SMJ 2: Mixed responses yet all over the place

Sundays’ are not the same now! We all remember watching Ramanand Sagar’s Mahabhart on Doordarshan decades back. That according to a lot of people, changed the television viewing habit of Indians. After the show was closed, people did not have anything that they could watch out for on a lazy Sunday morning. Come year 2012 and our Sundays changed again, to a completely new platform – Satyamev Jayate.

Satyamev Jayate (SMJ) was launched in 2012, with the secrecy element kept completely intact. The promo’s of the show were very different from the usual television shows; they were musical, beautifully shot and looked ‘film-like’ to a lot of them. Marking Aamir Khan’s debut on television, not only as anchor nut also as a television producer, SMJ was seen as a big bet for everyone – the broadcaster – Star Plus, sponsors, audiences and Aamir himself. A serious format, ‘information-based’, Sunday morning time slot, all things looked as obstacles for the show. But thanks to the concept and the sleek execution of ideas, SMJ Season 1 changed television history. People eagerly awaited the first episode of the show only to be surprised as to how topics and issues that a common man knows, yet doesn’t know well can be brought to light via a television show; holding the intensity, sensitivity and care of not agonizing the human sentiments in the issue. Topics ranging from domestic violence, child sex abuse, and medical malpractices to alcohol abuse, honor killings and old age were brought to the country in a never-seen-before manner. Scripted quite smartly, SMJ came across as informative, non-preachy, interactive and involving. 

Since it was a first-of-its-kind format, the show called for extra efforts as far as production, execution, marketing and promotions were concerned. The ‘star’ power of the broadcaster was utilized to the optimum level. SMJ was splashed all over, from television, print, radio, outdoor, to mobile and digital. These marketing and promotion activities registered wonders for the show and the channel. From being the most searched word on Google, to being the most popular trending topic on Twitter, to being the talked about topic on Facebook and receiving thousands of messages on their website; SMJ managed to grab attention from a cross section of people, across all platforms. People made online donations mounting to millions thus indicating the impact of the show and the success of the marketing and promotional activities.

The first leg of SMJ was evidently we received and applauded all over. The question then arises, will there be a season 2 of SMJ; if yes then what shall be the topics now? After months of research and study, putting an end to speculations, yet keeping the details well under wraps, SMJ has hit television screens once again. An extended theme and idea to promote – ‘Jinhe desh ki fikr hai’, SMJ 2 is a shorter series this time around. However, that does not restrict the teams involved in the making to do anything less on the marketing and promotion front. This time, activities on these grounds have taken remarkable leaps. Major cities are once again flashed with new SMJ 2 all over the cities sky’s, from hoardings to public transport, ‘perfectionist Khan’ is all over the place. Taking a step closer to the viewers, Aamir Khan personally called people inviting them to the first episode of SMJ 2! The pre-launch buzz and interest created led to higher social media response for SMJ 2. Taking over a global portal and search engine for a day, SMJ created history of sorts. A thing that remains constant with the show it’s the soulful music that encapsulates not only the theme of each episode and its theme, but has a strong tendency of staying back with you. Keeping this in mind, SMJ 2 had invited people across the country to be a part of the title track or the SMJ Anthem to be created on radio. SMJ 2 again was seen as the trending topic on Twitter on the launch day and managed to get 54.2 million impressions on Facebook and their site as well. With ideas such as ‘Fikr Touch Points’ and ‘Vote for Change’, the broadcaster has leveraged its in-house actors reach and popularity to call for people to step up and vote for change in the country. In a first’s of sorts, this Vote for change campaign and received 50 million missed calls on a toll free number from the launch episode i.e. 2nd March 2014 to 6th march 2014 from across the country. The first episode took the intensity levels up by picking a topic that everyone fears to speak about – Rape. While it received mixed reactions in terms of the treatment and the issue itself, it did bring about a sense of seriousness and called for action and reaction from the parties involved in the issue.

Industry sources however whisper that since the topicality and the ‘first-time-impression’ of the show format is done with already, it is for time to see how the SMJ 2 performs on the television number game; as only being gung-ho about the show is not enough to survive in the number-crunching game.