Superstars Ka Jalwa is a counter for IPL from Star Plus. The show will help raise money for charity while the channel will get eyeballs
The cause is charitable and the intent is also the same, at least on the part of Cine & TV Artiste Association (CINTAA), which has completed 50 years. In the 50th year of its existence, CINTAA which has about 6,000 members wants to add value to the personal and professional lives of its members by providing welfare facilities like medical services, rehearsal halls and preview theatres among others. But it needs money to provide these facilities under one roof. The government of Maharashtra has given CINTAA a piece of land where it wants to build a tower. There are various ways of raising money. One of them is stage shows, another is television. Star CINTAA Superstars Ka Jalwa is a joint venture between CINTAA and Star Plus.
Co-produced by Sohail Khan Entertainment and Seventy Event Management group, Superstars Ka Jalwa promises viewers big entertainment with star performances, flashback into the golden years of Hindi cinema through fascinating account of experiences, special moments and anecdotes from veterans and new generation of Bollywood stars. Spanning over six weeks, the show will be telecast every Sunday between 9 and 11 pm. It is not a reality show but has been given the look, feel and structure of a reality show though it can better be described as event. It is eight to nine hours of pure entertainment with the best of Bollywood Stars Dancing on one platform. The two-hour weekly star extravaganza will have 52 stars performing on old and New Songs. There will be television stars too like Hussain, Tina, Manish Goel, Poonam Goel, Sarah Khan, Parul Chauhan, Kinshuk Mahajan, Mouni Roy and Gaurav Chopra.
The show’s idea came from CINTAA but was given a proper structure by STAR Plus, which evinced interest in it. Each episode will have a theme such as romance, action, comedy, music, dance and chhed-chhad. The six show stoppers of the event will be Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan and Shahid Kapoor. According to Anupam Vasudev, Star’s executive vice president, marketing, Superstars Ka Jalwa is power-packed entertainment extravaganza for a charitable cause. “It is yet another milestone for Star after the highly esteemed and anticipated properties IIFA and Star Screen Awards. It is a platform where all the top Bollywood stars have converged to support a noble cause.” Adds Salman Khan, “This is the best thing we could do to raise money for the welfare of our members. All of us have worked free of cost. I am sure it’s going to be big entertainment for viewers.” Apparently, Star has paid Rs. 5 crore for the six-part show.
Salman Khan admits that the film industry is a highly divided fraternity, fraught with groups and camps which drive happiness in running down rivals. “We want our films to do well but some of us do feel happy if films of producers and stars belonging to rival camps fail. Support and appreciation is selective and people derive happiness in other’s failure. But we do stand united in times of need and for good causes though the paradox exists,” he observes, much to the chagrin of other CINTAA members who privately do not disagree with the superstar. While Star claims it is making a charitable contribution for the welfare of cine and TV artistes, Salman says that Star is committed to pay Rs. 5 crore which, in other words, is the cost for acquiring the software. Though Anupam refuses to comment, a CINTAA executive committee member says that Star’s contribution is not charity but payment for the show.
Whatever it is, Star doesn’t seem to have got a bad deal for the property which has the big daddies and glam babes of the film industry to attract eyeballs. The only little worry for the channel is IPL which from the initial numbers seems to be a big hit. But Anupam is least worried. “The country doesn’t come to a halt because of IPL. It is part of life now and you can’t run away from it. In any case, it doesn’t impact GECs by more than 6 to 7 per cent,” he shrugs. In a way Anupam is right. You can’t run away from competition but fight it out in another way. Apart from religion, the other two things that Indians are most passionate about are cricket and Hindi cinema (read stars). If six to seven per cent of television audience watches cricket, there is a huge chunk available for film-related programming. Even if Superstars Ka Jalwa manages to deliver an average of two-plus rating over six Sundays, Star Plus will be on a safe wicket, both financially as well as in the number game. The only caveat here is that its other key properties should maintain the momentum.
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