Indiantelevision.com Team

(23 July 2009 10:35 pm)

MUMBAI: Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) are leaving no stone unturned to grab absolute viewer attention.

After Color's "Shukriya India" initiative, Zee TV has now rolled out a promotional an on-ground activity for its recently launched fiction show Pavitra Rishta. The show, which will feature protagonists Archana and Manav getting married as part of the storyline, has opened the wedding ceremony to live audiences in the form of an on-ground activity.

The channel has invited its viewers to attend the marriage, on 25 July (to be telecast on the channel on 27 July) and claims to have received more than 50,000 SMS in response from the viewers in three days.

To propagate the initiative, on 18 July, Archana's on-screen mother Savita Prabhune commuted in a local train starting from Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus to Dombivli station in Mumbai, to invite fellow commuters for the wedding. Again on the following day, she visited viewers' homes in different locations of Mumbai.

Along with heavy on-air promotion on all the network channels, radio spots and print media is being used to publicise the wedding. Promos in BEST buses have been bought to invite people to attend Archana's wedding on air.

Says Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd COO national channels and Zee TV business head Nitin Vaidya, "Archana's wedding is one of the high-points of the show and we wanted our audiences to feel a part of it. Hence, creating an on-ground event of the wedding was the best way to directly connect with our viewers."

The wedding ceremony will see participation of Zee TV artists and live performances by the participants of SaRaGaMaPa L'il Champs and Dance India Dance.