MUMBAI:  The local sports scenario in India is taking off on TV. Colors Marathi, Viacom18’s regional GEC, along with Maharashtra Wrestling Championship League (MWCL) Sports and Maharashtra State Wrestling Association together announced the launch of Kusti Champions League (KCL) – Apla Banda, Khel Zinda.

Organised by MWCL Sports in association with Maharashtra State Wrestling Association, the live telecast of KCL will be aired exclusively on Colors Marathi and OTT app Voot. The league will premiere on 7 October 2018 and conclude its inaugural season with the grand finale on 28 October 2018. KCL will serve as a mega platform for the sport by inspiring and creating opportunities for local Maharashtrian players in the field. 

Talking to Indiantelevision.com, Viacom18 head regional entertainment Ravish Kumar said, “Colors Marathi is delighted by the opportunity and down the road, we will continue to look forward to sports which are rooted and are a part of our tradition. This is first of its kind we are getting into, especially in the regional space.”   

KCL will be played by six teams consisting of 72 players in total. KCL has selected over 300 players from across Maharashtra for an auction process.  Each team will consist of eight men and four women who are professionally trained in kusti. The cities participating in KCL are Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Kolhapur. A total of 90 matches across 21 days will be played on mat and soil at Balevadi Stadium, Pune in Maharashtra. 

“If you look at the sport, it is very deep rooted throughout Maharashtra, with a long history and tradition and present at grassroot levels. It’s a great partnership as Colors Marathi is also rooted in terms of its content, being a regional channel we really appeal to the length and width of the state,” he added.

“To uplift the sport further with an international approach towards mat wrestling, Kusti Champions League collectively aims to bring contenders from six regions of Maharashtra on one platform and establish them as strong contenders for Olympic 2020,” said KCL founder Pushkaraj Kelkar. “We want to take wrestling to every nook and corner of Maharashtra, give it the deserved fame and subsequently, create an international platform for the sport,” he added.

Talking about the ad rates of KCL, Kumar said, “As the matches will be telecast at early prime-time from 5:30 to 6:30 pm, we are also waiting to see how the market will respond as we are doing it for the first time. The ad rates will be lower than that of primetime.”

The six teams are Jigarbaaz Nashik, Kolhapur Shahu, Jaabaaz Aurangabad, Narveer Nagpur, Zunzaar Pune and Ranayoddha Mumbai. Each franchise will be given a salary purse of Rs 30 lakh in which it has to buy a minimum of 12 players.

Maharashtra State Wrestling Association and Maharashtra Olympic Asociation General secretary Balasaheb Langdesaid, “Kusti, the most ancient sport of Maharashtra will now be presented to the audience through Colors Marathi. Prior to this, kabaddi has been viewed in league format which was a commercial success for both the players and organisers. Similarly, to ensure that this Kusti League is a successful initiative, we would require the support of the people of India. This league will play a vital role in the player’s morale for the 2020 Olympics.” 

KCL COO Pradeep Iyengar said, “Wrestling has been one historical sport that has always contributed to India's sporting prowess, and we are proud to be associated at the state level to take it into the next phase of upliftment and are keenly looking at least five medals from the state at the 2020 Olympics. Kusti Champion League is committed to bringing out the best from the state's best.” 

The official radio partner for Kusti Champion League Season 1 is Radio City.

Earlier this year, DSport acquired the rights for Nidahas trophy, a tri-nation series tournament featuring India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The channel joined hands with Viacom18 to live telecast the series in Hindi commentary on its mass entertainment channels Rishtey Cineplex and Cineplex HD. 

In BARC week 10, Rishtey Cineplex climbed to the first position in the Hindi-speaking market with 545,931 impressions (000s) sum. It managed to match pubcaster DD Sports viewership leaving behind DSport in the urban plus rural (U+R) category. “This viewership was very impressive and it also brought to light that if people like a channel they expect to see everything on it,” Kumar concluded.