Raj Nayak, CEO of Colors, says that come June, this Network 18 flagship channel will start strengthening its weekend band beginning with Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa Season 6.
“Next, we will have a comedy show which will be followed by Anil Kapoor produced 24 and finally Bigg Boss,” Nayak quips.
“Our week-day fiction band is very good (it is the number two channel) but the problem has always been with the weekend shows. Hence, we have been dropping to the number 3 slot on the overall ratings. But, we are confident that with the above new properties, we can also pose a strong challenge for numero uno slot on the GRP sweepstakes, in the days and weeks to come,” he adds.
Talking about Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, Raj avers, “What really matters is the correct casting of the contestants and level of dancing, the rest including the judges and the sets are mere hygiene. Last season, we were lucky to get the correct balance of good contestants and great dancing skills. But this year, the calibre of dancing has gone up a notch higher. This has been revealed to me by the judges who feel that the dance floor would hot up from the first episode itself (the premiere episode to be telecast on 1 June, has already been canned).”
“Research indicates that audiences like to watch popular faces, but the challenge is that while we get well-known faces like Shweta Tiwari whom the public like to watch, they should also be able to dance well. The second thing is that since viewers prefer lighter fare, we add a lot of humour around. And last, but not the least, we also take all precautions to ensure that it is fit for family viewing as wanted by the audience,” Nayak observes.
Since Jhalak is now in Season 6, historically how do numbers operate as the number of seasons increase? “I think with each passing season, the numbers only gets better. The bottom line is it is all great dances as far as Jhalak... goes,” he maintains.
Even after being coaxed into, Nayak refuses to divulge any specific date for the launch of 24.“Ideally, we would have launched it this March itself, but then, given the scale of the show, talent involved and since there is a first time logistics involved, we decided to wait for the all episode to be canned before we go in for the launch. We will be looking for a bi or tri weekly schedule for it,” he assures.