We can't do weird kind of fiction or incredulous stories: Pradeep Hejmadi

Zee TV is all set to spruce up its early prime time with a fantasy fiction show, ‘Vishkanya – Ek Anokhi Prem Kahaani’. The show, which is premiering on March 28, 2016, will air Monday to Saturday at 6.30 pm.

Conceptualised by Vivek Bahl and produced by Nissar Parvez and Alind Srivastava of Peninsula Pictures, ‘Vishkanya’ is a modern-day fairytale romance. The love story begins to unravel when the ultra-wealthy Marwari family, the Mittals, returns to India after spending many years abroad. With his good looks and charm, their son Malay is the most eligible bachelor in Kolkata. He gets smitten by his neighbour, Aparajita, as soon as he catches a glimpse of her.

Aparajita leads a secluded life with her over-protective mother Kalpana Ghosh and sister Tapur in a run-down bungalow known as Ghosh Baadi, amidst bungalows reeking of class and generations of family money in an old-world Kolkata lane. They don’t mingle much with the neighbours and the neighbours, in turn, keep the Ghoshs at an arm’s distance. Aparajita is from a lineage of Vishkanyas. But oblivious to the poison running through her veins, she longs to live life in all its glory and is hopeful of a bright future.

Commenting on the new show, Zee TV Business Head Pradeep Hejmadi, said, “‘Vishkanya’ is part of our constant endeavour to present audiences with different flavours of entertainment. Zee TV has consistently led the weekday 8 pm to 10.30 pm band across GECs and introducing this novel, differentiated concept at 6.30 pm, we aim to further fortify our early primetime band.  A unique, modern-day fairytale romance set against the backdrop of a revenge thriller, ‘Vishkanya’ has elements of mystique, intrigue and drama needed to excite the viewers.”

Producers from Peninsula Pictures added here, “We’re excited to partner with Zee TV in presenting this dark romance. In the show, while the protagonists come to terms with their curse gradually, the audience is aware of the situation all through and will feel connected with the couple. They will long for an impossible culmination where the two lovers are liberated from this curse. While the love story forms the forefront of this tale, there are other layers such as family clashes, social and cultural contrasts, revenge, age old secrets that will make the show even more intriguing.”

Hejmadi speaks at length to Adgully about ‘Vishkanya’, finding the LCM between the rural and urban markets and more.

‘Vishkanya’, which will air in the early primetime of 6.30 pm will also have repeat telecast at a later time slot. So are you looking at two sets of audiences with the different time slots?
The audiences are there through and through. For us, we have not focussed very heavily on the early primetime. We wanted to make sure that the central belt, which is the peak across every market that we are dominant in, that we have achieved. We are now focussing on the time bands which are the early primetime and tend to start growing towards primetime to improve our share in those time slots.

What is the TG that you are looking at for ‘Vishkanya’?
The manner in which we are writing it, it should appeal to those in the 14-44 age group. The 45+ year old will find it interesting because of the cultural milieu, etc. Geographically, we think all the markets will react well primarily because the Kolkata scene is not something that we see in Hindi speaking markets, because when we look around there is hardly any show that reflects that very well.

That’s the reason why we have set it in that area so that you will get a very different looking show and a very different feel coming from the show.

With BARC rural ratings now available, have you introduced certain nuances in the show keeping the rural audiences in mind? Are you also looking a building a better connect with the Eastern market with this show?
The Eastern market is really binging on their own linguistic content, so we are not that focussed on going into a Kolkata and picking up audiences from there, but there is a sizeable chunk which watches Hindi entertainment there. There is a fairly large Marwari population there, so we would like to ensure that we pick up the momentum there. Our focus from rural and urban is equivocal, so we do not distinguish between urban and rural. The challenge is obviously to find the LCM between these markets, and that we have found very well. That’s something that we have always aimed to ensure that we optimise on both ends because on the one hand, our shows travel internationally, which is the other end of the spectrum, to the other end that goes into rural through Zee Anmol. So we have to make sure that whatever we curate has resonance across the world. So we can’t do weird kind of fiction or incredulous stories because they won’t be watched internationally and in rural they might very quickly get thrown off.

It is a task, it takes us a lot of time. Like ‘Vishkanya’ has taken us, from the time we heard the first narration to now, nearly a year to get off the block. But I think the effort has been well worth it.