Star Bharat is investing in content that serves the family audience: Kevin Vaz

At the launch event of Star Bharat’s edition of the high-decibel property--Swayamvar: Mika Di Vohti, Kevin Vaz, Head-Network Entertainment Channels, Disney Star told exchange4media.com that the new show 'Swayamvar: Mika Di Vohti' is just the beginning of what the channel is going to bring to the audience in the coming months. The reality show will see popular Punjabi and Bollywood singer Mika Singh looking for his potential life partner. He will select from a sea of women who are currently registering to show their interest in him. Mika Di Vohti is being produced by SOL Productions.

Speaking about the show Vaz shared, “Swayamvar: Mika Di Vohti' is a special show being curated for the family viewers across Hindi speaking markets (HSM). As we all know, marriage is a sacred union in the country and people tend to get emotionally invested in the whole process of matchmaking and weddings. Also, Mika (Singh) is a superstar with a tremendous fan following, what makes him even more special is his genuine nature and attachment to his own family members. All of this, I think, will resonate strongly with the viewers.”

A testament to Singh’s genuineness and familial values was elaborately presented at the launch event in Delhi when his sister-in-law, younger brother, nephew, and few friends joined him on the stage, talking about his philanthropic works and qualities that would make him a good husband.

On being asked whether a show like Swayamvar, the last edition of which aired decades ago on another channel, will suit the sensibilities of today’s audience, which is also getting vocal about how they want the representation of women in media, Vaz gave a confident ‘yes’ as an answer.

“A tremendous amount of research goes behind every show that we bring to the audience and that’s what happened for 'Swayamvar: Mika Di Vohti' too. People are looking for good, family reality shows and we will be filling a huge demand gap with this property. The differentiator for us is also going to be the execution of the concept. The content will be crafted to suit the tastes and aspirations of each and every family member,” he elaborated.

On the question of sponsors and advertisers, Vaz responded that it is too early in the process to have brands on board but he is seeing a lot of positive interest from the advertisers' community, “This launch event is the first big event that has happened around the show. Prior to this, we had only launched the promos, which are getting exceptional responses from the viewers. The number of participant registrations also look very promising. So, we don’t have a sponsor kitty yet but this is a show that most advertisers would love to associate with. The concept is such that brands across categories could associate to reach the masses. And advertisers tend to go to where the eyeballs are and we are confident that the show will get those eyeballs.”

While the channel has yet not decided on the release date or time slot for Swayamvar: Mika Di Vohti, it is going to air five days a week. The registrations are open till May 08 and then the show would be shot in one go before being put on the air.

Vaz shared that the show is a part of the content revamp that Star Bharat is currently in the process of doing. “We launched “Woh Toh Hai Albela” with Shahir Sheikh the last month. This month, we have announced 'Swayamvar: Mika Di Vohti'. And going ahead we have several path-breaking shows in the pipeline – for example “Gud Se Meetha Ishq” and “Kall Bhairav” – that we will continue to launch. We are expanding the hours of content and are coming up with exciting primetime shows for the audience.”

But how will these new shows compete with the likes of Anupama, Kumkum Bhagya, Naagin, etc, which continue to rule the TRP charts?

Vaz isn’t focusing on the TRPs right now but meeting the demand gap in the HSM content market, “I am not thinking about what other channels are doing, be it within the internal network or external. We are trying to make shows that the audience wants to see. There is a huge gap in what the audience wants to see and what most of the existing shows are serving. So, Star Bharat is investing in good content that could serve the family audience with content that they would enjoy. Everything else comes as a result of good content.”

He concluded that the channel has high hopes from 2022 as it is constantly evolving to meet the viewer's expectations. “I think 2022 is going to be our year. We have had minimal original content on Star Bharat till now but this year we are launching a host of interesting content. We already have almost all of the top 50 advertisers advertising on our channel and with this new content, we are expecting to add more. The content is going to be fresh and relatable.”