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  • Suman promises bigger, highly interactive talk show on Star Plus

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jul 21

    Moved but not shaken is Shekhar Suman, former anchor of Sony Entertainment‘s hit talk show Movers and Shakers. Suman is all set to get back to doing what he does best - entertaining with his rib-tickling chat show. The actor has joined hands with Star India and will anchor as well as produce the show, which has tentatively been titled Simply Shekhar.

    The show is going to be on a much bigger scale. It‘s lively, interactive, and fun-filled, promises Suman. "There‘ll be a live audience, people will even come on the floor to participate," says Suman, who apart from chatting with ‘real‘ celebrities also will be out on the road visiting people‘s house. The show will also have a glamorous band, and elegant ambience but unlike Movers and Shakers, which has 14 guests per week, this show will have only two celebrity guests per week.

    M&S HOST SHORTLISTED SAYS SONY‘S NIGAM: Meanwhile Rekha Nigam, SET‘s senior vice-president, programming and production, said Sony was proceeding according to schedule on finding a new host for Movers and Shakers. Nigam remained unruffled by the prospect of Suman‘s coming up with a show on rival Star and said Sony was proceeding according to the pace it had set for itself. Nigam, while not revealing names, said a shortlist was ready for possible anchors to replace Suman on M&S.

    M&S in a completely recharged and rejuvenated format is what Nigam promises for the viewers.

    Suman‘s show on the other hand is being produced by his Seven Thirty Entertainment Ltd. Suman is closely involved with the production apart from anchoring the show. "We are in the process of getting together the production team. We hope to get the cinematographers, writers, editors? under one umbrella very soon. Things are still at the nascent stage but the first episode should be produced by August-end," says Suman, who is currently shooting for David Dhavan‘s forthcoming movie.

    Though the date and time of the show is yet to be finalised, Suman promises that in another two weeks, everything should fall in place.

    "It is going to be on a big canvas and a very expensive show but we still have to sit down and work out the economics of it all," Shekhar replied when asked about the kind of investment going into the production. About the contract Suman said: "Things are yet to be finalised the talks with Star are still going."

  • Suman promises bigger, highly interactive talk show on Star Plus

    Moved but not shaken is Shekhar Suman, former anchor of Sony Entertainment's hit talk show Movers and Shakers

  • Sabe TV's 'Office Office' to join daily brigade

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jul 20

    Office Office, the leading weekly sitcom from the Sabe TV stable, is all set to become a daily. According to Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Ltd (SABTNL) vice-chairman Markand Adhikari, nothing definite has been decided about the frequency of the show.

    "It could be three to four times a week," Adhikari says. "But the days have not been pinpointed yet." However, information from within the network indicate a tentative schedule has already been drawn up. The show is likely to be aired thrice a week Mondays through to Wednesday at 8:00 PM

    "The official material will be sent out to potential advertisers very shortly," Adhikari says. Among the sponsors who have so far been backing the show are Kodak , Cello, and Nirma.

    Adhikari says that the show is being extended because once a week shows get lost in the crowd of dailies. "We want to further develop the audience that Office Office has and make it a habit for them," he says. "Making it a daily can go a long way in furthering our aim."

    He adds that efforts are being put in took to keep the storyline strong enough to retain viewers‘ interest. "It is not a dishum dishum (lots of fighting) show," he says. "It is a show with certain production values and Eagle Video, the producers, are taking care to retain that flavour."

    Adhikari added that the move to change the show over to a daily was just one of a basket of efforts which were being worked out to strengthen the channel.

    If the show works, it will be an office coup for Sabe TV.

  • Sabe TV's 'Office Office' to join daily brigade

    Office Office, the leading weekly sitcom from the Sabe TV stable, is all set to become a daily.

  • Zee plans new series of 'Ramayana', 'Mahabharata'

    Zee TV has announced it will shortly be bringing updated versions of the superhit mythologicals - Ramayana and Mahabh

  • CNN's Q&A aims to become more hard-hitting, says host Zain Verjee

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jul 20

    CNN International‘s high profile interactive programme Q&A South Asia is in the middle of a positional shift. The focus is to make it harder hitting, with a stronger news focus and it appears to have found the right fit in Zain Verjee, who took over as anchor after Riz Khan quit the show in May. Verjee was in Mumbai on Wednesday, and appeared to have still to fully recover from the high octane adrenaline rush that had constituted the four days that Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf was in India for talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (Friday 13 July to Monday). She flew in from Delhi after wrapping up an extra post-summit Q&A special on Tuesday.

    Q&A Summit Specials were originally scheduled to cover the four days of the summit but a further programme was added elicit reactions on the failure of the talks. There were also two online chat sessions scheduled for Saturday and Monday, but Monday‘s session had to be abandoned because of a power breakdown at Hotel Nikko in New Delhi where a 22-strong CNN team had located their operations.

    Speaking of her role in Q&A, Verjee sees her personality as quite suited to the changes taking place on the show. Verjee says her principal input is to make the programme more controversial, with subject choices that are more politically driven. If a confrontationist attitude has a physical expression, she suits the role. Verjee happens to be an expert kick boxer and fitness freak. Asked to give some examples where she has raised hackles on her shows, Verjee says she particularly rattled Kashmiri leader Farooq Abdullah during Saturday‘s Q&A Summit Special.

    The Vajpayee-Musharraf summit was a major operational exercise for the CNN team. Hotel Nikko was converted into a studio. It took one-and-a-half days to set up the control room in one of the hotel‘s rooms, which includes panels needed for live transmission and over 1.5 tonnes of equipment was flown in, mainly from Hong Kong. Four international lines to the CNN centre in Atlanta, USA, were set up for the purpose.

    The summit was the first time that Verjee has done Q&As outside Atlanta as well as her first visit to India. Queried as to whether her having had no hands-on experience of India wasn‘t a detriment in terms of her understanding of issues, Verjee said she put a lot of effort into researching the topics she covered, but admitted that the show was a learning curve for her.

    Asked to comment on whether CNN‘s coverage of the summit was adequate, Verjee said: "We were all happy with our coverage. I hope it reflects CNN‘s commitment to South Asia. Our aim was to give a balanced perspective to a global audience."

    As for the format of the programme, Verjee said the show was segmented into three blocks of between 12 to 15 minutes each. The "A" block was the most topical segment downwards to the "C" block which tended towards softer subjects, she said. Verjee clarified that this was very fluid, depending on the news of the day.

    Queried whether there would be more episodes produced out of the subcontinent, Verjee said news events would decide that.

    Q&A South Asia airs at 10 PM Monday to Wednesdays on CNN‘s South Asia Channel which launched in June 2000. It is a half-hour interactive show and interviews leading politicians, celebrities and newsmakers.

     

     

     

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