MUMBAI: Those who missed their weekly fix of caffeine for the past two years, fret not! A certain brand of ‘Koffee’, served hot with dollops of sugar, spice and all things Bollywood, is about to return to a television screen near you.

Starting 1 December, a brand new season of Koffee with Karan will air on Star World India every Sunday at 9.00pm.

Hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar (KJo), the chat show, made popular by a slew of Bollywood celebrities, not to mention all the inside gossip and drama apart from standard KJo-isms, debuted on the channel back in 2004, with the third season ending in 2011.

Season 4 promises to be bigger, better and juicier, what with a tagline that reads: ‘Behind the Scenes, Beneath the Sheets’. While the makers have retained the basic format along with popular elements like ‘Rapid Fire’ and ‘Koffee Hamper’, the guest list includes the likes of Salman ‘Dabangg’ Khan, who will appear in the first episode for the first time ever.

Other invitees include Kareena Kapoor Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, Juhi Chawla and Madhuri Dixit, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, the three leads of Student of the Year (Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra) and Zaheer Khan and Arjun Kapoor.

Johar sums it up when he says: “The new season is going to be the most exciting yet, with a host of new guests, a fantastic set and some great conversations.”

Asked for details, Star India, English Channels, vice president marketing Pallavi Tibrewal simply says: “The basic format of the show is the same, but we are not divulging too much. I urge you guys to come and see the first episode, and I am sure it will leave you breathless. I am confident, with the kind of concept; the show will shape up quite well.”

Exults Star India English Channels general manager Kevin Vaz: “Koffee with Karan is the only show where Bollywood’s biggest celebrities are willing to give viewers an insight into their lives. As he returns with his fourth season to Star World, Karan has taken it up a notch higher and he will be seen talking to several new faces on the show. Karan is an extremely engaging host and his show has proven to be one of the most entertaining ones on television till date.”

But why didn’t the show return earlier? “It went through a lot of consultation with Karan Johar. Plus, Bollywood has also changed so we thought this is the right time to have juicy and full of entertainment content available for the episodes,” says Tibrewal.

About the saucy new tagline she says: “As you know, it’s a Bollywood thing; celebrities will share their own views about what they think about behind the scenes. So that is what it came from and it has always been a nice, chatty and exciting show. Thus, we wanted to keep the tagline also interesting and related to the concept.”
His show has proven to be one of the most entertaining ones on television till date, says Kevin Vaz

Season 4 will air for nearly four to five months and three to four episodes have already been canned. With Star World India aired on both Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) mediums, there are separate sponsors on board.

On SD, Idea is the show’s presenting sponsors and it is powered by Sensodyne whereas on SD, Forest Essentials is the presenting sponsor and the show is powered by both Sensodyne and Idea.

Coming to marketing of the show, most of you may already have seen Johar’s moves in the special Broadway-style promo that went on air earlier this month. The promo was made public on YouTube as well and got over 1.9 lakh views in less than a week. It will be telecast on all English channels and the entire Star Network.

Elaborates Tibrewal: “It’s a very exciting promo we shot with Karan. For the first time, he danced and that has got us very good interest levels; it has really built up the show because Karan has never danced like this. It is very true to the kind of promo. And that is what we have really focused on and that has built up the show really very well.”

She goes on to add: “We have quite an exciting marketing plan, but as you know Koffee with Karan does not need much awareness, people already know about it, they are just waiting for the show.”

On the digital front, Star World India is churning out web exclusives, images and lots of innovations on Twitter. While there is no official page for the show, the channel is promoting it on its official page on Facebook. “Our Facebook pages have a lot of koffee information. Koffee with Karan does not need any introduction or building up with the celebrities or anyone. That is the reason we have not launched any official page,” reasons Tibrewal.

Interestingly, on Twitter, hashtags such as #KWKRapidFire and #KWKFirstGuest trended nationally on 24 November; #KWKcrossword trended nationally on 25 November; #KWKUnscramble trended in Mumbai on 26 November; #KWKMovieQuote trended in Mumbai on 27 November and #KWKTranslate trended number two in India on 28 November plus #KWKFirstGuest trended again in Mumbai and other cities.

 “It is already an established property. Through promotions, we are just building excitement once again among the people and getting it there. We have exciting things coming up on digital exclusively,” Tibrewal signs off.