Devon Ke Dev Mahadev........A Success !!!

According to my dad, there was a time when people used to run to their homes just to watch Ramayan and Mahabharat on Doordarshan, the then sole broadcaster for television. These were the two epic mythological shows which people would never ever forget throughout their lives. Times changed and the way mythological shows were produced also changed. A number of other mythological shows sprung up in years but none were able to match the standards that Ramayan and Mahabharat had set. Rani laxmi bai, Jhansi ki rani, Chandragupta maurya and more such shows were produced in the recent years which ultimately shut shop due to dipping TRP's. Then came Triangle Film Company's "Devon Ke Dev Mahadev" on Life OK which proved to be a huge success. What was the reason that Mahadev gained such huge popularity???

Devon Ke Dev Mahadev was launched on December 18, 2011 on the newly born Life OK channel formerly known as Star One. It is produced by Triangle Films Company where Nikhil Sinha is the producer and Anirudh Pathak is the Creative producer/director for Life OK. It portrays the life of Lord shiva and his journey of getting married to Sati and later known as Parvati (Re-incarnated).The show has also been the highest TRP grosser for the channel and has seen a steady growth in viewership since its launch. Being placed at the prime time band at 8pm, the show looses out from being in the top ten watched shows because of other Saas-bahu shows on other channels. According to me there are a number of points responsible for the popularity of this show. Lets have a look at a few points:

To begin with, Casting is the most important ingredient for the success of any show. Two people having perfect chemistry adds life to the characters. Mohit Raina as Shiv and Mouni Roy as Sati proved to be a boon for the show.

Mohit Raina's impeccable expressions depicting anger, happiness and almost every other feeling is worth watching. Whereas Mouni Roy did absolute justice to Sati's character by portraying every emotion the character of sati required, the grace, the posture, the anger and the love towards Mahadev. Even the characters of Prajapati Daksh, Prasuti, Lord Vishnu, Lord Bramha, Devi Laxmi and every other character has been spectacularly choosen. There is not a single character which can be complained about. Coming to the casting of Parvati played by Sonarika Bhadoria, initially it was difficult to accept her, as Mouni had set a benchmark while playing the character of Sati. Still, with time, she improved a lot and now people have accepted her well as Parvati.

The second best thing about the show is the Soundtracks. The title montage opens with the track "shiv shiv shiv shiv....." 

Link- " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH3SFITdDIw "

The music is composed by Sandeep Mukherjee, Karthik and Bawra Brothers. The song " Karpur Gauram Karunavataaram" is the official Theme song played mostly during the show. A number of other melodious songs were played during the show which was liked very much by the audience. Famous pakhawaj player Pt. Bhavani Shankar recorded an original composition for the Tandav sequence shown after Sati's demise.

The next best thing on the list will definitely be the Lavish Sets, Aesthetic costume and amazing Make Up which give Mahadev a beautiful and complete look. 

The beautiful Drapes, Colorful Saree's, Jewellery and almost everything has been given very fine detailing which adds up more life to any character. The costumes are royal and vibrant . The Make up on the other hand for Mahadev was just eye pleasing. Nobody could have ever imagined a better Mahadev than this. Even the Rudra Avataar and Veerbhadra Avataar make up was amazingly done. 

There are promos on air for an upcoming episode where Parvati is shown as Goddess Kaali which again has stunning makeup. One would be shocked to know that Mohit Raina takes almost 90 minutes to don the complete Mahadev attire.

In all, there is no one sole thing that can be given credit for the success of Mahadev. People from all age groups can easily relate to Mahadev and have very well made Mahadev a part of their lives. One such personal incident i would love to share regarding Mahadev which happened very recently while travelling to college. There was this guy in his early twenties, who got in to the train from Borivali. He was watching "Mahadev" on his Blackberry which proves how successful the show has been and how not only elder people, but also teenagers are influenced greatly by its amazing storyline and realistic portrayal. I am a great follower of Devon ke Dev Mahadev and do not miss even a single episode. I hope people who are addicted to Saas-bahu dramas take out some time and at least for once watch such an amazing content along with thier family and children which is called  Devon Ke Dev Mahadev !!!

From STAR ONE to LIFE OK !!!

Television has revolutionised the way we as an audience accept content. There was a time when we were forced to watch shows what Doordarshan, the sole broadcaster produced. We had no other choice, no ways to change or criticize content. But now the scenario has completely changed. With Digitization being made mandatory all over, we are offered more than 500 channels to watch with a broad range of content. We have choice to switch channels when we don't find the content what we like or what we expect to be delivered. We have all possible means to change or at least influence channels to change story lines by interactions on social platforms like Facebook pages. But the point here is the sustainment of a channel with its content amongst the other 499 channels. Here i would like to give an example of the channel "STAR ONE". What went wrong for Star One ????

STAR ONE was the Hindi GEC ( General Entertainment Channel) from the Star Bouquet owned by News Corporation and Fox International Channels. It was launched on 1st November 2004 with an amazing content targeting the upper class niche audience. It was the only channel at that moment to keep its target audience a niche. The strategy and the content did wonders for the channels launch. Some of its remarkable shows that helped star one gain foothold amongst the competitors at the launch were Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai's produced by Hatsoff Productions, Remix produced by Rose Audio Visual productions, Hotel Kingston, Guns and roses, Special squad and India calling. Amongst these, Sarabhai's and Remix were the top most rated and awarded shows for Star One getting the channel immense popularity. When Star One was at its best, it made the most worst decisions ever. Sarabhai V/S Sarabhai went off air due to some financial issues between the channel and producers. Slowly all of its best shows including Remix and Hotel Kingston were pulled off and suddenly Star One switched itself from niche targeted channel to a youth channel.

Naturally the TRP's fell. But Star one returned with a bang with the launch of Instant Khichdi, Dill Mill Gayye, Miley Jab Hum Tum and some others making it best channel under the youth segment. Amongst it, Dill Mill Gayye gained the maximum TRP's of 1.8 for the channel followed by Miley Jab Hum Tum.  But Star One did it once again. It swayed away from the youth category and got shows like Rang Badalti Odhani and Geet which later though gained immense popularity for the channel. So now it was a mix of youth and saas-bahu drama. Star One loosed a large audience every time it played with its content. The greatest audience loss was when its super popular show Dill Mill Gayye went off Air due to lagging Storyline. Which was followed by Miley Jab Hum Tum. The newly launched Vampire saga Pyaar ki yeh ek kahaani and geet could not fetch the required TRP's for the channel and it always stood at number six with maximum grps between 50-80.

Finally Star One pulled the plug on all of its shows. It was supposed to be Re-Branded into completely new channel. Viewers were disappointed as all of thier favourite shows were gonna end abruptly. Pyaar ki yeh ek kahaani and Geet hui sabse paraayi were the last two shows aired by star one on 18th December 2011 after which it ceased operations in India. And then Life OK was born.

Here we can see that how a single wrong decision can decide the fate of a channel. Had Star One sticked to its original content and re-gained its super popular shows, it would definitely be one of  the top TRP grosser amongst the youth category at least. Star One failed to understand its audience and what it demanded. The constant shift of genres and content ultimately lead to death of the channel.