MUMBAI: Aired two years ago, this television show hosted by Aamir Khan took the country by storm with its focus on social ills such as female foeticide, dowry, domestic violence, child abuse, rape, domestic violence and honour killings among others.

Buoyed by the overwhelming response, the makers decided to take the franchise further. And so, starting 2 March, viewers can once again tune into Satyamev Jayate on Sundays at 11 am on Star Plus.

With a tagline that reads: ‘Jinhe Desh Ki Fikar Hai’, season two promises hard-hitting content like before but the format will be different. Unlike the last time when all 13 episodes ran at a stretch, this time, the series has been broken up into three quarters with five episodes in March and the remaining eight episodes split into groups of four each.

Airtel has been roped in as title sponsor while Axis Bank is the powered by sponsor this season. According to industry sources, the sticker price of the show is anywhere between Rs 3 crore and Rs 3.5 crore.

Marketing and promotion

Host Aamir Khan and Star Plus have come out with six different promos that are already doing the rounds on the network.

One of them begins with Khan asking the question, ‘Pata hai apna show kaun dekhega?’ later shifting his gaze to the cars and autos on the road below. He sees some of them breaking the traffic rules and shakes his head: ‘Yeh nahin dekhega’. Moments later, he breaks into a smile on seeing one of the cars paying heed to the red signal. ‘Yeh dekhega,’ he signs off...

The promo, which urges people to be responsible citizens, went on air on 25 January and has since garnered 552,000 views.

Apart from the promo, the show itself has set social media aflutter. From 1.6 million likes last season on Facebook, season two has garnered nearly 2.7 million likes. From close to 93,000 followers on Twitter last season, this time, there are around 143,000 followers.

While initial conversations around SMJ were triggered by Khan’s popularity, later conversations are more around the causes espoused by the actor on the show. Plus, the channel shares and tweets these conversations and uploads videos on a daily basis to keep up the buzz.

Industry Speaks

Ahead of the launch of season two, indiantelevision.com spoke to a cross-section of industry about the return of SMJ and how it would fare in their opinion...

“For me, a show like SMJ doesn’t need any promotions. The fact that it is coming back says a lot about it and the impact it has had on people. In one of the promos where Aamir is talking about who will watch SMJ and who won’t speaks of responsible behavior. SMJ is beyond television, it is meaningful TV!” said Havas Media managing director Mohit Joshi.

“The promos this time are a little tongue in cheek. They’re quite subtle. Even the timings are correct, with elections coming near and what is happening in Delhi, these things are tying in very relevantly. It’s really bang on to start conversations around it especially Aamir Khan in this style,” said Lodestar UM vice-president Deepak Netram.

However, about the change in format, he said: “A show always works if you have continuity; appointment viewing builds up after a certain period of time certainly for GECs. Having gaps is not going to help, but I guess in the grain of what the show is I am sure it is possibly going to be an objective which will have people looking forward to the show.  The challenge will be to maintain the momentum and keep the excitement going, because there will be so much happening in between.”

“The promos are more interesting than the previous season. If someone is watching it for the first time, they will be inquisitive about it. But for people who have already watched the previous season, they know the format of the show. This season the promos are much more focused, straight to the point and more subjective,” believes Graphene Media CEO Sanjoy Chakrabarty.

Commenting on the break pattern Chakrabarty asserts: “Since the topics are relevant and very engaging, people will consume the content in dozes so break won’t affect the viewership.”