CANNES: Indian content - apart from Bollywood movies ? has not really travelled much overseas with total sales of TV shows globally not even crossing $20 million annually. The reason: broadcasters who own the content are loathe to sell it aggressively internationally, and prefer sitting on their hundreds of thousands of hours of TV shows.

But wait, here?s a player who‘s willing to challenge and change the status quo. Zee TV which has been quite aggressive in building its presence at TV content markets such as MipTV and Mipcom is about to take a major step by branding its syndicated content division as Zee Bollyworld. The company is making a soft launch of this intiaitive at MipTV in Cannes.

Says international business head Bharat Kumar Ranga: "No longer are we going to be in the commodity selling business, wherein we (Zee and other broadcasters which are selling content) cut each other‘s prices just to strike a deal with a potential buyer for our TV shows. Say we are quoting $200 an episode, another Indian broadcaster is more than open to discounting that price, and a third broadcaster is quite ok with dropping it even further."

Ranga says that Zee TV is quite kicked up about branding Indian TV content and building up the genre. "We chose the name Zee Bollyworld. We will be selling TV shows and movies as we wanted to own the Indian content message globally. Apart from selling our content in 18-19 languages, we will be aggregating it under the Zee Bollyworld from other sources too and syndicating it internationally," he says.

Ranga points out that the Zee group has a huge amount of business intelligence from 45 markets around the world, thanks to the number of years that it has been distributing its channels internationally and also attending international syndication markets like MipCom and MipTV. "Our syndication sales people are being re-nominclatured as syndication advisers ? they will no longer sell programming, they will advise buyers. We are looking at building strong relationships with our clients," he reveals.

MUMBAI: Putting an end to the mystery behind the "Ab Shekhar Dubara Karega" campaign, Sab, the family comedy channel from Multi Screen Media (earlier Sony Entertainment Network), has announced the return of Shekhar Suman with ?Movers and Shakers?.

Starting 12 March, the show will air Monday-Friday at the 10.30 pm time slot.

This is after a gap of 10 years that Suman will be hosting the iconic chat cum stand up show. Suman had first appeared in the show in 1997 on Sony Entertainment Television and the show ran till January 2001.

Sab EVP and business head Anooj Kapoor believes Movers and Shakers will push Sab ahead of Zee TV, the way Kaun Banega Crorepati had helped Sony overtake Colors.

"Movers and Shakers is making a comeback after a decade but people have still not forgotten it primarily due to Shekhar?s trademark style and wit. The second season is going to be a new challenge for Shekhar because the audience he is speaking to this time is the entire family. However, given his versatility we are sure that he will be able to carry it off successfully," Kapoor said.

The channel has chalked out a big promotion push for the show. While it has already painted big cities with hoardings of the teaser campaign, the second phase will see even a bigger drive. Without disclosing the exact amount, Kapoor said that Sab will be spending 7 per cent of its total marketing budget on this show. The channel has chartered a Jet Aircraft which will go to seven cities with Suman to promote the show.

To accommodate the show, channel is shifting FIR from its present 10.30 pm slot to 11 pm, while the repeat of Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma will shift to 11.30 pm.

"We get a 1-1.5 TVR at 11 pm with FIR, while Tarak Mehta? repeats at 11 pm get close to 2 TVR. So we decided to expand the primetime. Moreover, both FIR and Movers and Shakers have viewership that is male-skew. This will help the show," Kapoor explained.

Movers and Shakers this season will retain the basic elements of topicality, freshness, variety and unpredictability but the differentiator will be a more mature host, Sab said. He will offer his comments on all things concerning common people based on the collective wisdom gained from his journey through the rough and tumble of the country?s issues. The show is being produced by Sailesh Dave from Runaway productions.

Speaking about the show, Suman said, "I am excited to be back with Movers and Shakers. It?s a cult show and a great platform to reconnect with the people as well as be the common man?s voice. The show this time will be incisive, irreverent, endearing and entertaining all at the same time!"

Movers and Shakers this season will see the host focusing more on the human aspects of celebrities and their stories along with a set of ?must see elements?, ?street segments? and a ?common man? segment.