Exclusive | Riding on indigenous formats, Zee's Hejmadi

“So we have created a lot of indigenous formats and we never actually made a bible (format). So now we are building bibles (indigenous formats) and then they will all start travelling.”

Zee TV, India’s leading Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC), ruled the fiction genre in the year 2014 with successful launches and continues its victory run in 2015.  This year, the channel’s winning streak has clearly extended to the non-fiction space as well, with the first episode of DID Super Moms Season 2 garnering a whopping 9441 TVTs - the highest opening for a launch episode of a non-fiction show in the last 1 year (April 2014-March 2015). The grand opening of DID Super Moms comes on the heels of a successful season of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs that also had the highest opening for a singing-based reality show in the last two years.

Zee TV which is known to launch indigenous formats has done it again with the success of DID Super Moms. They created a platform for the Moms and the response for the same was fabulous. Not only that, recently there was news that the format is going to be adopted internationally as well.

To know the secret behind the success of the show, we at Adgully caught up with Pradeep Hejmadi, Business Head, Zee TV.

On asking about his thoughts on the success of DID Super Moms Hejmadi said, “We are extremely happy that we could provide a platform to moms to find their own identity. We are glad that the audiences have lapped it up and the response has been very encouraging so far.”

Seeing the success of DID Super Mom’s, there was news that the format is going to be adopted internationally. To that Hejmadi said, “So we have created a lot of indigenous formats and we never actually made a bible (format). So now we are building bibles (indigenous formats) and then they will all start travelling.”

Sharing insights about the elements that went into creating the show, Hejmadi said, “Various elements were put in. We studied season one. Season one was the first innovative breakout of attempting Super Moms. So we researched a lot on season one. We took consumer insights on season one. We identified why season one performed the way it did and why it became a success. We started pre-production very early. There was a series of things that we did which led to its success.”

On asking if the channel has any plans to adopt it to their regional channels Hejmadi said, “Yes of course. Regional channels definitely have the option to adopt it. If they are keen they can. They have their own programming vision in terms of what they want to do. If they find it of value then by all means they can adopt it.”

Concluding, Hejmadi talks about what formats work when it comes to reality shows. He said, “The audience always tries to figure out what is in it for them to come to this show. So what is important is something that is relatable, something that connects and something that really gets them excited to want to come back. And as long as these two things are followed and delivered that’s what matters.” By Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit