Star Plus strengthens it's Sunday programming with Mad In India and Ishq Kills

Star Plus believes it’s time the adage ‘laughter is the best medicine’ transforms from a mere quote and is put to practical use. Busy with our hectic and stressed out lifestyle we tend to alienate ourselves from the simplest ‘no cost’ stress buster viz. laughter. So come 16th February 2014 ,  Star Plus is going to ensure that every Indian gets his dose of rib tickling, stress busting fun with its  newest offering, ‘Mad In India – 100% Desi Show’ to be aired every Sunday at 9.00 p.m. With this show the channel is making a comeback to comedy after a hiatus of almost 3 years since their telecast of Comedy Ka Maha Muqabala in 2011.

One of the most versatile actors and acclaimed anchors of India - Manish Paul who takes on the mantle as the host will be seen spearheading the comic battalion. Joining the ‘Mad’ gang will be Sunil Grover as ‘Chutki, a flirty, social network addict hailing from the fictional city of Bharatnagar. Chutki’s partners in crime will be the equally effusive laughter 

vending machines – the talented Dolly Ahluwalia as Mango Dolly & Shweta Tiwari as Katrina Mishra along with popular comedians – Khayali, Siddharth Jadhav, Rehman Khan, Rajbir Kaur, Paritosh Tripathi amongst others.

Talking about the show, Nikhil Madhok, Sr. Vice President, Marketing & Content Strategy, Star Plus said, "Sunday is a special day in everyone’s life and we at Star Plus are looking to build the day with special programming for our viewers.  We have observed that viewership of shows on Saturday and Sunday dip in comparison to weekday shows. Mad in India is the perfect Sunday night offering for the family and promises to keep everyone in splits. The show brings together outstanding comic talent that will present their unique view on things taking a cue from the common man’s life.”

“Our intention is not to pull audience from other shows but to give them something which wasn't there. With this show they will see different characters like Sunil Grover as Chutki, Dolly Ahluwalia who will be seen in the role of Mango Dolly along with her short husband, and Chutki’s grandparents the old couple among others. There will not be much of movie plug promotions,” added Madhok.

Mad In India will feature celebrities from various walks of life right from sportsmen, politicians, godmen, singers to entertainers, people who have the capabilities to entertain audience in their own right. The show will have a dual set wherein host of the show Manish Paul will interact with the different celebrities on one set and the town of Bharatnagar, the backdrop for the comedy, will be showcased on the other. Moreover, in every episode of the show, 3 people amongst the audience will be selected as judges who will get an opportunity to interact with the celebrities present on the show.

Star Plus Sr. VP – programming Ashish Golwalkar said, “There is a great demand for comedy today. With Mad In India we have tried to create humour out of the stressful situations and issues. It's not a satire but a lighter take on serious topics which bother us. There is singing, dancing and various elements which will entertain the audience.  This is a show for the people, by the people and we are very serious about this.”

The 26 week series has been produced by Key Light Productions and comprises of several fun elements – celebrities, comic acts, glitz and glamour of the rich & famous as well as a peek into the common man’s life. As of now two episodes have been shot and the first episode of ‘Mad In India’ will feature legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

Commenting on the show, Krishnan Iyer, Key Light Productions, said, "Mad In India is a fresh new show with a take on our every-day life adding humour and fun to our mundane lives.  Backed by a strong creative team and brilliant line up of talent, we hope the audiences enjoy the show as much we have loved making this for them.”

The show which took five months to conceptualize saw the involvement of the cast including Grover who participated in a workshop to discuss the quirkiness of the characters that would make them endearing to their audiences.

Speaking about the research that went in for the show, Golwalkar said, “My team has been working on the show for last 6 months.  We have been planning this show for a long time and it just happened that Sunil Grover too was looking for a show and we thought of getting him back with us in  the role of Chutki which he’s playing in Mad In India. It is not known 

to many but he has played the role of Chutki earlier in ‘Hans Baliye’ on Star One. Comparisons are bound to happen, but not at the cost of content. In coming years we'll see lot of fiction and non-fiction shows in the comedy genre, on weekdays and weekends.”

With Star Plus airing films on Sundays too when asked to explain their strategy on the  weekend programming lineup Golwalkar said, “But for one or two big ticket property we want to reduce are dependency on films for the  reason that it’s expensive and we  are basically an entertainment channel.  We have two film channels who can handle films better. Post one hour of comedy, Mad In India, we have lined up dark love stories titled Ishq Kills, slated to occupy the 10 pm slot which has garnered a lot of curiosity.” 

Madhok shared the channel’s unique plans to market the show. They have preferred to stay away from print, radio and outdoor for this show. “Our focus is only on television and digital. 90 per cent of the spends have been on Star Plus and other channels within the network with over 1,000 spots and we have included few news channels as well to target the male audience. On the day of launch we’ll do a page takeover on Yahoo which will display a flip book with all the characters of the show and when you click over a character they'll pop up and crack a joke for you whereby the characters will be introduced. The budget of the show is not as expensive as Nach Baliye but yes definitely on the higher side given the expensive set, a large crew and moreover writing comedy is not easy,” he shared. The dual set which involves a rotating mechanism and a lot of technicalities is said to be an expensive one.

The show Mad In India has currently bagged three associate sponsors on board viz.  Kit Kat from Nestle, Endura Mass and LIC where as other sponsors are in talks and will be finalized in a week’s time. Being the first season, the channel has no plans to rope in a title sponsor as of now and intend building the brand first.
Star Plus is also all set to launch ‘Ishq Kills’ a show based on true events which will portray crimes of passion. The show is expected to wrap up in 26 episodes. Produced by Rowdy Rascals of Savdhaan India fame Ishq Kills will have film producer-director Vikram Bhatt as host of the show.

Bored of watching the same fiction shows and films week after week on Sundays?  Now laugh out loud as Star Plus brings  you  back to back entertainment, starting 16th February 2014 with Mad In India – 100% Desi Show at 9 pm followed by a more serious offering Ishq Kills at 10 pm.