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Nithya Subramanian

NEW DELHI, May 10

IT'S curtains for the time being for Zee Telefilms' most ambitious experiments x the interactive show 'Aap Jo Bolein Hain to Hain, Aap Jo Bolein Naa to Naa' (Aap Jo...) and x the reality adventure show 'Romance Adventure Aap Aur Hum' (RAAAH).

The two shows were recently pulled out from Zee's flagship channel. While Zee officials claimed that these shows were just taking a break, industry sources said that the poor performance of these shows had prompted the channel to rethink its strategy on these programmes.

The channel had pinned its hopes on these 'different' shows expecting these to do for it what Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) did for Star Plus.

Zee officials also acknowledged that the shows were not raking in high television rating points (TRPs). "In the case of Aap Jo…, we got several phone calls to vote for the endings. That showed that people were interested. But it was not reflected in TRPs," said a Zee official.

He also said that the channel had learnt from the experience and may relaunch Aap Jo… in a different format. On RAAAH, they said that the endeavour was to make the next schedule "extra exciting."

Media planners said that reality television or interactive shows had not really taken off in India. "Internationally too, interactive shows which are story-based have not done well. On the other hand, reality shows like 'Survivor', 'The Amazing Race' which did well initially have also seen trends of declining viewership. The only reality game show that has done well in India is KBC. And that too succeeded because of the charisma of Amitabh Bachchan," said a top media planner.

The decision of Zee to pull out these two shows seems to be in line with the channel's strategy of withdrawing weak shows. Zee has in the last few months taken off several of its programmes which have not done well. It had, in August 2001, revamped its entire programming strategy and launched about 24 new shows. But it has already withdrawn song-and-dance show 'Razzmatazz', 'Hip Hip Hurray', 'Sarhadein' and 'Dollar Bahu' based on a novel by Infosys Chief Mentor Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy's wife, Ms Sudha Murty, to name a few.

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