'Super Dancer’ for weekend; 3 new shows in Oct, Nov, Dec: Danish Khan

Sony Entertainment Television is all set to beef up its weekend line-up with kids dance reality show, ‘Super Dancer - Dance Ka Kal’. ‘Super Dancer’ will showcase dance talents from across the country on one national platform. The show premiers on September 10, 2016 and will air every Saturday and Sunday at 8 pm. Frames Production Company has been roped in as creative partner for the show.

After a nationwide hunt to scout for India’s best dancing talents across 15 cities, where kids underwent rigorous screening, 12 dancers will get the opportunity to compete for the coveted title of Super Dancer – Dance Ka Kal. Each final contestant will be paired with one notable choreographer who will mentor, understand and nurture their strengths, while introducing them to different dance techniques and bring out the best in them week on week.

‘Super Dancer’ will be judged by actor Shilpa Shetty, choreographer Geeta Kapur, and director Anurag Basu. The show will be hosted by Rithvik Dhanjani and Paritosh Tripathi.

Commenting on the show, Danish Khan, EVP & Business Head, Sony Entertainment Television, said, ““Sony Entertainment Television has always celebrated talent across India – ‘Indian Idol’, ‘Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega’, and ‘KBC’, among others. ‘Super Dancer’ will give a national platform for dancing talents to be nurtured, groomed and honed. We are delighted to have Frames Production Company as our creative partner. We are excited to have Shilpa Shetty, Geeta Kapur and Anurag Basu as we embark on this journey.”

He further said that Patanjali, Quick heal and Power Air had come on board as sponsors for ‘Super Dancer’.

Regarding marketing and promotions of ‘Super Dancer’, Khan remarked, “We are pretty active in marketing the show. Today, the most important part of marketing is to ignite conversations. There are shows which lead conversation and create an impact. The way I see it, content will develop more marketing than platforms, because everyone is using the same platforms with the same rituals and just a few innovations here and there. But content is different, it is the marketing. Media application is more or less hygiene for everyone. We find social media to be a great tool for marketing.”

Ranjeet Thankur, Co-founder, Frames Production Company, added here, “‘Super Dancer’ is the search to give India its first future of dance. To achieve this ambition, we have gone far and wide across the country in our search of talent. As always, it’s a delight partnering with Sony Entertainment Television. Their vision for the brand and faith in team collaboration makes for a great show.”

Speaking on the uniqueness of ‘Super Dancer’, Hemant Ruprell, Co-founder, Frames Production Company, said, “Basically, dance shows are all about finding the best talent in the country, but here the biggest element that we have innovated this time is the Guru-Shishya theme. Here, every kid will have a dedicated choreographer, which has not happened yet. And every kid will be trained keeping in mind their strengths, the core strengths of their dancing and dance forms in terms of flexibility. And those particular gurus will make sure to bring out the best in them.”

While shows like ‘Nach Baliye’ and ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa’ have seen the pairing of choreographer and dancer, they feature adult dancers. On introducing a similar concept for ‘Super Dancer’ Ruprell said, “Here, the Guru-Shishya concept goes in the most apt way, because these kids require more training and more understanding of a particular form of dance. These kids, aged 5, 6, 7, are untrained. They are too new and naive, too innocent to understand the dance that they have been doing till now, and to the level that we want to take them. So this Guru-Shishya combination is something that will take this dance show to another level.”

AdGully caught up with Sony’s Danish Khan to know more about what the channel has been up to, the weekend programming strategy, reviving successful shows of the past and more.

Sony’s weekend programming looks sorted in the 8-10 pm prime time band. What are your plans for the 7-8 pm time slot?
We are not going for the 7-8 pm time slot at the moment. And if you look at it, our weekend programming stretches from 8 pm to 12.30 am, where we have the following shows:
8-9 pm – Super Dancer
9-10.30 pm – The Kapil Sharma Show
10.30-11.30 pm – CID
11.30 pm-12.30 am – Crime Patrol

Previously, we used to have three and a half hours of weekend programming, now we have increased it to four and a half hours.

We will open up the 7-8 pm time slot, but it will not be immediately.

Speaking about the ‘Kapil Sharma Show’, it took some time to get the necessary traction and the numbers…
Starting with the first episode, the ‘Kapil Sharma Show’ has created a market of its own and I think it has built up a huge reach on weekends on Sony. The ‘Kapil Sharma Show’ is a major pillar of Sony.

Sony has had several successful shows in the past. Are there plans to bring back some of them?
After ‘Super Dancer’, we will be bringing back ‘Indian Idol’, which will be either in December 2015 or January 2017. We are working on new seasons of ‘KBC’, ‘Das Ka Dum’, and ‘Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega’. You will see all these shows of Sony in the coming year.

We will have three launches in October, November and December this year. These new shows will further strengthen Sony’s weekday line-up. These include ‘Behadd’ and two more shows. Our current shows – ‘Hanuman’ and ‘Kuch Rang Pyar Ke’ – have been doing well. ‘Crime Patrol’ is going strong. So, with the launch of the three new shows in October, November and December, we will be able to cement our weekday programming.

Are you looking forward to work with some newer partners?
It’s not about working with new or old partners. We have developed our internal process in which we select concept fairly and squarely. Anybody who comes up with a fresh concept and is passionate and hungry, we will work with them. We have launched shows with Bodhi Tress “Bade Bhaiyya Ki Dulhaniya’; we have launched with Bindu (‘Ek Duje Ke Waaste’; we have launched with Yash (‘Ek Rishta Saajhedari’, which is Kavita Barjatiya’s show). We are working with Optimystix, which is an older partner. So the criteria is not old or new, we are working with all. The main criteria are passion and ideas.

What have been the learnings for you?
(Laughs) See, everyday you learn something in this industry, but one thing I would like to say, we are trying to follow regal. Regal in storytelling, regal in every concept, in our casting, in production values. After selecting a concept, it takes a lot of time with the creatives, in executing and mounting it. And ultimately it comes down to the execution. There are some great ideas, but ultimately it has to be regal.