'TV's reach is still more than OTT': Jio Star President Alok Jain reveals the success of 'Colors' and upcoming projects

The show 'Pati Patni Aur Panga' has premiered on television channel 'Colors'. Meanwhile, Alok Jain, President of Jio Star, had an exclusive conversation with Divya Bhaskar. He spoke about the theme and concept of the show. Also, he spoke about the achievements of 'Colors' channel on completion of 17 years. "In the last 17 years, Colors has awakened the society through many stories. We have given priority to content that makes the audience think and brings about a positive change." Colors has completed 17 years. During this time, many stories were shown reflecting the truth of the society. What is the idea behind this? Ever since Colors launched in 2008, it has been our constant endeavour to bring to the audience stories that are bold, relevant and reveal social truths. Our aim has been not only to entertain but also to bring about a change in the society." Like 'Balika Vadhu', we showed the ill effects of child marriage. The purpose behind shows like 'Laado', 'Udaan' and 'Dori' was to bring forward important issues of the society and make people aware. Through these stories, we are trying to make the audience think and make the society aware. Do you think there is any difference between the stories of earlier shows and today's shows? Also, now people are looking forward to reality shows more than daily soaps? I don't think it has made such a big difference. These are just words. In my opinion, even today, both the daily soap (serial) and the reality show have their own viewers. The only difference is that there is more discussion about the reality show, so it seems that the demand for it is high. But if the story is strong, the daily soap is equally loved. Our endeavour is always to tell new and interesting stories to the audience. Has 'Pati Patni Aur Panga' also been launched as a comedy show with the same idea as 'Kapil Sharma Show' and 'Laughter Chef'? 'Kapil Sharma Show' was launched by Colors many years ago and after that we started some more comedy shows. Recently we launched 'Laughter Chef', which tried to give people a new experience of cooking along with comedy. Our constant endeavour is to entertain the audience, be happy and give them something new to watch. There was a time when there was no big comedy show on TV other than Kapil Sharma. Now Kapil's show also comes on Netflix, so through shows like 'Pati, Patni Aur Panga', we are trying to give a new angle to comedy through relationships, so that the audience can also laugh softly. Do you think with the advent of ott platforms, people's interest in TV has waned? No, not at all. I believe that even today, about 85 crore Indians watch TV every month, while the number of OTT viewers will be half of this. People watch TV 4 to 5 times longer every day. Often we feel that the craze of OTT is more because we create a perfect picture by looking at the environment around us. But the truth is that even today TV is the biggest medium in the country. Viewers watch both platforms but the reach of TV is still very high. There is a discussion about whether 'Bigg Boss' will come on Colors or not. What do you have to say about this? See, 'Bigg Boss' will come on both Colors and OTT platforms. Talking about discussions, this is common in any big show. The bigger the show, the more the discussions about it will be. 'Bigg Boss' is a show that the more discussed it, the better it will be. What will the audience see new in the times to come on Colors? 'Pati Patni Aur Panga' has been launched recently. Apart from this, next month we are bringing a new show 'Favourite Ki Shaadi'. Usually people consider 'favourite shaadi' to be just a love marriage but the concept of this show is a bit different. In this we will show a marriage in which not only the boy and the girl like each other, but both the families are also happy with this relationship. That's the real 'favourite wedding'.