The year 2014 has been ‘happening’ in all quarters, and Indian Television has seen a lot of ‘good’ and ‘disappointing’ subjects.
Well, we are now surely into the New Year – 2015, and wish a bigger level of success to newer concepts on television.
So how does 2015 welcome the larger section of TV fans all over India? Here is Tellychakkar.com, as always presenting an exclusive detail of shows lined up over the year.
Let’s start with channel Star Plus, the top-placed channel on the GRP charts.
The biggie that the entire industry will look forward to this year will be of acclaimed Producer Rajan Shahi’s Tumhare Shehar Mein that will see the comeback of seasoned actress Gautami Kapoor. Playing the leads will be Dhruv Bhandari, Heeba Nawab and Rafi Malik. It is believed to have a unique storyline, with the maker having shot extensively in the locales of Paris.
Gul Khan and Gorky’s 4 Lions Films will deal with the tale of a college boy and girl who would get married and have a kid even while studying. The show is in its casting phase right now.
The recent buzzing trend of TV happens to be the finite series, which come with a crisp and engaging story line. Acclaimed Producers Seema and Sudhir Sharma’s Sunshine Productions are presently working on a tale set in the backdrop of a hotel. Na Bole fame Aakanksha Singh will play the female protagonist, while handsome hunk Gaurav Chopraa will play one of the prominent roles in this concept titled Hotel. The show is slated to launch in February this year, and will replace Airlines.
Saurabh Tewari’s next venture will be an adaptation of the 1985 English classic, The Breakfast Club that will present the tale of five high school students, all with different stereotypes and ideologies, who would meet at a detention centre, only to pour their hearts out to each other and discover how they have a lot more in common than they had thought. The show is in its casting process right now.
Sphere Origins, makers of the very popular and long-running show Balika Vadhu are also planning a drama series for Star. However, this is still in its nascent stages.
DJ’s – A Creative Unit will bring a show on the lines of the American TV series, Everybody Loves Raymond. It is believed that film and theatre actor Namit Das will play the lead role.
In the reality circuit, Masterchef India will be back in 2015. The culinary show which was kick-started with Akshay Kumar as the host will have Chef Vikas Khanna anchoring it this season.
Ekta Kapoor, the Czarina will soon be bringing a ‘novelty’ factor into the dance reality show for couples, Nach Baliye. The upcoming season will see Ekta bringing in a Bigg Boss format into the show with the contestants being locked up. And in addition to the dances, the series will see a lot of drama and off-screen entertainment.
Besides the long-running dramas, Star Plus is working towards strengthening its weekend programming. Few of the production houses working on finite shows happen to be BBC Media Entertainment, Sobo Films Pvt. Ltd., Vipul Amrutlal Shah and Playtime Creations.
Now we move on to Colors, and their expected line-up of shows for the New Year.
Code Red, the upcoming unique concept will be a crime-related show wherein every episode will give out the message of not giving up and fighting back. The show, as exclusively reported by Tellychakkar.com will have various concepts under the umbrella of crime. It will be a joint venture coming from Fremantle India, Optimystix and Shlok Entertainment. It will be a six days a week series, which will feature about suicides, injustice against women etc.
Contiloe Entertainment will bring to viewers the never-seen-before historic saga of Emperor Ashoka, titled Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat. The show will trace the journey starting from Ashoka’s birth in the woods, to finding his place on the throne of the Greatest Emperor in Indian history. Pallavi Subhash, Sameer Dharmadhikari, Manoj Joshi, Siddharth Nigam will play pivotal roles. This epic tale will replace Bigg Boss in February, and will air at the one hour slot.
Rashmi Sharma Productions will be making a mature love story set up in West Bengal that will trace the life of a lady to grown-up kids. The story will also go into her past, wherein her love life during her college days will also be shown. As per the recent report on Tellychakkar.com, Ajay Chaudhary and Muskaan Nancy James have been roped in to play the lead roles. But there might be a replacement on cards for the female lead.
Gul Khan and Gorky’s 4 Lions Films who are ‘masters’ in narrating love tales are expected to come up with a unique love tale for Colors. The show is presently in its nascent stage. 4 Lions Films has earlier made popular shows like Geet Hui Sabse Parayi, Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon, Humse Hai Life, Suvreen Guggal, and have the ongoing shows Qubool Hai and Humsafars.
Soon after the reality series Bigg Boss would culminate, Colors will get back its adventure quotient with Khatron Ke Khiladi: Darr Ka Blockbuster Returns. Shot in the breath-taking locales of Cape Town, South Africa, the contestants will yet again have to cross boundaries when it comes to adventure and emerge as the winner. The line-up will include eminent celebrities like Sana Khan, Sagarika Ghatge, Ashish Chaudhary, Iqbal Khan, Rashami Desai and many more…
Fremantale India’s big-ticket show India’s Got Talent will be back with a new season in the second quarter of the year. Audition details for the same have already been put up online, and we hear that the Season 6 of this talent hunt show is in its planning phase right now.
Moving on to Life OK, here is how their expected line-up will look like.
Garima Productions’ off-beat show Ek Tha Chander Ek Thi Sudha based on the novel of Dharamvir Bharti’s Gunahon Ka Devta has been in the making for more than a year now. Finally, this show will see its light very soon in a truncated version, as a mini-series. The show will see versatile actor Rahil Azam in the central role, along with Aditi Tailang, Umang Jain, Shweta Salve.
Chamak, the adaptation of the Priyanka Chopra starrer movie Fashion is tipped to be one of the biggies for the channel this year. It already has a stellar cast that includes Karam Rajpal, Kunal Verma, Riddhima Pandit, Sudhanshu Pandey, Supreet Bedi, Mreenal Deshraj, Vindhya Tiwari, Jimmy Sharma as part of it. The maker has shot for the pilot, and the show awaits an approval from the channel.
Rashmi Sharma Productions, in addition to the upcoming show on Colors, are working on a show for Life OK; the tale will be based out in Mumbai. As reported by Tellychakkar.com, Niharika Kareer of Splitsvilla 3 fame will play the female lead. Noted actor Mihir Mishra is also believed to be part of this project. The show will have two new faces as male leads.
Shashi-Sumeet Productions will come up with a Season 2 of their popular show, Main Lakshmi Tere Aangann Ki. The show, again as reported by Tellychakkar.com will have the backdrop of the film industry, and will see Mohsin Khan and Khalid Siddiqui playing the central roles. The sexy Mandira Bedi is said to make a comeback to fiction with this show.
Jay and Kinnari Mehtaa will come up with a story about a well-educated girl who would go through many sacrifices in order to please her family and husband. Tentatively titled MBA Bahu, the maker has shot a pilot for the show with Punjabi actor Gaurav Kakkar and newbie Kirti Da as leads. Shubha Khote, the veteran actor and Sejal Shah are also part of this show.
Sphere Origin has been commissioned a show on Life OK, which is in its casting stage right now.
Zee TV has been having a good run of late with its shows Jodha Akbar, Kumkum Bhagya, Jamai Raja, Qubool Hai doing well. And its line-up for the year ahead seems equally interesting.
Shashi-Sumeet Productions’ slice-of-life show with Mohit Malhotra, Neil Bhatt, Anand Suryavanshi, Dimple Jhangiani tentatively titled Pethawala will narrate the strong bonding and relationship between the members of a huge family. The pilot of the show has been shot, and has been approved by the channel. It will in all likelihood go on floors soon.
Shakuntalam Telefilms will bring in a tale similar to that of Sridevi’s English Vinglish on the channel, which will trace the journey of a married woman with kids, who would discover an urge in herself to get educated and start a career of her own. The show has Binny Sharma playing the central character, with Sachal Tyagi, Sangeeta Panwar, Tarul Swami and Snigdha Pandey in prominent roles. The maker has shot nearly five episodes of the storyline, and awaits a time slot and launch date.
A family show woven around interesting characters and a unique plot will be Raakesh Paswan’s next offering as a Producer. The show is said to be in its casting phase, and will go on floor as soon as the cast would get locked.
One of the leading reality shows, Dance India Dance will be back with a Season 5. The singing format will be judged by the trio Mudassar, Firoz Khan, Shruti Merchant. Auditions to select the participants will commence at the earliest, as per media reports.
Now, let’s look at the programming bucket of Sony Entertainment Television (Sony TV).
Bhanwar, the one-of-its-kind show seen in the 1990’s which dealt with landmark judgements from the Indian judicial system will soon be back on the small screen. Launching on 10 January, Bhanwar will present to the Indian audience the right mix of reality and court room drama via intriguing cases. The series will be produced by Contiloe Entertainment and Cinevistaas Ltd.
Another biggie for Sony TV in terms of comeback will be the popular Fireworks Productions spooky thriller, Aahat. The series will be back very soon after four years, right to grip viewers with its element of thrill and horror.
Shashi-Sumeet Productions’ Bareli based love story, Muh Boli Shaadi might be in a tight spot, after seeing a delay in launch even after shooting 26 episodes. But it is believed that this year will see the launch of the show. It has Fahad Ali, Zalak Desai in lead roles.
In the reality genre, Sony TV seems to be working out strategies for its next season of Indian Idol. The last we heard was that, the Season 7 of the popular singing reality series has seen a delay owing to the dearth of right mix of talents. However, the series is still on track to see a launch this year.
Now, moving to SAB TV, the channel has Chuk Chuk, produced by Garima Productions in the pipeline. This unique show will be based on a railway platform and will depict the tale of characters in that particular platform. The show will be shot in Shimla, and will have Rohit Roy, Mansi Shrivastava, Sucheta Khanna in lead roles.
The Great Indian Family Drama launches on 3 January, and is inspired from the daily adventures in the life of a Nawaab.
Lastly, we move to the to-be-launched channel Zee & (And) which has an interesting line-up of shows as its launch pad. The channel is likely to launch in the first quarter of this year.
Razia Sultan, the historical show from Swastik Productions is touted to be the biggie on the channel. Rohit Purohit, Ankit Arora, Behzaad Khan are part of the project.
Shashi-Sumeet Productions will have a family drama titled Badi Devrani, which will have Mudit Nayar as lead.
Rashmi Sharma Productions will again have a unique family drama titled Bhabhi Maa with veteran actor Aruna Irani in the central role.
Sphere Origins’ Ganga will depict the tale of a young girl who would become a widow at a very young age. It will have Hiten Tejwani, Sushmita Mukherjee, Gungun Uprari, Rakhi Tandon in prime roles.
Cinevistaas Ltd. will bring to screens the adaptation of Anuja Srinivasan’s Those Pricey Thakur Sisters. It has Siddhant Karnick and Sana Khan in lead roles.
In the non-fiction genre, Zee & is believed to have a show for the masses, to be produced by Fremantle India on the lines of Satyamev Jayate. Also, the channel is believed to have taken rights to come up with an Indian adaptation of The Voice the international singing format.
Here, we end our analysis… We hope you readers had a good read. If you want to add on...hit the comment box below.
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