NEW DELHI: Just over six months since Doordarshan declared the results of the prime time auctions for DD National in December, the first of these programmes is finally all set to go on air. Commencing on 24 June, the unique music reality show ‘Suron ka Eklavya’ will be telecast every Saturday and Sunday from 8 pm to 9 pm.
The show has been produced by the multifaceted media company Saaibaba Telefilms which had won slots, as did Balaji Telefilms.
While Balaji won four slots, Saai Baba Telefilms bagged two. Saai won the bids for 7.30 pm to 8 pm from Monday to Friday, and 8 pm to 9 pm on Saturday and Sunday. As the RFP (request for proposal) document had made it clear that no party could bid for more than three slots in a week, DD sources told indiantelevision.com that Balaji had to surrender one of the slots it won in the bid.
‘Suron ka Eklavya’ will mark a tribute to the three pillars of playback singing - the legendary -- Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, and Lata Mangeshkar with gharanas named after them.
The concept of the show is to present the gems of Bollywood music from the golden period of Hindi music with fresh voices retaining the signature style of the legends. The weekly show will feature the best of the industry and will engage the audience with spell bound music, anecdotes, interaction with judges and much more.
The show has a mixed bag of young talent, veterans from the fraternity, and stunning sets making it visually appealing. The contestants will be groomed and nurtured for their future music careers by celebrity mentors.
While there are many music reality shows, Suron ka Ekalavya is expected to stand out with its innovative and unique format, details of which will be revealed soon. Link for the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWZ8lnQZbJg
In the auctions held and for which results were announced in the second week of December last, no bids were received for three slots: 10 pm to 10.30 pm and 10.30 to 11 pm from Monday to Thursday and the 7pm to 8 pm slot on Sunday.
After two failures at auctions in 2016, Doordarshan had after a Prasar Bharati Board meeting in October last announced a series of concessions once the programmers come on board, including lowering base price for a 30-minute slot to Rs. 150,000.
Earlier this slot had been fixed at Rs 250.000 when the auction was first announced in June last year and was further decreased to Rs 200,000 when the new date was set for a second auction in early September 2016.
Producers/production houses that have produced at least 200 hours of general entertainment programming, including feature film productions in any Indian language in the last three years, and have a turnover of minimum Rs 30 million per annum in the field of TV and film production in the last three financial years are eligible to apply.
Applicants for weekend slots in the genres of reality, game and quiz were required to have produced 100 hours of such content in the last three years. However, DD sources said that certain changes had been made for successful bidders to promote their programmes.
Successful bidders will now also be allowed to approach and obtain advertisements from public service undertaking for their programmes on Doordarshan, which was not permitted earlier. Doordarshan has also laid down a compulsory number of promotional commercials, which will be free, on various channels of Doordarshan network.
In addition, successful bidders will be allowed to ‘bank’ their free commercial time. That is, in case a successful bidder has not exhausted the number of promotional commercials (totalling 240 seconds) permitted before the telecast of a particular programme, the balance can be used as and when the programme picks up in popularity.
The exit option has also been relaxed: in case a producer decides to opt out of the scheme, he will need to give only 45 days notice instead of three months. The lock-in period for this has also been reduced from one year to six months.
