Zee
TV draws up new programming lineup of soaps; bids to regain lost
ground
(Posted on 2 February 7:20 pm)
Five
new soaps and a handful of in-house produced shows. That's the
first of Zee TV's artillery as it starts its offensive against
Star Plus and Sony Entertainment. The duo has already stolen quite
a lot of advertising ground from it.
They include: Samander, Aanchal Ke Chaon Mei, Gardish, Ankahee,
Kaise Kahoon. Kaise Kahoon, the first of the five soaps
starts airing on 5 February (Monday to Thursday 3:30 pm), and
is produced by Mona Kapoor. Aashique Rahul Roy makes his
small screen debut with this soap. (Wonder whether his lover boy
image will help attract audiences?)
The story is about two close friends from different communities
whose friendship extends to theri families. The families begin
to drift apart when a narrow-minded female protagonist comes into
the picture. "Effort is taken to blend two communities out of
this serial, the happiness, misunderstanding and sorrow that these
two families undergo due to the narrow way of thinking of a single
female," says Sudha Chandran, one of the leads in the soap.
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Aanchal
Ki Chaon Mein commences from 6 February every Tuesday
at 9.30 pm and is produced by Rakesh Sarang and Mir Muneer.
"The series is the story of a woman torn between the attachment
of her family and her own personal life," says Mir Munner
the serial writer and co-producer.
Slotted for the late night slot are Ankahee (produced
by Manish
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| A
still from Samander, one of the five new soaps |
Goswami; debuts on 21 February, Wednesdays 9:30 pm) and Gardish
(directed by Ravi Rai; 7 February, Wednesdays 10 pm). Ankahee
has Govind Namdeo, Vivek Mushran and Iravati Harshe playing the
leads . Samander by Rajesh Mishra debuts on 8 February
and is to be telecast every Thursday at 10 pm with Kabir Bedi
and the versatile Nikki Aneja starring.
Zee is also introducing a clutch of other in-house programmes.
Lamhe a half-an-hour musical programme with Golden era's
black and white movie songs is slated to air at 7.00 am every
day. Highlight Zee, a 15-minute update of the entire day's
lineup airs all weekdays at 10.30 am. Amrit Kalash, a 30
minute tete-a-tete with successful people from various walks of
life who have achieved their success on their own. Vedic chants,
bhajans and sermons will be interspersed with nuggets of their
views. Directed by Jeetendra Sritava it is scheduled on week-end
days at 6.30pm.
And if this is not enough to add to the programming masti,
it has lined up Chatpati Chaat - a 15 minute programe consisting
of select comedy scenes from Hindi movies (Monday to Friday 10:45
am) and hosted by Bhavna Balsaver.
Will the new programming help Zee TV regain lost turf? For that
it is over to King Viewer, who wields that ominous remote in his/her
hands.
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