MUMBAI: In an interview to indiantelevision.com last month UTV group CEO Ronnie Screwvala had stated that his company was looking to increase its exposure on the national broadcaster.
UTV will be doing just that with the launch of a thriller as well as a children's show on DD1 next month.
Launching in August is a bi-weekly thriller in the post 9:30 pm slot. The show has been given a working title Chandni but that may change, Screwvala says. The exact timing is still being discussed and the half-hour show will air in the 9:30 pm, 10 pm or 10:30 pm slot.
UTV is also putting up kids based programming that will air on Sunday mornings. Whether it will be a one-hour show or two half-hour shows, is yet to be finalised.
For the kids show, there are two formats under consideration - an adventure show and a music game show in the 'antakshari' mould.
Queried as to whether there were any new projects coming up on Hindi satellite channels, Screwvala replied in the negative. However, a new daily was launched three weeks ago on the regional Tamil language channel Star Vijay (in which UTV has a 49 per cent stake). Titled Salanam, it airs at 7:30 pm. It needs noting that the majority of UTV's Tamil programming is on the leader by far Sun Network and not Vijay.
UTV currently has on air three daily shows and three weekly shows in Hindi; seven regional language dailies; and five dailies for the Malaysian and Singapore markets in Malay, Cantonese and English.