Earshot

CelebrationsAs this year comes to an end, the first one to celebrate its success in 1998 was Sony. They had a bash on last Wednesday at t...

Celebrations
As this year comes to an end, the first one to celebrate its success in 1998 was Sony. They had a bash on last Wednesday at the Oberoi Towers8217; Roof Top.

It also coincided with the launch of their latest offering Heena produced by Rakhi Vijan Tandon and hubby Rajeev Tandon also brother of Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon. The serial premieres on December 25 at 9 pm. It stars Simone Singh in the title role with Rahul Bhatt, Parikshit Sahni, Rakhi, Rajeev Verma and Vaquar. The entire cast was present, but the main attraction of the evening was Raveena Tandon who was there for more than an hour and while everyone was leaving Jackie Shroff walked in at the stroke of midnight.

Once bitten?
It8217;s either sitcoms or thrillers that command viewership these days 8211; or so the producers think. Debutante producer Anand Dubey launched his serial Blackmail recently. A social drama with suspense which makes it different from the others claims Dubey, is directed by Sanjay Upadhyay who directed the thriller Jaal on Zee and Yule Love stories and stars Sumit Sehgal, Mrinal Kulkarni, Ved Thapar and Anand Dubey himself in lead roles. We dropped in on the sets while they were shooting and it was quite surprising: no sooner had we entered the Farm than we were given a tube of mosquito repellent!

Two-timing
While on Sony, the timings of some of its programmes have been changed. Just Mohabbat which was originally Thursdays 9 pm now shifts to Friday 8.30 pm.

Aahat on Thursdays was earlier at 9.30 pm and now its come upto 9 pm and Bhanwar at 9.30 pm instead of 10 pm. Just a few days back Zee also had some alterations, like Rishtey love stories now is aired on Fridays 8.30 pm in place of Colgate Top Ten which shifts to Saturdays in the slot of Saturday Suspense which has been shifted to 10 pm on Saturdays. If insiders are to be believed this was the reason why Sony went for the change. Now Just Mohabbat runs into Rishtey on Fridays.

India calls
As if there not enough news-related programmes on the telly apart from the news bulletins on various channels, now Adhikari Brothers have come up with a weekly news magazine called India Progress premiering on December 23 at 10.30 pm on DD2. It covers business and finance, media and advertising, and politics which according to Aneesh Trivedi who anchors the show are the three things which most affect our lives in India. 8220;Everything we do is governed by one of these things,8221; says Trivedi 8220;we are looking at it not as a news format but as a magazine and we8217;d be analysing things and not reporting which is not possible as its a weekly,8221; he adds.

Festival Dues
Be it any festival and the first ones to cash in are our television producers. As Christmas is nearing producer Kiran Bhatia has come up with a special Christmas episode called Is Saal to be telecast in Rishtey- love stories which luckily falls on December 25. It is a story of a lonely man who adopts two orphans from a church and they find happiness and companionship together. Saurabh Shukla who is on a high after the success of Satya plays the old man along with Ashish Roy, Baby Gazala and Shahenawas.

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Less Shakti
This piece of information only proves that big names really do not matter on television. When Shakti Kapoor was to appear in Colgate Top Ten it created waves in the industry, but apparently the viewers did not accept him and now it is learnt that Shakti is being replaced. Rumours were making the rounds that Ajit Pal who was directing and producing the show is also out. We8217;ll keep you posted.