DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

While watching news coverage on NDTV’s latest venture in Hindi entertainment segment thereby jolting Star Network’s numero uno status, the only thought that ran to mind was Prannoy Roy is a bloody genius. Not only has he proven himself to be a successful newsreader but now a businessman too.

In today’s cutthroat competition within the Hindi channels category, which is mainly, dominated by couple of popular channels namely Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony – Mr. Roy played his cards right by appointing Star’s ex-CEO Sameer Nair as NDTV Imagine’s head.

And if Star Network has strong ties with desi-drama queen Ekta Kapoor to boast about, then NDTV has practically hit a bull’s eye by bringing in the baap of family-philums aka. Karan Johar.

Hindustan Times reports:

"We will launch the first general entertainment channel in Hindi by the end of this year or early next year. We are in conversation with all major producers including Ekta Kapoor for producing serials on our channel," NDTV Imagine CEO Sameer Nair told reporters.

The second channel would be a movie channel, which would be launched around March, 2008. Nair, however, did not disclose the details of the planned third channel.
NDTV had recently got approval from FIPB for foreign investment to the tune of Rs 585 crore for its foray into entertainment and lifestyle space.

"Most of this investment (from Rs 585 crore) will be into NDTV Imagine," he said without divulging the exact figures.

Prannoy Roy and his company are also in talks with leading production houses such as Hats Off, Synergy and Balaji Productions who would conceptualize unique variety of programmes targeted at audience within the 6-60 age bracket.

Nair said the company is targeting number one position after 12-15 months of launching the channel. The Hindi General Entertainment Channel market is estimated at Rs 3,000 crore at a growth rate of 10-15 per cent.

Nair would be responsible for the strategic direction, operations and success of all entertainment properties under the new entertainment venture.

With KBC 3 being a dud show TRP wise and people being ticked off with Ekta same old saas-bahu nataks, its high time Star Network gets its act together or else the trip down the hill will surely be very painful.