Bandini to Mastiii the untold story of Sri Adhikari Brothers

When a certain Philo Farnsworth researched on television picture transmission and developed the dissector tube, which is the basis of all televisions in 1927, he never knew he had invented something so powerful that in near future it's going to not only give news, entertain, but also to take television to new heights.

Television has evolved over the years and so has the technology and the people behind it. Today it's a powerful medium of raising views, opinions, entertainment and of a trend-setter.

And when the TV stations were first established in early 40's and late 50s, television has travelled a lot after its first broadcasting attempt. Television broadcasting got a kick off when the cable television came into limelight, when CNN first reported about the Gulf war in 1991.

Since then television has evolved with various sitcom's taking over the popularity charts. Gone are the days of the classic family sitcom with the wholesome commercials. Now television is over populated with reality television and random commercials that are as far from wholesome as they could possibly be.

While the late 80s and early 90s saw the rise of BR Chopra and his classic mythological serials taking India completely in its blanket, two brothers had the vision of taking television to a whole new world.

The Adhikari Brothers ' Gautam and Markand Adhikari have grown from strength to strength in the television industry have created a niche for themselves.

Incepted in 1995, Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Ltd. has been the trend setter in the Television arena. Not many know that the Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Networks Ltd. was the first publicly- listed television production company in India.

So where did it all began for the Adhikaris?

They first entered the tele-circuit with their serial called Bandini. Starting on a slow note, the Adhikari brothers were not aiming for the stars. All they wanted was a slot for their programme on Doordarshan. However they didn't get the slot. But they were lucky enough to get a slot in Mumbai DD and the programme was a roaring success.

As the number of channels grew, the Adhikari's too moved from strength to strength, by giving yet another primetime view in Hello Inspector for DD2.

However it was the launch of Zee networks, which gave them an opportunity to grow. And thats how Commander came into the picture.

Then came perhaps the biggest blockbuster sitcom, which was a roaring success for them. Shriman Shrimati. Shriman Shrimati was one of the top-ranked sitcoms on DD Metro. The success was so much that after DD stopped airing the programme, they were forced to bring it back in order to compete with other programmes.

The Adhikari brothers launched a hindi general gntertainment platform "SAB TV" in 2000 ' aiming to tickle the viewer's funny bone.

SAB TV won several hearts with humour centric programmes like Office office and Yes boss.

However, with the cable television boom, the Indian audience were exposed to foreign channels and therefore there was a need to come up with new shows and superior content.

It was at that time when Adhikari Bros. decided to sell its assets to SET satellite private Ltd (Now know as Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd) on 15th April,2005.

However after five years, the Sri Adhikari Brothers are coming up with a 24-hour free-to-air channel called Mastiii.

Terming it as an electronic radio Markand Adhikari, vice-chairman and Managing Director, SAB Group says the channels offers unlimited music and comedy.

"We conceptualized Mastiii as an "electronic radio', where people can tune in any time of the day for their dose of unadulterated fun. It offers 24-hours of non-stop music and comedy. It is targeted at the youth and at anyone who has a sense of humour," he says.

Anita Varma, associate vice-president, programming, says that, Mastiii further explains that there would be a dedicated segment for comedy. "Almost 75% of our content is music and 25% is dedicated to comedy, our USP. Breaking away from the half-hour format shows, we have one-minute fillers, gags and jokes by some of the best known comedians," she says.

And by roping in top stand-up comedians, like Raju Srivastav, Suresh Menon, Sunil Pal, Shailesh Lodha, Raj Vyas, Kiku Sharda, Howard Rosemeyer and Sugandha Mishra, the Adhikari's will look to recreate the magic.