MUMBAI: The channel that loves to break from the monstrous mould has done it once again.
The youth channel, MTV, which is guided by the mission to kill boredom, is all set to launch a brand new show which will focus on love in a supernatural setting. The show christened Fanaah – An impossible love story marks the channel’s debut into fantasy genre. The programme is set to go on-air starting 21 July, every Monday-Friday 6pm onwards.
The show comes in after the premier of MTV Splitsvilla 7 which also celebrates the theme of love. The reason for the overdose of love on the channel is: love stories never go out of fashion.
The concept of the series revolving around supernatural took shape a couple of months back when MTV through its research across 40 cities and 11,000 youth at the MTV Youth Marketing Forum found out that fantasy love tales and the supernatural world captivate their imagination.
“In real life though youngsters might resist a commitment, but they are exploring relationships. They romanticise the idea of eternal and true love. Also, in India there is nothing available on television on fantasy fiction,” states MTV India head – marketing and insights Sumeli Chatterjee.
Building on these findings, MTV decided to come up with a unique story of teen love featuring vampires and werewolves.
The show will feature popular television artists Karan Kundra, Ritvik Dhanjani, Ratan Rajput, Anita Hasnandani and Chetna Pandey in prominent roles.
According to Chatterjee what will hit the right chord with the audiences is its storytelling. The storylines are very complex. “It is based on today’s world and resonates the ambitions of a regular youngster. Be it an urban youth or from a smaller town, everybody will be able to connect to it. The narration will have a time lapse in it. There will be a complex storytelling and with the parallel digital universe, it will help the audience to understand the story and also connect back to the plot conveniently.”
What sets apart the show from the rest is the styling and the characterisation , which Chatterjee claims is a never seen before.
MTV programming head Vikas Gupta says, “Love is a very strong emotion and with MTV Fanaah we want to push the boundaries of what love can mean to different people and what can one achieve purely through the power of love. It’s a great story and we’re glad to have the biggest and the hottest actors, who have a very strong, connect with the youth in India.”
Talking about how this show will be different from the rest, Chatterjee says, that while the routine serials would portray characters as heroes and villains, in Fanaah, life is not exactly black and white. All the characters are grey. They are not exactly good or bad, they are good and bad. “This would make it an interesting viewing and easier to relate to for the viewers,” she adds.
Considering the internet audience love fantasy fiction as a plot, the show will be marketed heavily on digital as well. The channel is creating a parallel universe on the website which will follow the track on television. It will talk about why a particular character behaves in a particular manner.
Along with a robust on-air promotion, the show will also be supported by a 360 degree marketing plan. The teasers for Fanaah were launched earlier last month through a unique leak video featuring lead actor Karan Kundra. The video which showed Kundra biting a girl at a bar went viral and generated a lot of curiosity.
The channel has got on-board Cafe Coffee Day as its Cafe partner, Miss Malini as its social media partner and RED FM as its radio partner.
Media planners feel that today’s youngsters have seen the vampires and werewolves love stories in international films and shows. Therefore, Indians broadcasters need to go beyond the usual to catch the attention and imagination of these youngsters.
The show is going to have a neck-to-neck competition with Yeh Hai Aashiqui on bindass and Gumrah (Season 3) on Channel V.
