his heart, the reason why women liked him, was because he always knew that he loved her in a pure manner. He is now learning to make himself better through her love.
Rangmunch.TV: How do you re-invent yourself every now and then to avoid being predictable?
Vivek Bahl: Re-inventing is going to be a key going forward. Few years ago, the channels were very clear about it ' Zee had grounded content, stronger subjects worked for Colors, Star Plus hosted shows with subtle subjects that were more emotional and no high drama. But things are changing and they need to evolve beyond this. Star Plus learnt its lesson when colors went ahead of us. We created a Pratigya, a hard-hitting show. We went beyond that and created a saas-bahu saga like Saathiya, which is presently the number one show. Because we wanted to have variety, we created a next version of Yeh Rishta, since it had become old and there was always the danger of someone coming and hitting it. We came up with Navya. Our experiments like Maryada, an edgy show, Kali, a stronger show haven't worked to that extent. That is okay as long as we continue to experiment. I feel like other channels are still struggling with their vision. No new thoughts coming up and they have become more of followers. It is important to get into the depth of the characters instead of just trying to copy some show.
Rangmunch.TV - What is the sequence you follow once you pick up a concept for the show? Does the production house take it to a channel or vice versa? On many discussion forums, there are debates about how channel did not allow certain things that a production house was keen on. So, what actually happens when a concept is born?
Rangmunch.TV: You have done Star One shows like Dil Mil Gaye, Mile Jab Hum Tum, and have also been partially associated with Geet hui sabse parayi. When we hear that Star One does not have a reach, what does that exactly mean and where does the ownership lie to ensure that it reaches far and wide?
Vivek Bahl: 'A channel does not have a reach' simply means that there are not enough people watching or interested in the content of the channel. It is not about pushing either of the channels ' Star One and Star Plus - to increase their reach. For us both are equally important. Infact, it is more important for us today that Star One works.
TAM (Television Audience Measurement) take two things into account ' Reach and Time Spent. Time Spent is how long people are watching each episode. It is the average amount of time the viewers spend watching a particular episode. Out of 22mins of content, the time spent would be the average number of mins the people being measured under TAM spend watching an episode. For eg., Time spent for popular shows like Yeh Rishta, Pratigya, Balika Vadhu are anywhere between 14 and 16 mins at the most.
And Reach on the other hand is the number of people out of the entire TAM space that are watching it. Sometimes what happens is that, while shows like Geet have an excellent time spent of 12 to 13 mins, they have fewer people watching it than say a show like Balika Vadhu, which despite having a similar time spent has many more people watching it. The low reach of Geet eventually brings its ratings down. Ultimately, the TRP ratings depend on these two factors put together.
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