Desperate Sony banks on its Creative Director!

Friday, February 02, 2007

Having worked under Ekta Kapoor and knowing some of her tricks to shoot the TRP, Sandiip Sikcand, now the creative head of Sony, has a lot more interesting things to offer his channel.

Of late, it was the 'Bigg Boss' house on which Sony had banked upon. And now the channel has high hopes from the Shrivaastav and Dhanrajgir families. These two are the families in the forthcoming two new shows on the channel - 'Durgesh Nandinii ' and 'Jeete Hai Jiske Liye'.

These two shows, Sandiip hopes, "Will help the channel to jump up to the second place from the current third and eventually to the first position vis-À-vis TRP rankings." When questioned whether 'Durgesh Nandinii' is all about the rural-urban divide, he sternly denies. According to Sandiip, the serial is a 'terribly funny' one.

Coming from a genius like him, who was behind 'Shukra Hai Shukravaar Hai' featuring shows like the 'Fear Factor', 'Kandy Floss' and 'Deal Ya No Deal ' which garnered a lot of TRPs for the channel, it should not be hard to believe that these shows too have the power do the same. But weren't the previous ones all reality shows?

"Just like you can't have only sweet dishes all the time and you need to return to your regular dal-chawal, after the reality shows you'll return to your regular family drama," justifies Sandiip. But the time slot for these new shows is the same held by the now famous reality show 'Bigg Boss'. Why not 9-10 pm where there can be good competition from other channels? "This is the time when we can attract more audience compared to the number during the 9-10 pm slot. Moreover, we are trying to get back into providing more of what we always did, instead of attacking our rival channels."

What is commendable in both these serials is that they both are adaptations. 'Durgesh Nandinii' is from a famous novel, while 'Jeete Hain Jiske Liye' is adapted from a widely popular show. Sandiip truly wants to bank upon popular ideas and not take any risks in helping his channel get back its earlier position.

"Both these serials portray women in a different way and reflect the spirit of womanhood." That's why the tagline, 'Dus Se Gyarah', 'Waqt Hamara'. Thus, these shows can be said to focus specifically on the woman viewers." Knowing how well Sandiip understands his female audiences accounting to good TRPs for his ex-production houses' shows, there are lots expectations from Sony's two new offerings. Remember with Sandiip along you, 'Waqt Tumhara Hai'!