MUMBAI: The celebration of Diwali on Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) begins on Friday. Star Plus, Zee TV, Sab and Life OK have lined up special programming to brighten up the festival of lights.

The channels have created Diwali celebrations within their fiction and non-fiction shows. Star Plus will air at 7.30 pm every day performances by popular actors from its serials. The celebrations feature song and dance performances, and some hilarious battles of wits between Star Parivar members.

Zee TV has taken its celebration of 20 years as the theme for its special programming. It will air a special show ?Zee Ki Beesvi Diwali?, hosted by Rithvik Dhanjani and Rati Pandey. It will have dance performances by stars from Zee serial, a group act by the DID l?il Masters contestants, song performances by Sa Re Ga Ma Pa participants and comedy gags.

Performing in the studio in front of live audience, DID l?il Masters kids will showcase the eight avatars of Goddess Lakshmi in a Lakhsmi Poojan act.

?Zee Ki Beesvi Diwali? will air on 10 November at 8 pm. It will directly compete with Sab?s show ?Sab ki Diwali?, which will also air in the same slot.

In ?Sab ki Diwali?, all the stars of Sab will gather together to light up the screen for two hours, luminously bringing alive the diverse palette of cultures.

The event on Sab will be hosted by Sunil Grover and Bharti. Additionally, the Sab actors will entertain audience with comedy, skits and face-offs.

In keeping with the brand promise of our channel ?Asli maza sabke saath ata hai?, Sab has thought of a fun filled entertaining event that the entire family can enjoy and cherish on this festive ocassion.

SAB EVP and business head Anooj Kapoor said, "SAB Ki Diwali will showcase the most entertaining, enthraling and eventful performances by popular SAB TV artists that the entire family can watch together and celebrate the festival of lights with joy, togetherness and a smile on their face."

Life OK has already started celebrating the festive season since Dussehra with the launch of Ramleela. The five-episodic series will run till 18 November. It is a performance on this epic tale using a mix of dance, drama, music and "cutting-edge" technology.

Additonally, the entire Life OK channel packaging has been transformed to take over the festive look for this entire month from Navratri to Diwali.

Life OK business head Ajit Thakur said, "Life OK is all about celebrating everything about India. We did the entire packaging and programming around azaadi on Independence day. Same way we have packaged the channel for Diwali with lots of color lighting and festive mood decoration."

According to Thakur, the channel has extended the programming timing of Mahadev and Amrit Manthan to 45 minutes to celebrate Diwali. "The idea on festive season is to give out more what the audience likes. This is the time when they will watch television more."