The K onslaught begins 5 August!

After Kasautii..., get ready for a five day dose of Kahin to Hoga and Kyunki....as well, exactly a month from now. An overdose of saas-bahu sagas, punctuated by Star's trump card, KBC - all between 8.30 pm to 11 pm - that is the diet for Star Plus viewers on Fridays from 5 August! The main reason behind the K onslaught is ostensibly to cash in on the popularity of the soaps, but it could also act as a safety valve in the rare scenario of KBC II, (which begins 5 August) running into bad weather (of course, with Amitabh Bachchan featuring in almost all high profile movies of the year --- Bunty aur Babli, Waqt, Sarkar, Virrudh, the chances are slim). But the fact remains that with Sony's big ticket show, Indian Idol lurking close, Star Plus needs to strengthen its weekend programming. Moreover, Star Plus will launch a weekly that will keep Kyunki...company on Fridays at 10 pm. The new show thus begins on very firm ground being sandwiched between the two most popular shows on air on Indian television at the moment. The lineup on Saturdays and Sundays is still undecided, but without doubt, it too will revolve around KBC II. The creative brains behind making the 'extra soap' strategy work, Star India's creative head Shailja Kejriwal and Balaji's queen bee, Ekta Kapoor, know exactly what they are doing. "Kasautii...getting such high TRPs (it clocked 11.9 in the first week of airing on Fridays, she says) is proof enough that drama works in weekends as well," Shailja says with a smile at Ekta. The queen of soaps agrees. "Logic for an audience is important, but it is secondary to drama...drama sells, any day of the week, one can't deny that," she points out. Prime time dailies going all out for five days is not a thing that can be possible in the blink of an eye, it needs meticulous planning and building up of characters that can give the leads a break. "It is very tough. You see actors can't create extra hours, so we have to build other characters. My creative team works overtime and it is only I who gets to sit for interviews," says Ekta, who says that to sustain the shows she will incorporate fresh characters. In an innovative move, Ekta, in a special one hour episode of Kkavyanjali (link to related story) and Kahaani...on 12 July, has used fast paced action for the first time - a clock ticking away, car chases and innovative graphics, things that have not been attempted before by Balaji. It is perhaps no surprise that the episode comes on a Tuesday, not Monday (when Zee airs its action packed Rajeev Khandelwal starrer drama, Time Bomb).