The only television serial on the life of Maharashtra's warrior king Shivaji - off the air for the last two weeks due to a dispute between the serial's producer director Vinay Apte and national broadcaster Doordarshan - is likely to be back soon.

Apte's complaint is that when Chatrapati Shivaji began airing on 3 June the rate applicable was Rs 840,000 per 30 minutes of broadcast time. Now that the telecast rate has come down to Rs 350,000 per 30 min the deal should be re-negotiated, he says. He has further sought that the show be made a one-hour show as, according to him, the half-hour slot is too limiting.

According to Apte: "DD has already agreed to give me an hourly time slot for which new rates of RS 7 lakhs (700,000) will be applicable. Around 300 seconds of free commercial time (FCT) will be given. But considering the production spend even that is not sufficient to cover costs, he says. What is to be seen is what time slot they can give. We will be re-telecasting the 11 episodes shown earlier in five one-hour episodes, once all the nitty-gritties are sorted out and the time slot is allocated by DD."

 

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