Mumbai: With the Production cost of Rs 80 Lacs per episode, historical fiction Epic, Aarambh that commenced on Star Plus on 24th June at 9 to 10 PM time band could be the disastrous flop story in the recent history of Indian Television.
Touted to be the Game of Throne of Indian television, the creation of Baahubali writer KV Vijayendra Prasad failed to replicate his cine screen success in Television format despite lavish budget allocation from the channel’s side.
Despite the extravagant 360-degree marketing initiatives the show not only failed to see any good opening but also didn’t even managed to match the ratings of the previous program Koi LautkeAayaHai that aired in the same slot.
While Viewership of launch episode of Aarambh stood at 2876 Impressions ‘000s. An 8 weeks comparative study on the weekly average impressions of the Saturday and Sunday 9 to 10 PM time band on Star Plus reveals the sorry state of Aarambh.
According to the BARC data of week 22 to 25 – the weekly average of Koi LautkeAayaHai has netted 2511 Impressions ‘000s, on the other hand the weekly average of Aarambh from week 26 to 30 is just 1987 Impressions 000s only. This is straight away a 25% drop in viewership contrary a huge hype in ratings expected from the show.
Industry sources reveal that Star Plus has decided against continuing the services of Baahubali write KV Vijayendra Prasad and entrusted the job of rewriting the fortune of Aarambh with some of its well-known trouble shooters in the TV industry itself.
Sources also revealed that the writer’s lack of understanding on the TV audience medium clubbed with some wrong casting like Krithika in lead role could be a possible reason for the debacle of the show. Now KV Vijayendra Prasad has moved back to focus of his upcoming movie commitments.
While Star Plus failed in its efforts to build a strong weekend fiction property like Naagin on Colors, the later had successfully managed to transport the viewers from Naagin 2 to Mahakali with its viewership of the show launched on 22nd July opening up with encouraging number and reviews.
Mahakali Anti Hi AarambhHai that was launched on Colors in its Sat & Sun 7:00 PM time band. It straightaway entered the Top 5 list at No. 3 in the opening week with 6507 (000s) Impressions.
The Launch episode of Mahakali at 7:00 PM witnessed 2.4 TVR with a day reach of 5.2% and TS of 27.2 mts. The weekly average of Mahakali was 2.7 TVR with a reach of 5.2% and TS of 28.2 mts.
Despite a band of Creative brains working relentlessly in its Studio division under the leadership of Mr. Gaurav Banerjee and strategizing the content plans for Star India’s channels, the division has failed to deliver in its attempt to build the afternoon time band under the Star Plus dopahar plans that has seen even the Indian adaptation of popular turkish show ‘Fatmagul’ titled ‘Kya Kasoor Hai Amla Ka?’ failed to deliver.
Industry sources also reveal that Star Plus will be dismantling its Dopahar as already it has moved one of its show Tu Sooraj Mein SaanjhPiyajito replace Saathiya in its 7 PM time band.
Sources also reveal that dozens of shows shot as an experiment pilot epsiodes with crores of invetsments are lying unsed with no decesive conclusion to do what next, which in turn is hauniting the fiction fortune of Star Plus and Life OK.
