There’s enough appetite in the masses to consume comedy: Ashish Golwalkar

Sony Entertainment Television is beefing up its weekend offering with its second comedy show – ‘The Drama Company’. The one-hour show, which is launching on July 16, 2017, will be aired every Saturday and Sunday at 8.00 pm ahead of ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ (TKSS). 

Produced by Lil Frodo and Frames Productions Company, ‘The Drama Company’ will see the television debut of Mithun Chakraborty as Shambu Dada. The show will also feature popular comedian Krushna Abhishek, Sudesh Lehri, along with former TKSS actors Ali Asgar, Dr Sanket Bhosale and Sugandha Mishra, besides Ridhima Pandit, Tanaji and Aru Verma.  

Every episode will feature this team of misfits aspiring to make a blockbuster play to impress Shambhu Dada in exchange for a promise of a world tour. But as luck would have it, nothing will go right. The hilarious turn of events will push the madcap team to start afresh with a brand-new play every week. Little do they know that Shambu Dada is a sham, who is running his own business by selling tickets for the play. The show will explore multiple genres of comedy – from topical to physical comedy. 

Elaborating on the new show, Ashish Golwalkar, Senior Creative Director, Sony Entertainment Television, said, “‘The Drama Company’ will bring a never seen before comedy format on Indian television. This show has one of the best cast; an eclectic mix of performers never seen together. We are delighted to partner Lil Frodo and its young creative leadership team to bring this unique show on Sony. This will further strengthen our weekend leadership position.” 

Preeti Simoes, Producer & Creative Director, Lil Frodo, added here, “Comedy undoubtedly is the most loved genre on Indian television. ‘The Drama Company’ will showcase different shades of humour, with an impressive line-up of seasoned talent bonding together. This is an attempt to bring theatre and its elements on television. It is designed for the family audiences, and on account of the comic situations and funny goof-ups it is bound to get attention from all members of the family, including children.” Incidentally, Simoes was also the producer of ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’. 

In conversation with Adgully, Ashish Golwalkar speaks about launching a second comedy show, the differentiating factors, advertisers on board, evolving audience tastes as far as comedy is concerned and much more. Excerpts: 

What made Sony to come up with a second comedy show? How is this show different from ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’?
Comedy is an under-represented genre in our country and people have huge appetite to watch comedy. Sony has already been entertaining its audiences on weekends with ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’, which airs at 9 pm; ‘The Drama Company’ will be a completely different show with talented actors, great concepts, sets and time, and will be aired of TKSS.  

How does ‘The Drama Company’ fit intp Sony’s DNA? 
Sony has done ‘Comedy Circus’ and many other comedy-based shows in the past. ‘The Drama Company’ is a cross between ‘Comedy Circus’ and ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’, but is totally different from most of the comedy shows currently on air. 

Though it has a different concept, ‘The Drama Company’ caters to the same genre of comedy as ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’. Do you think the audience has the appetite for consuming 2 hours of back-to-back comedy?
There is enough appetite in the masses to consume comedy. The grain of this new show is totally different from ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’, which is an interview-based comedy show. ‘The Drama Company’, on the other hand, has a skit format, where the involvement of celebrities is different as compared to TKSS. 

Will this be a finite series?
Yes, ‘The Drama Company’ is a finite series with 13 episodes which will be aired bi-weekly. 

Who are the advertisers on board for this show?
The show is sponsored by Ching’s, Smith & Jones Pasta Masala, Vivo, Reliance Trends and many other brands. 

Any new show launches during the festive season?
Very soon Sony Entertainment will come up with two shows – ‘Pehredar Piya Ki’ and ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. 

Do you think ‘Pehredar Piya Ki’ fits Sony’s TG?
People are judging the show just by looking at the promo for the show, but the show is so much more than just the promo. The protagonist is a progressive girl with an urban mindset, just like any other lead character on Sony channel. We believe the audience will like the show once it airs. 

‘Jatt ki Jungi’ was a good effort. Why was the show ended so soon?
‘Jatt is Jungi’ was a good show, but somewhere it lacked resonance with the audiences, and since it was aired in the 8.30 pm slot, which is core primetime viewing, it created a lot of pressure on us. We always keep on creating fresh content, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, but for that we don’t blame the creators because we are the ones who create such content that didn’t get connected with our viewers.

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