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."

MUMBAI: Viacom18?s upcoming Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) Colors is launching on 21 July.

Starting from 7 pm, the channel will launch with four hours of original programming. The initial focus will be on weekday prime time, driven by the big ticket driver show Fear Factor-Khatron Ke Khiladi at 10 pm every Monday-Thursday. Produced by Endemol India, the one-hour reality show will see Bollywood star Akshay Kumar playing as the host as 13 Bollywood actresses compete with each other.

With the tagline jasbaat ke rang, the channel has put the Hindi movie slot at 4 pm every Sunday while on Saturdays it will have the Sajid Khan-hosted celebrity chat show Sajid?s Superstars.

Colors CEO Rajesh Kamat says, ?As planned, we will be launching Colors on 21 July. Our main aim is to provide differentiated and disruptive programming to our viewers. We have drama, reality and movies as well. It is a basket of offerings, mixed with all the emotions and colours.?

In the weekday primetime every Monday to Friday at 7 pm, Colors will have a fantasy show Rahe Tera Aashirwad.

Produced by Jay and Kinnari, Mehtaa Rahe Tera Aashirwad is a story of an orphan girl Bhakti who is fighting with evils with the grace of Mata Vaishnodevi.

At 7.30 pm every Monday to Friday, Colors will air fiction based show Bandhan Saat Janamon Ka which revolves around the issue of dowry in Indian marriages. It is produced by Shakuntalam Films.

The channel will highlight the social issue of child marriage with Balika Vadhu ? Kacchi Umar Ke Pakke Rishte at 8 pm every Monday to Friday. The daily fiction from Sphere Origins narrates the story of a child bride.

At 8.30 pm Colors has placed the mythological series Jai Shri Krishna, produced by Meenakshi Sagar Productions. It chronicles the growing up years of Krishna.

From Monday to Thursday it will have Jeevan Saathi at 9 pm which is an inter-religion love story. Jeevan Saathi is produced by Playtime Creations, the production house owned by Paresh Rawal, Hemal Thakkar and Swaroop Sampat.

At 9.30 pm, Monday-Thursday Colors will have Mohe Rang De, a period drama set in the backdrop of ?1942 Quit India Movement?. Mohe Rang De is produced by Deepti Bhatnagar Productions.

With Wizcraft Internatonal, Colors is doing a celebrity chat-show Sajid?s Superstar hosted by Sajid Khan. Sajid?s Superstar will see guests like Anil Kapoor, Farah Khan, Ritiesh Deshmukh, Vivek Oberai, Vidya Balan, Shahid Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar among others.

Colors, the first channel to come out from the joint venture between Viacom and TV18, has an early prime time focus on shows meant for smaller towns which would gradually build into the metro audiences.

Explains Kamat, "Between 7 to 9 pm, we have placed shows that have strong appeal among non-metro masses. The 9-10 pm slot will have content tailored for smaller towns as well as metros. The more urban shows like Fear Factor and Sajid?s Superstars are at 10 pm."

Adds Colors programming head Ashvini Yardi: "Hindi general entertainment channels have seen a massive rise in audiences from the smaller towns."

Every Sunday at 4 pm, Colors will show Hindi movie in the segment ?Blockbuster Movies?. For the movie part, Colors will go for movie syndication.

?Syndication is the need of the hour, as there are not many movies left in the market for acquisition,? avers Kamat.

Colors has acquired flicks like Singh is Kinng (not released yet), Bhootnath, Heyy Baby, Om Shanti Om, One Two Three, Dus Kahanniya, Sunday, Black and White and Welcome among others.

The channel is planning to have a 360 degree marketing plan to support its content. "We will have more than 1000 hoardings across the top 20 cities. We will touch our viewers at malls, trains, bus stations and temples. We will be everywhere. We will be promoting across 35 TV channels," says Kamat.

Colors has also entered into a marketing tie-up with Future Group and McDonalds to promote the channel at Big Bazar, Pantaloons stores and McDonalds chain of restuarants.