Earshot — Pune

Dixie-landThe Dixit brothers have had a meteoric rise and today they are well-established producers with four programmes on Doordarshan, ...

Dixie-land
The Dixit brothers have had a meteoric rise and today they are well-established producers with four programmes on Doordarshan, of which two are daily soaps. They started with documentaries, scientific films, till their daily soap, Aparajita brought them fame and now Ardhangani has already grabbed the viewer’s attention. Then there’s Ada (daily) Aaghaat (thrice a week)’, and All in All (a countdown show) is growing in its popularity. They also have their own editing studios, equipment and own an ad agency through which they market their serials. Soon there will be two more shows on Zee and STAR. The workload is cool as the there are five brothers. “Initially, it was difficult but now there is no problem,” says Alok Dixit. While most producers crib about Doordarshan, he says “The market is not bad, but marketing is quite tough.”

Mu-Zee-cal
Now, the music industry finally has an award that it can call its own. Close on the heels of the success of the 2nd Zee Cine awards, Zee Network launched The Zee Sangeet Awards which they claim in their gift to the music industry. The launch at Hotel Centaur, coincided with the 7th anniversary of Zee TV and the host of the evening was Durga Jasraj (who happens to be Pt. Jasraj’s daughter) and it was a pleasure to listen to Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. The board of governors include stalwarts of the industry like Gulshan Bawra, Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Mahendra Kapoor, Ravi Shankar Sharma, Sanjay Tandon, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma and Louis Banks.

To supervise the judging methodology, Zee has hired one of the world’s largest professional companies, Ernst and Young (they have tabulated the results of the Emmy awards for the last 11 years).

New Daily
When Zee started its afternoon slot people had apprehensions, but seeing the popularity of soaps in that slot like Saath-Saath, Sanskaar, Chingari, we’re forced to believe it’s doing well. This week premieres yet another soap called Lakeerain (Tuesdays 2 pm). It’s being produced and directed by Gulshan Sachdeva who also is the man behind the soap Zanjeerein (Zee). The serial revolves around a family headed by Shivnarayan Agarwal (who has lost his wife) a big industrialist of Calcutta who retired from work to concentrate on family affairs. So if you’ve been tracking Amaanat, Aashirwaad or Kora Kagaz then this one is for you.

Family affair
One of the popular programmes on Sony is Sanjoy and Binaifer Kohli’s Family No.1 which is completing a year and has got on extension for another 52. What make is different from other sitcoms is this one has a proper storyline and and its casting: one couldn’t imagine serious artists like Kanwaljit and Tanvi Azmi is a sitcom until Family No.1 happened. “Initially, people told us take someone like Satish Shah, but we wanted to do something different” stresses Binaifer. If you aren’t been watching this serial, it’s about two single parents who have three kids each. They’re fooled by an estate agent into sharing a house. And the last thing they’d want to do is fall in love. Amidst all the madness, jealously and quarrels Kanwaljeet and Tanvi fall for each other and there is romance brewing in Family No.1. What happens? We don’t know neither do they. The channel is coming up with a contest asking viewers what should be the end of this love story? Which means prizes galore – so rush for yourpen and paper as their TRPs multiply!