Life OK in association with Balaji to thrill audiences soon!

Always known to come up with unique marketing strategies Ekta Kapoor has done it once again! This time round she is launching a big ticket promotional series, ‘Ek Thi Nayika’ on Life OK and not leaving any stone unturned to make headlines. Be it for bringing back Smriti Irani and Sakshi Tanwar together on screen or making Balaji lead characters to be part of the show, Ekta Kapoor has proved herself once again as queen of Indian Television with this innovative idea of promoting her new movie ‘Ek Thi Daayan’ . The new show on the channel  is a mega series through which eight popular television actresses will promote the movie differently. With this move Ek Thi Naayika will now replace their earlier crime based show ‘Savdhaan India’.

The show comprises of 8 stories of 16 episodes where one “Maha nayika” in every episode will wage war with the demons. All of Ekta's favourite leading ladies from her top-rated TV series will be seen in this new and innovative television property. The show will feature top actresses such as Smriti Irani, Sakshi Tanwar, Shweta Tiwari, Ankita Lokhande, Kritika Kamra and Aamna Sharif , Mouli Ganguly and Pooja Gor in the lead roles. The show will also feature the characters from ‘Ek Thi Daayan’, including an appearance by Emraan Hashmi. The show Ek Thi Naayika, to be aired on Life OK beginning March 9 2013 will be a 16-episode thrilling and spooky series and will  be aired every Saturday and Sunday at 11 pm

The big names include Smriti Malhotra Irani, Sakshi Tanwar, Aamna Shariff, Mauli Ganguly, Shweta Tiwari, Kritika Kamra, Pooja Gaur and Ankita Lokhande. "This is the first time ever that the biggest household names of television have come together to participate in a high-concept fictional series oriented at promoting a forthcoming film. This is creative marketing at its best," Ekta of Balaji Motion Pictures, said in a statement.

The show will also have appearances by characters from Ek Thi Daayan, including one by Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi. The movie Ek Thi Daayan, co-produced by Vishal Bhardwaj, is due for release on April 8 2013. It also has Konkona Sen Sharma, Kalki Koechlin and Huma Quereshi as part of its key cast.

On the show, Smriti plays a Gujarati woman, Sakshi essays the part of a Rajasthani woman, while Mauli plays a Bengali character. Kritika will play a Punjabi kudi from Chandigarh, and Aamna essays a Muslim protagonist from Uttar Pradesh. Actress Shweta will appear as an Uttar Pradesh girl in Ek Thi Naayika, while Ankita will be seen in the part of a Maharashtrian girl, and Pooja will play a Delhi girl. Each episode will showcase the Naayika’s struggle against evil.

Speaking to Adgully at the launch of the new show ‘Ek Thi Nayika’ Ajit Thakur, General Manager, Life OK shared some interesting insights about the upcoming show and also how the channel continues to entertain audiences with differentiated content till date.

Thakur expressed his views about the channel’s association with Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms . The origin of the idea of associating with ‘Ek Thi Dayan’ was the desire of the channel to work with Ekta Kapoor and she wanted to promote it differently. Elaborating further on this he said, “I have wanted Ekta to be on Life OK for quite some time now. So we have been working for quite some time as to how to get a concept on Life OK and it was during one of these conversations that she brought up the topic about this film and I liked the new concept that she came up with.”

He said that nowadays much time and money is spent by the channel trying to promote  one short film . “So if we can establish that we can help the film over a longer period but if you can give us content which is meaningful which also caters to the television audience that is like a sone pe suhaga (a win win situation) .Initially we had planned for 4 episodes but later  decided to do 16 episodes and make it almost like a full fledged TV series. So it is not a marketing tie up any more but more of a content cross over between films and television and we have taken a single concept which comes from our folklore, our literature, one story of that will be seen on big screens and eight stories of that will be seen on small screens . That is a big innovation and a big leap forward for Bollywood and television. Lots of people have actually called us up and appreciated our new idea ,” says Thakur.

Does he consider it a spin off ? To this he replied, “Yes it is a spin off and a tribute to Ekta’s brilliance in terms of being a content person . We can help her film and she in turn helps the TV channel . I consider it a landmark and a milestone in many ways for content integration.”

When asked if producing the shows was very expensive for the channel Thakur said “Absolutely they are very expensive.” But he went on to inform that they since it is  a marketing tie up , Balaji and Life OK are sharing the costs which  works well for all concerned. “For her it is a promotion for her film for us it is a relevant content for our audience since at 11 pm there is no content like this. Where else on television do you see all these superstars coming together,” he says.

He also stressed on the fact that the show does not belong to the genre of horror. The whole concept is very different but it is definitely not a horror show but more of a thriller with a lot of folklore and literature . “You will get spooked but not because of ghosts but because of real life people,” he said good humouredly.

With regard to a message that would be conveyed with  every episode he said that the message comes from the title of the series itself viz.  ‘Ek Thi Naayika’. Shedding further light on this  he said, “The first message is that good always wins . The second message we are reinforcing is that while it is great story and  a work of fiction and in every story you will find somebody who challenges the existence of  the supernatural.  So a lot of precaution has been taken to make sure that the message is very clear.  We want to entertain people we want to thrill and we want to give content like never before. But we want to be responsible and make sure that good wins always and that the non believer too exists .In every story Ekta has carefully crafted a character who in a non believer.”

Sharing more about the  marketing front he said that  the show in itself is a marketing strategy “Beyond that a lot of the stuff we are doing through PRs .We are going to all the towns which has a connection in the story and talking about the show. Other than this we are doing a lot of stuff on line because there is so much talk about how all the heroines have come together and since it is a film  integration in that sense we are putting the promos of this in theatres across 400 UFO screens and of course we will promote it on television,” informed Thakur. To create a buzz about the new show, the channel is focusing on digital and cinema, in addition to the television medium.

With Savitri already on the channel would it not be one too many shows with the supernatural theme ?  He did not agree on this point and explained that the pitch is very different. Elaborating further he said “This will be about the victory of normal women like our women for e.g. housewives over what is considered evil and supernatural. Savitri is not a battle against the ghosts but to get her love back It is more of a love story so in term of genres it is very different . In the backdrop there is supernatural but very different and another differentiating factor would be that Savitri is aired during the week and the new show would be on air only during weekends. Savitri is a lot more like a soap and drama and this is will be a lot more like a thriller.”

Channel Life OK has always been different from  most GECs today. Sharing about their future plans he said   “On Life OK we have always busted the myth that the only way to make a GEC channel is by daily having  saas bahu soaps   . Presently we do not have a single one. But as we move on from 2612 and Savdhaan we have to keep finding new genres because we have stuck to our commitment on not making saas bahu soaps. So as we are doing that supernatural is one. We are also looking folklore and literature , We are also doing our first love story a few weeks from now. So for us now it is about opening new genres so that we can establish ourselves a channel which is truly for family and general entertainment and not just the saas bahu channel that we have seen.”

Speaking about the new show he said that it would be aired during weekdays  but the channel is yet to decide on the time slot. The serial called ‘ Kaisa Yeh Ishq Hai has been shot in Bangkok and Singapore and the promos are already on air.

When asked if all the shows for Ek Thi Naayaika had been shot already Thakur avers “Ekta never shoots so much in advance and she will make changes. Till the last minute she will keep improving to make it better. So two stories are shooting  right now. One is with Ankita where the story is set in Maharashtra and the second with Kritika in Punjab. Those two have started shooting and next on the floor shall be Smriti’s story and will be followed by the others.”

With regard to sponsors for the show he said that since it is a cross promotion between a TV series and a film they are unable to have a presenting sponsor  since that would mean  infringing on Balaji’s rights .

Is  Life OK starting a new era in terms of marketing altogether? To this Ajit Thakur replies, “ This is beyond marketing This is a new milestone in terms of content collaboration between Bollywood and television . The starting of the idea was how to market each other but what we ended up with is content collaboration . Ekta might have had ten stories of supernatural in her mind one of which is going on the big screen and eight of them are coming to television. You can consider this as the strength of television. You really want to use to TV the build it over time so hopefully she will be happy with what we can do for her film and we will be happy with what she does for our show.”

Speaking about the DVD market that has been launched in connection with their show  ‘ Mahadev’ and sharing their forthcoming initiatives he said “ The DVD market is not very big but we have already broken some ground since we have always wanted to do things differently . We have broken ground in terms of saying that Life OK goes beyond the channel so for us Mahadev DVD is a big initiative . Now today our biggest initiative beyond TV is Mahadev Ganga . We have gone to Uttarakhand where we are talking about cleaning up the Ganga . There is a lot of demand for the DVD . We did not do with the idea of making money but because there was a public demand and we would like them to catch up and this is the ideal way they can do so. It may soon be the case with their new show ‘Ek Thi Naayika” too. .

“So we will continue with such unique initiatives because we consider that our responsibility starts by entertaining but it does not end there,” said  Ajit Thakur thus concluding  an interesting conversation.

‘Ek  Thi Naayika” goes live this Saturday  i.e.  9th March 2013  at 11 pm. and will continue till 8th April 2013 . In view of maintaining a continuity in the promotion of the film the show on Life OK ends in the week when the film  ‘Ek Thi Daayan’ is due  for release.

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