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Interview
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"I don't see any results in comparing
both of us. She was Ravina and I am Rekha Nigam. You
will just have to wait and see."
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Rekha Nigam, the senior vice president of programming and
production, Sony Entertainment Television, (SET), has joined
just 15 days ago after taking over from former chief Ravina
Raj Kohli. With her confidant and fearless attitude, she has
already given SET a whole new look of 'challenge' that it
lacked earlier. With her new strategies and six new shows
on stand by she is all set to take SET back on top again.
Nigam talks to Nupur Rekhy about her own expertise and the
strengths of SET.
What is
your background and how has it has helped you to get promoted
to take on SET ?
I
started with Everest Advertising way back in July 1979 at
the age of 19. The post actually required someone between
the age of 35 to 45. Getting selected gave me tremendous confidence
and my very first dialogue for Pan Parag (dhoom machade rang
jamade) became a hit and that helped me further.
A creative background and Sanskrit literature base helped
me master many languages as well as express my point of view.
By being bilingual and 21 years in advertising as a copy writer
have helped me reach the place I am in now.
Moving from advertising to television entertainment where
the target is viewership and being in charge of decision-making,
how do you cope up with this change ?
Answering
your first question - the job is much easier here. Because
in advertising you are an intruder so it is much more difficult
to get the attention. You have to scream and say look at me.
In television it's the viewers' choice. You just have to hold
their attention. Anyway advertising teaches you to be creative
and be good at visual presentation.
There is only one rule to learn - Learning to never to take
your audience for granted. As for decision making, yes it
is different from what I did earlier and to this I can only
say that I am a very good student and by making decisions
I have been able to enter the real world which is far more
challenging and powerful. So this is a responsibility which
I welcome.
You have such power over languages. How do you see that as
an upper hand in your profession?
If you only know English when your target audience is Hindi
speaking, then you will not succeed in getting into their
heart and life to present your point of view.
What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of Sony?
Sony
has a great product, good shows that have a lot of variety
and is the pioneer in television making, even though I agree
it is relatively very new. It has great potential. As far
as weaknesses go, I am only 15 days old to comment on it.
But improvement is always required to make it better.
How do you see Adhikari brothers and etc. channel in terms
of competition ?
I have learnt to be always on my toes because the fastest
way to disaster is taking competition for granted. I see every
channel as a competitor.
But you cannot deny the stiff competition coming from Zee
and STAR. Especially for the prime time with KBC and Zee's
SDCK coming. In terms of investment how do you see Sony coping
up to this pressure?
Like I said earlier, I don't see any one particular channel
to be a competitor whether in terms of prime time or otherwise.
I follow an example in my life - when you cannot reduce the
size of a line without cutting or rubbing, you just have to
draw another line that is bigger.
As in terms of investments Sony does have the position and
policies, I would say it is just a matter of decisions.
Compared to Ravina's high SET standard, how do you keep up
to it?
I don't see any results in comparing both of us. She was Ravina
and I am Rekha Nigam. You will just have to wait and see.
Earlier you did thirty-second spots and now you will work
on half an hour to an hour programs. Don't you see a difference
here?
No as a matter of fact when ever I am asked this question
I only say it is because of advertising that I am able to
handle this as in both fields you have to be creative. With
the pressure of thirty seconds only this is much easier comparatively
In terms of strategies you are concentrating more on youth
or family.
Definitely on family. And more over the new Indian family
who loves their own story and like to relate to it with others
and I say that is more demanding because we have to concentrate
more on quality and technicality. To prove this we have six
new shows so watch out.
Lastly if you got the offer to write a script for a movie
will you leave this and be back in movie business.
This is a tempting question but I have my hands full in every
aspect of my life so for now I will only say "jeena yahan,
marna yahan".
Read more Interviews...
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