MUMBAI: Doordarshan (DD) seems to be banking on the Bollywood formula to woo viewers during the afternoon slot on the last Saturday of the month. Starting 29 March, DD National has started airing a Hindi film in the 3-6 pm slot.

The film screened on 29 March was ace director Shekhar Kapoor's Masoom starring Jugal Hansraj, Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah. Marketing concessionaire Reasonable Advertising, which markets BR TV's Aap Beeti , bagged the mandate of putting together the package for the newly developed slot, including the selection of the movie.

The film shown last Saturday managed to rake in advertising moolah, despite the fact that the telecast coincided with the financial year end for several clients. Other clients who had spent heavily during the cricket World Cup also stayed away due to budgetary constraints. However, big guns Colgate, Bajaj Sevashram, Dabur and Parle Products were the major sponsors.

Regional vernacular movies are normally aired in the Saturday afternoon-evening slot and they get good advertising support from advertisers. DD's primetime Hindi film slot is scheduled for evenings.

With this new experiment, DD is seeking to examine the possibility of expanding its viewer base in the afternoon slot.