| If Sharma goes off Star News, another celebrated TV
personality, Vinod Dua, comes on air with a special election-related
package being branded Kaun Banega Mukhyamantri (KBM). Five
states of India, including Delhi, are going to polls towards the end
of this year.
Confirming the news to indiantelevision.com today, Star News president
Ravina Raj Kohli said: "Rajat's contract would come to a natural
end by October-end. Vinod has already started making appearances
on the election related special package as a guest anchor."
According to Kohli --- who spoke today to indiantelevision for
a free-wheeling interview on the Star News channel's future plans
and the existing controversy regarding uplinking --- with the type
of budget that she has, Star News "cannot afford" to outsource
news bulletins.
"I am not saying we are stopping outsourcing (of current affairs
programmes) altogether, but with the type of budget that I have,
Star News might as well produce Aaj Ki Baat type bulletins
in-house now."
When contacted by indiantelevision.com, Sharma refused to comment
on the issue. But the industry buzz is that the man, who along with
Subhash Chandra, set up the whole news operations of Zee (later
hived off as a separate channel) in the mid-90s, is slated to come
out with his very own news and current affairs channel later this
year, or early next year. Sharma did not comment on this too.
Though Sharma would no more be seen on Star News from later this
year, Aaj Ki Baat as a programme would continue to be on
air as Star has the right over the brand name, Kohli said. Star
News' news director Sanjay Pugalia, who has started making appearances
on telly, is tipped to host Aaj Ki Baat after Sharma's exit
from the show.
Sharma's exit from Zee had been acrimonious at a time when Chandra
took on Rupert Murdoch and bought out his shareholding in three
joint ventures, including Siti Cable in a cash-and-stock deal worth
about $ 300 million some years back.
After leaving Zee, Sharma had started a format of his now-famous
Adalat programme on Star Plus and later came up with Aaj
Ki Baat, a news show that was shifted from Star Plus to Star
News when the former decided to turn a complete entertainment channel.
Meanwhile, Dua would be involved with Star News for election-related
programming, which is being marketed aggressively by Star News under
the brand name KBM that does sound similar to the super-duper
successful Kaun Banega Crorepati of Star Plus.
"We are airing special (weekly) packages of 30-minute duration
of Kaun Banega Mukhyamantri at the moment, but as time goes
by and elections draws near, the programme would be ramped up to
be a daily show," Kohli said.
Till sometime back, Dua was the advisor to the news channels project
of the Subroto Roy-promoted Sahara group. He quit citing reasons
of "redundancy" at Sahara. Along with NDTV's Prannoy Roy,
Dua in the late 1980s spun sheer visual magic on air on India's
national broadcaster Doordarshan as a team in programmes related
to elections and the annual Budget.
Asked whether Dua's involvement with Star News would continue even
after the state elections till the slated general elections in 2004,
Kohli said it was an issue that has not yet been looked into.
"We may continue with Vinod, we may not. That aspect is still
being looked into. Anyway, Vinod is a professional with whom we
would like to keep the association going," Kohli said.
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