With all the hard-work the quest is to be number one, says Nayak

With growing needs and demands of the consumers it has become quite essential for a broadcaster to stand ahead of the curve and cater to ​the ​ever changing world of entertainment. Colors that was launched six years ago with an aim to give ​the ​entire spectrum of shows ranging from fiction shows to format shows to reality shows to blockbuster movies  and much more, in short, a basket that contains all. Colors has successfully been making progress in its vision  its by launching unusual story lines and differentiated content for  its viewers.   

Dedicated to promoting ‘Cohesive viewing’, through programmes like Balika Vadhu - Kacchi Umar Ke Pakke Rishtey, Uttaran, Na Aana Is Des Laado etc Colors has always been open for differentiated content and new genres. With Big Boss, Khatron Ke Khiladi, Jhalak Dikhla Jaa and India’s Got Talent becoming some  of ​their​​ marquee properties, the channel is all set to launch another show, Chakravartin Ashok Samrat. The channel is dabbling now with the historical genre after Veer Shivaji (which was 3 and a half years ago).

Very recently foraying into the crime genre, Colors launched, Code Red and soon there will be a new show, ‘Swaragini’ which is claimed to be a love story. Adgully caught up with the man behind the channel’s upswing, Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors to understand the channel’s plans in the way forward and the year gone by.

He said, “We believe in innovation and have always welcomed new ideas with passion in our bouquet. We are always willing to experiment new things and willing to mold ourselves as per the needs and demands of the viewers.”

Bigg Boss has been one of the flagship properties of Colors and for the first time ever the show witnessed an extension this season. To sustain  the eyeballs, the channel during extending this season innovated and named it as Bigg Boss Halla Bol, giving the show a twist. When asked Nayak about the response of Halla Bol, he said, “Bigg Boss as a whole has seen an encouraging growth this season. Infact, the Halla Bol series was accepted quite well and has beaten our own expectations.”

With such a great response the channel has got an opportunity to revive the ‘Halla Bol’ series in the next season too.  “We do not see a reason of not doing Halla Bol every year in a much more innovative and fine-tuned way.In this entire process of wooing  the viewers we have fortunately created a differentiated property, Bigg Boss Halla Bol.”

Bigg Boss has a loyal set of audience now, but there was a phase wherein the show witnessed a setback for a  while. Nayak here opined that overall average ratings of the show has always been encouraging. “ Bigg Boss as a property  has seen a growth despite  fragmentation even  in absolute numbers our shows have performed really well.”

Apart from the non-fiction and reality properties, Colors has performing  well with its fiction properties like Sasural Simar Ka, Balika Vadhu and so on and so forth.Infact after Prashant Bhatt moved on sometime last year Manisha the Non- fiction head as been dealing with dual roles.Its only that  Deepak Chhabria has joined from Star to head the fiction business.
Elaborating on the performance of fiction properties, Nayak said, “Sasural Simar Ka has managed to hold the audience attention and hence we are not tinkering  as we feel its catering to the audiences’ needs and demands in a right way.”

Off Late, there has been a change in the TV viewing patterns of the audiences and hence the channels have been seen altering their programming and content strategy. Not only have that, but a lot of other channels also re-shuffled their time slots as per their shows’ success. Nayak stated, “The scheduling does not happen with design. For example, if I have a show and do not have a fitting slot for the same and try to push it in any slot available then after sometime we might be in a fix.”

As mentioned above, Colors has been  open to experiment with new genres and  always some or other innovation is around the corner .With the property Code Red, the channel intends to introduce a new trend of  letting multiple producers make one show so for  Code Red every two episodes will be created by one producer.

Nayak said, “We broke away from conventional with ‘Aamna-Saamna’, ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’, and now ‘Code Red’. We will continue to strengthen our channel’s positioning with new formats and in fiction we will soon be bringing a new show ‘Swaragini’.”

Iconic Shows:

Colors has a healthy mix of variety of genres so on asking which of the shows and genres have performed  well, Nayak said, “There are few genres that have always done well whether in India or globally. Crime, Comedy and Mythology/Historical are those which have always taken the top preference. I think there were three or four shows which are iconic and something that will be a part of Color's history which include Uttaran, Na Aana Is Des Laado and Balika Vadhu. Also joining the league is Madhubala which was another clutter breaker and now I would say Udaan is a differentiated show.”

Growth: 

The channel witnessed significant growth in the year gone by. Since the last three years, year on year, the channel has grown substantially and is doing extremely well. "We have managed to sustain in the industry, and have remained consistent at number two. And hopefully with all the new experiments, the hard-work is to be at number one," Nayak stated.

No doubt that the channel has also reached  number 1 position  once or twice in between for few weeks but has not been able to sustain but that has not deterred the team from trying each week to up the ante. Nayak opines that unlike other groups they have the disadvantage of being a standalone GEC and do not have other genres to flank their growth. "Colors has a energetic team  and gives a run for their money to others in the space. So I think we're doing a decent job," he added.

Khatron Ke Khiladi – Newness and Unique elements:

Firstly, according to Nayak, this year's casting has been the best so far as compared to all the shows. Because almost all the faces, are extremely popular faces whether its Yusuf or  Sana. Secondly, there will be variation in stunts and the number of stunts has also increased. Elaborating further, Nayak said, “Since last season was the first time of experimentation hence viewers saw repetition of stunts among the contestants and indeed it became  boring at one point of time. Hence keeping that in mind we kept variation of stunts  among the participants and this time we've increased the number of stunts.” While its an action-packed treat for the viewers but it is undoubtedly a tougher bet for the contestants.

24 makes a comeback:

As we all know the internationally adapted, 24 created quite of buzz in the industry last year. The  show is all set to make a comeback this year with season 2. To keep the excitement and enigma around the property alive the show has not been made  available on any of the social media platforms. The  channel  as a goodwill gesture and to excite the industry distributed DVDs of 24. Elaborating on the same , Nayak said, “In India the DVD market is not very big. . So it  made sense to launch it  DVD format. Shows like 24, even if you have  watched it, the only way to consume it and enjoy it is to binge watch it. You've to watch it non-stop and that's why we created the DVD's. 24 kind of shows will work very well on DVD formats.”