|
While
the delay in Mr Bachchan's films can be easily coped
with KBC with its tight round-the-clock schedules
seems to be in trouble.
In
fact more episodes for the popular game show were
to be recorded earlier this week. AB's illness has
stalled KBC's game plans.
Says
Star's COO Sameer Nair, "What can we do? Such
situations cannot be helped. We'll wait for Mr Bachchan
to recover. We've already recorded episodes to be
telecast until December 24. We'll just space them
out to cover a larger area than originally intended."
What
Star plans to do is to turn the three-day weekend
schedule for KBC into a two-day affair until AB is
back on his feet.
****
|
"That's
right," reveals Nair. "We'll be telecasting KBC
on two days during the weekend, on Fridays and Saturdays,
instead of three days. On Sundays we'll be telecasting a
series of Mr Bachchan's films until he gets well and we
can record the pending KBC episodes. Then we'll immediately
revert to the three-day weekend for the show."
In
the meanwhile, viewers will have to make do seeing their
favourite anchor just twice instead of thrice a week in
their homes.
Plans
for KBC Twitiya are on. "Mr Bachchan has agreed
to do the third innings of KBC, and we see no reason
why it won't happen," says Nair.
****
It
isn't just the software which is being subjected to continuous
competitiveness on the main channels. The people behind
the scenes are also flying back and forth at a rapid speed.
Last year one of Star's top executives Tarun Katial broke
away from his parent channel Star to join Sony Entertainment.
Ever
since Katial has been on a mission "to do a Star"
on Sony. The very successful Indian Idol, Fame Gurukul
and now the Madhavan game-show Deal Ya No Deal are
all Katial's brain-children.
The
latest buzz in the software corridors is the departure of
Star's very efficient vice-president of publicity and press
relations Shola Rajachandran who chose to suddenly leave
Star. Shola, as any media person in Mumbai would tell you,
was invaluable in building Star's rapport with the press.
She had been with the channel from the time it came to India.
What
prompted the surprising exit? Shola refuses to get into
the nitty-gritty. "I worked tirelessly with the channel.
Now I felt it was time to move on, explore other possibilities."
She
has a number of lucrative offers from other channels which
she's seriously considering. The rumours are that this extremely
competent person will finally be absorbed by Sony.
Sony's
new soap Ek Ladki Anjaani Si started with the leading
lady hurtling into a function on a mo'bike to take photographs.
She broke the flower pots, and later protocol. The snobbish
hosts sneered so hard at the working-class heroine; you
thought their face masks would drop off.
Our
jaws sure did, when the spunky photographer got into a situation
where she was artificially inseminated.
Look
what can happen in the sperm of the moment!
(The
views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com
need not necessarily subscribe to the same)
Ironically
Tinu spoke about how suffocating crowds can be during times
of health crisis.
