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Menka Shivdasani

... wins the race. Thus believes Sony; and to make it to the top, the channel has new serials on the anvil and a cartload of recently-released films too.

A still from the serial, `Kabhi Biwi Kabhi Jasoos'.

It has been almost four months since Sunil Lulla joined Sony Entertainment Television as Executive Vice-President, and the immediate task before him, he says, is to "put Sony into an overdrive that makes it a more powerful Number Two."

Don't expect any radical changes, though; Sony has always preferred the slow, cautious approach, and Lulla, who may have thought very differently when he was with MTV, agrees with that philosophy. "In the television business, you are being invited into the viewers' living rooms and bedrooms on a daily basis," he says. "You can surprise viewers but you can't shock them." The idea is to achieve a `pleasant, consistent mix'.

What Sony is doing is strengthening its 8 p.m. - 9 p.m. prime-time band. This November, it launched four new shows — Kya Hadsaa Kya Haqeeqat's Kali Shakti, a new thriller story from Balaji's weekend series (8 p.m.); Papa Ban Gaye Hero, a comedy (Mondays, 8.30 p.m.); Kabhi Biwi Kabhi Jasoos, a comic thriller about a housewife moonlighting as a detective (Tuesdays, 8 p.m.), and Goonj Ateet Ki, the story of a woman who marries into a cursed family (Wednesdays, 8.30 p.m.)

"What we want to create is a balance of fiction, movies and events," Lulla says. While fiction would include daily soaps, drama, thrillers and comedy, Lulla points out it is not so much the genre that matters as the core emotion behind it that helps the channel connect with viewers.

Of course, when you are in the TV business, you never know what viewers really want — as Sony recently discovered through an expensive mistake, Madhuri Dixit's Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai. Though Sony promoted it heavily — including working out tie-ups for matrimonial columns — the show died a quick death. That's because, opines Lulla, the audiences came merely to see Madhuri, not to choose their partners.

"You want everything to be successful, but you know it doesn't work that way," Lulla says, adding that it is through the process of finding out what works that eventually creates the breakthroughs. The challenge today is tougher than ever before; the progression of television has accelerated viewer demands, and while television may be a passive medium, viewers are looking for "slick-looking, quick-gripping" fare.

If Indian audiences aren't yet ready for reality shows, the fact is that game shows — which are one form of reality — have their limitations too. While the era of the game show is not over yet — in an industry that works cyclically, nothing can really ever be "over", he says — Indian audiences do not necessarily respond positively to such programmes. "We as a society do not have much interest in game shows," Lulla believes, "because we have not grown up seeing them. Our exposure has been to mythologies, soaps, and drama. Game shows have a routine format, while we like to see our stories move on."

A scene from `Kya Hadsaa Kya Haqeeqat's Kali Shakti' on Sony.

So while Sony will have its share of reality programming and game shows, the attempt will be to find varied ways of reaching out to consumers. With Star Plus dominating the soap market, Lulla recognises that Sony would be better off concentrating on other kinds of programmes. `Kitchen politics', he says, may have its role, but it has already been overplayed, and it might make sense to make people laugh instead, inject a bit of humour into TV. The new offerings this November reflect this strategy — and in a market where there is too much saccharine emotion, it is certainly a welcome one.

Movies too, can work wonders for a channel, especially when the film in question is Lagaan; this film broke a 15-month record, Lulla claims, and the Lagaan Maaf contest drew more than 10,000 entries. Sony announced the winners last Monday, 11 of them in all, the same number as a cricket team. They included Ganesh Sawnke, Deepak Garg, Amrut Gangwani and D.S. Dagar. The prize involves reimbursing the taxes that they have paid.

This December, as the year comes to a close, Sony Entertainment Television plans to premiere Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham on New Year's eve — December 31, 2002. The telecast schedule of other films such as Deewangee, Awara Pagal Deewana, Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam, Na Tum Jano Na Hum and Chor Machaye Shor will be announced shortly. Plus, there will be four days of celebrations in a countdown to the new year.

At last count, there were more than 125 advertisers — Airtel, Canon, Hindustan Lever, among them — and Sony is going all out to get both new viewers and new advertisers, reach out particularly to audiences below 40 years of age. "You judge your audiences by the veneer of commercial interests," says Lulla. "The point is to monetise the eyeballs."

The biggest opportunity right now, he feels, is to build Sony into a more powerful franchise, "reduce the gap with Star Plus". And the biggest challenge? "Getting there!" he declares.

The author can be contacted at menka@shivdasani.org

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