It's the end of the road for UTV's English language show, Bombay Talking. According to our sources, the show that was only the second indigenous show in English to be aired on a foreign channel, wasn't raking in as many TRPs as was expected by the channel and that's the reason being cited for its proposed sudden exit. The first season of the show will end mid-March after its scheduled 52 episode run.
"TRPs are not a problem. We had intended a 52 episode run for the show from the beginning itself. It's doing well and we are going in for a season break," says Zee Cafe's business head Neil Chakrabarti.
The show starring Manoj Bidwai and Priyanka Bassi had launched on 14 November 2005 and had been popular amongst urban viewers and thus had a niche audience.
"Yes, the show is going off air and I had known that for some time now, " says, the director of the show, Satyam Tripathi, denying any knowledge of the reasons behind the decision.
The show was in the news recently when Aanand Rai quit the show to shoot his film in London. Two new characters were incorporated to add spice to the show.
Sources close to the show point out that the show was taken off because of dismal ratings and the fact that the budget allocation the show was getting wasn't quite adequate to fulfil the high production values needed to pull off a differently styled show. The stars of the show were informed on 10-11 February that the show was going off air, we hear.