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The channel is all set to launch the third season of Emotional Atyachaar which has been quite a success in its last two seasons. Talking exclusively to Adgully, Keith Alphonso, Business Head, UTV Bindass discussed the launch of third season of Emotional Atyachaar and other plans for the channel.

Alphonso said, “This is our largest show. It redefines the youth’s reality space which is an offering that has taken Bindass to the No. 1 position and held us there consistently for about 62 weeks. We are back with Season 3.”

When asked about whether there were any new elements in this season, Alphonso commented, “The core of the show is very strong. Basically what we can change is the peripheries around it. If we do any tampering with the core of Emotional Atyachaar, then it will become another show. The show in its essence is still the same. We are still committed going out there and saving young people from the ‘atyachaar’ of a deceptive relationship.”

He further added, “What we are making bigger, better and brighter this season is that we got Ajay Devgn to co-host the first show. Last time we were in three cities and this time we are in six cities. We used a whole range of technology last time and we have made it much better this year and have extended the tangent on digital space a lot. India Times have created a separate micro site for us. We have gone back to people who were in our first seasons and seen how they have done in life. This time we also have counseling calls and have tied up with a NGO and called it ‘Emotional Atyachat’. There are trained psychiatrists to help couples in distress.”

The channel is now using state of art technology and keeping to the core of the show.

Commenting on the marketing plans, Alphonso explained, “I don’t have to sell the concept of Emotional Atyachaar. Within the UTV network, we have our promos and logos running all across. In addition to that we have multi TV plan along with outdoor plan. We have to tell people that we are back.”

“Challenge was and will always be whatever we put out there actually works towards helping young people lead better lives and understand their relationships better and ensure they have stable relationships.,” explained Alphonso.

Emotional Atyachaar Season 3 is expected to air on June 10th 2011 at 7pm. Along with Micromax, who is the lead sponsor for the show, the other associate sponsors are Manforce Condoms, Vanessa Deodorants and Genx NV Style Inners.

UTV Bindass have plans to launch 12 shows within this year and 8 out of them are expected to be in new formats. Apart from Emotional Atyachaar Season 3, the audience can also expect the channel’s popular shows like Beg Borrow Steal, Date Trap Season 2 and Big Switch Season 3.

“Superstud, a new show will soon follow after Emotional Atyachaar Season 3 in July,” said Alphonso. The other new formats will include a fashion-based show, a youth news show, comedy and a celebrity show which are in the pipeline for this year. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]

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Taking things further with much more drama and emotions the show takes the concept of love and fidelity and boils up radical questions, revealing the real truth behind relationships on national television. UTV Bindass with its second season sends out message that the EAT (emotional atyachar team) can be anywhere and everywhere, so Please Don’t Cheat. The truth unfolds as reality of love is put to test as confrontations now takes place in front of family members, friends and co-workers. Watch the action unfold on the show that got the entire nation speaking about infidelity in the open, beginning 7th August at 7pm every Saturday only on UTV Bindass!

Commenting on the launch of Emotional Atyachaar 2, Nikhil Gandhi, Business Head, UTV Bindass said, “Emotional Atyachaar made headlines with its groundbreaking concept which was not only an extremely engaging watch, but also a reflection of what people actually undergo in today’s time. We went forth with the concept of this show initially truly based on intensive consumer research. Emotional Atyachaar soon after its launch got major recognition because it was the first ever reality show to talk about bold topics like infidelity and cheating out in the open. Most of the participants on the show who have taken our support to learn the reality have come back and thanked for providing them eye opening truth. We have received overwhelming response for the show and we expect the same reception all across with our offering of the second season.”

Emotional Atyachaar is being produced by UTV Television with inputs from Creative Director & writer Roshni Ghosh The programme is conceptualized by the Bindass Team with input from Head of Programming Shalini Sethi, Creative Director Shifa and Executive Producer Piyush Bhatia.

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Since then, slowly and steadily the channel grew in terms of ratings, reach and time spent and the process is still on. Currently successfully running shows like – Dadagiri, Big Switch, Emotional Atyachaar, Beg Borrow Steal, Ponds Destination Love proves the point.

The channel has now evolved as a brand, given the success of the brand and the hit shows which have been aired across recent months, the channel is all set to launch a focused brand campaign. The campaign is based on the communication idea “What I Am”, and it is all set to launch on February 15 2010, across India. The campaign will launch via various media, focused on a 2-3 week burst and sustained throughout the year as an ongoing communication process. Reportedly the media spends for the campaign are in the tune of Rs 3 Cr.

If we see the general trend most of the time brand campaigns are part of the launch of any product but team Bindass played to do it differently. In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Heather Gupta, Channel Head, UTV Bindass explains the thought behind the step and says, “Well, it was done intentionally, as first the content or say matter needs to work upon completely. The brand campaign idea was in my mind from very beginning but we kept it calm and waited for the right time.”

Explaining the whole idea of “What I am” campaign, Gupta says, “Through our understanding of the pulse of youth and our extensive research we know that young people are often judged (wrongly) according to their appearance. As we should not judge a book by its cover, we should not judge people by their appearances. Our creative campaign focuses on the insight that young people are very often judged, and challenges that. The campaign is a fresh and very Bindass expression of this core consumer insight, and features real consumers who we have selected from all over India.”

The brand is very aggressive with its approach and has planned a 360 degree promotion. On this, Gupta elaborates, “We will be doing this very well. The promotion will be done through all the broadcasters like – Television, radio, newspaper, digital, billboards. In fact, we will also be doing the outdoor campaign in the cities like – Mumabi, Delhi and the other few smaller cities.”

The channel has done tie up with – Fun cinemas and Baskin Robbins and will be visible in Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad for both, while with Fun Cinemas it will also be in Bangalore and with Baskin Robbins in Pune. In BTL activities they will be distributing – branded notebooks to college students, bike tagging in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune.

So will the channel be aiming at youngster from metro and mini metros? Gupta answers, “We will be aiming everyone, not specifically from the top metros. The country has a huge youth population, wherein mostly people speak Hindi.”

Explaining the differentiating factor of the channel from other player in the youth entertainment space, Gupta sums up saying, “We are very different from any other channel, as all our content is Indian whatever happens or whatever is happening on the channel is Indian, the concept is Indian.”