MUMBAI: After the likes of Star and Sony launching their second general entertainment channels (GEC) – Star One and SAB; Sahara One Media and Entertainment has also followed suit. The company, which has a GEC – Sahara One Television, will now be launching a second channel.
The development comes close on the heels of the success of the channel’s reality show Biggest Loser Jeetega, which is hosted by actor Suniel Shetty. The channel, which is targeted mainly at the women audiences, will have programmes like original novelas, sitcoms, adventure shows and world cinema dubbed in Hindi.
The focus of the second GEC channel will mainly be popular tele-novelas. The popularity and reach of this genre of programming has extended well beyond the boundaries of its origins to the Americas, Europe and Asia cutting across linguistic lines. The universal appeal of this genre lies in the range of emotions – love, passion, revenge, ambition, intrigue – that are interwoven in the tantalizing themes of these stories.
Sahara One Media and Entertainment head – entertainment business and Aamby Valley City Seemanto Roy said, “In our quest for additional growth in the marketplace, we have been exploring the world of programming opportunities. Given lifestyle changes and international exposure through travel and popular media, Indian audiences are today ready to accept new genres of programming including broadcast of finished products from around the globe. The phenomenal success of dubbed renditions of Hollywood blockbusters in India is a case in point. A natural progression of this trend in television is inevitable. We believe that novelas with their borderless quality and universal appeal would find ready acceptance among Indian viewers.”
