In conversation with Prashant Bhatt, Fiction Head, Colors

In the past few weeks, there have been a lot of changes in the fiction programming of Colors. To get into the details, we at Tellychakkar.com got in touch with the channel’s Fiction Head Prashant Bhatt to give us a brief on the recent changes and the channel’s future plans. Excerpts… The channel recently launched two shows namely Sanskaar and Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha Season 2. Hence, when we asked Bhatt about his expectations he has from Sanskaar that is being aired at 9 pm and is relatively a new show compared to Na Bole, he promptly replied, “Irrespective of the slot, I expect a lot from my shows. Frankly speaking, we have been working on this show (Sanskaar) since January last and it took us a lot of time to put it on-air as the canvas of it is broad. The show has been extensively shot in Gujarat and the US. And while we were still in the initial stages, we did not have an inkling about the time slot that would be allotted. But even then we worked hard on it.” “And expectation from Sanskaar is just like what I have from every other show. I want it to get its due as the production people have worked really hard on it,” he added. What about Na Bole…? “We are just hoping it does well. It was the magic of season one that encouraged us to get back with second season. In fact, while season one was still on air, we started getting some very positive response on social networking sites. That is when we learnt about the popularity of this show. And since, we are in the business to entertain people we planned to get it back. Apart from it, we have been thinking about seasons for the longest time but nothing materialised. But, this time, we had a show that people wanted to see and incidentally, we also had a slot for it. So, it was an opportune time to get the show back.” Three of Colors’ shows namely Sasural Simar Ka, Balika Vadhu and Madhubala have gone five to six days a week, now. Hence, we asked Bhatt as to why changes were brought in in just the three shows and why not all the daily soaps. “We did not have the slot post 9 pm available for six days. We had the time slot from 7:30 pm to 9 pm only and that’s where Sasural Simar Ka, Balika Vadhu and Madhubala are placed.” So, what is airing post-9pm on Saturday? “Nautanki- The Comedy Theater will be taking that slot soon. Therefore, I do not have time to play my shows post 9 pm but we grabbed what we got,” he pin pointed. Wasn’t there any kind of resistance from the makers of these shows? “We are all motivated as we received positive response from the production houses of all the three shows that are doing well. They accepted the six-day concept with a lot of enthusiasm,” Bhatt observed. We furthermore told him that his 1000-plus episode show Uttaran was not faring well of late to which he stated, “It has completed one phase of the story. And as we all know that when you move on from reading one book to the other, there is this null phase. Uttaran was going through the same phase but the story is now picking up.” How many more years will it stay then? “Four more years (laughs), on a serious note, till the time it gets the numbers.” Lastly, we asked him if he has any more shows in the pipeline. “Our plate is currently full, but we do have 2 to 3 shows in the pre-production stage and it’s too early to talk about them now,” he maintained.