The stage is set as Zee TV prepares for Act II of its play for the leadership position in the channel wars. CEO Sandeep Goyal has rolled up his sleeves, along with marketing head Partha Sinha, and is gearing up for a fierce round of fisticuffs. At stake is leadership of the Indian cable & satellite TV business, which has been with Star India‘s Star Plus for the past year.

It was on 5 March that Zee announced a new programming initiative that was to see the rollout of over 17 new programmes over the course of two months. The centrepiece of this initiative was the commissioning of India‘s first ever Reality TV show Prisoner of War.

There is no sign of POW yet but after brainstorming with producers and directors, the channel has meticulously worked on its programming strategy and plans to introduce a clutch of shows in the third week of August. Eleven new soaps and serials, including a new interactive serial, five other programmes which take an investigative look into the crime world, while some take the audience to Bollywood a day before a movie premieres, new episodes of popular series, and a re-telecast of older popular shows is what is on the menu.

7:30 PM TO 11:00 PM IS PRIME TIME: Goyal, who took charge on 16 May, has set himself a 100-day target to restage the channel and he is determined to stay to schedule. The shows on anvil are being packed into prime time between 7:30 PM and 11:00 PM

Deewane To Deewane Hai, produced by Raman "Tara" Kumar, will air from Monday to Wednesday, 7:30 PM The series is about a youth‘s journey from the U.K. to India and is woven around his passion for music. The UTV-produced youth oriented series Hip Hip Hurray will air at the same time Thursday - Friday. The 8:00 PM slot for the entire week will be taken up by Ek Tukda Hai Chaand Ka, a series produced by Tony and Diya Singh. It tracks a simple small town girl who follows her lover into the city but is ditched by him. She adapts to the social fabric of the city and herself becomes a glamorous and successful woman.

Two more weekly series Justjoo and Mujhi Dor Koi Khinche (8:30 PM on Tuesday and Fridays) will be slotted with popular weeklies Koshish Ek Asha, Amanat, and Mehendi Tere Naam Ki, which are aired during the rest of the week. Justjoo, produced by Ajai Sinha, is about a simple girl/women dedicated to her family and who is often the butt of family jokes. Her sister on the other hand is a working lady and is well informed. The wife to her chagrin discovers that her husband is more attentive to her sister.

Mujhi Dor Koi Khinche, produced by Jai Mehta, follows two sisters, one of whom is schizophrenic.

‘CHHOTI MAA‘ VS ‘KBC‘: And taking Star‘s Kaun Banega Crorepati head-on at 9:00 PM daily is UTV‘s Chhoti Maa - a Hindi remake of the numero uno Tamil mega serial Chiththi which has been getting consistent top ratings in the South on Sun TV. According ORG-INTAM data, Chiththi corners 27.7 TRPs in all C&S homes (25 June 2001- 1 July 2001). Whether the audience will prefer a daily soap opera about two look-alike women - one rearing a small child the other a career woman in the upper echelons of administration - over KBC is a moot point.

At 9:30 PM daily, viewers will have a chance to weep over another Balaji Telefilms production - Koi Apna Sa. The daily is an emotional saga about three friends who grow up together and get married into the same family. Their children get swapped at the time of delivery. And the series tracks their fortunes thereafter.

INTERACTIVE SHOW TO CHALLENGE ‘KYUNKI...‘, ‘KAHANI...‘: Zee TV‘s combatant for the Star Plus dominated 10-11 PM slot (Monday to Wednesday) is an hour-long interactive show Aap Jo Bole to Haan, Aap JO Bole to Naa. The channel is counting on this innovative fiction series that allows viewers to decide the climax/end of each episode by voting online and calling in live. The end that gets the majority of the votes will be selected as the final climax immediately.

The Thursday-Friday 10 PM slot will be occupied by Atith, a series revolving around reincarnation. Dollar Bahu which follows this series at 10:30 PM is penned by Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys promoter NR Narayan Murthy. Dollar Bahu is the story of an Indian girl married in the U.S. who tries to balance the fast life there and her roots in India.

LATE NIGHT VIEWING: Zee TV is trying to extend viewing later into the night with Sarhadein which will air at 11 PM from Monday to Wednesday. It is a romantic saga of an Indian software engineer who falls head over heels for a Pakistani boy in Singapore.

Thursday‘s 11 PM slot is to be taken up by First Take, which will preview movies before they are theatrically released while India‘s notorious conmen will feature every Friday and Saturday at 11 PM in Shree 420.

SUNDAY SOAPS: Goyal and Sinha are hoping that soaps and series will work on Sundays too. Tracinema‘s Sansaar, (8 PM Sunday), is the story of a Punjabi family settled in London and their lives covering five continents (this was one of the serials announced in March). The Mission, a recreation of some of the proud moments of Indian armed forces, produced by Girish Mallick, is slated to air on Sunday at 10 PM

In the afternoon band the channel plans to showcase Zee Nostalgia - a repeat of top-notch prime time programmes. Gharana, a daily soap airs at 2:00 PM, which will be followed by a feature film every day at 2:30 PM

NEW LOGO: Goyal says that the channel is being given a fresh new look with a new logo, innovative packaging and a new voice over. "We will be back," he says. "Watch out for us. We will regain our no 1 status by the end of this year."

Are Sameer and Peter at Star TV tuned in?

Everyone‘s talking weekend entertainment and Sony Entertainment Television is also on that list. SET has Khel in store - a dramatic family weekly drama that hits the small screen this coming Sunday at 9:00 PM

Produced by Smita Thackeray‘s Rahul Productions, the serial has a big-league star cast. Khel features Dilip Tahil - his first venture on the small screen, Nirmal Pandey, the Bollywood ‘bad-shah‘ who makes a comeback to the small screen, Moon Moon Sen, Mrinal Kulkarni and Priya Tendulkar as the main star cast.

It is the assurance of a quality production which will be maintained throughout the serial‘s telecast duration and the chances of the serial abruptly going off air being remote that prompted him to sign onto the project, Tahil said at a press brief in south Mumbai‘s Hotel Taj yesterday. Khel in the only serial that Tahil is presently acting in.

The fast-paced emotional family drama has a high society setting and is the story of Deven Oberoi (Dilip Tahil) a businessmen absolutely focused on earning money and his plans for setting up a lavish casino. In the mad quest for fortune and fame his personal life takes a backseat which affects his family at this point his former lover Lilavati (Priya Tendulkar) and illegitimate daughter (Mrinal Kulkarni). The star cast Dilip Tahil, Mrinal Kulkarni, Nitesh Pandey with three other cast took-on stage and by way of saying and acting out a dialogue from the script gave an idea about the characters they are playing.

Khel also marks Rahul Productions‘ first foray into making television serials. Says Swati Thanawala, executive producer, it was the success of Haseena Maan Jayegi that prompted them to look at the television medium. "The story line was good and has a range of emotions and interesting moments hence apt for a serial, a three hour movie wouldn‘t have justified it," said Smita Thackeray.

Made on a relatively high budget, courtesy the high profile star cast which mounts up to a huge investment for each episode. Nevertheless, both the production house and the channel are optimistic about the serial. Before going into production a thorough groundwork for nearly a year over the scripting had been done, informs Thanawala. "We have treaded carefully over the storyline and star cast and we are looking at a long-term telecast," she added.

Media baron Subhash Chandra‘s Zee Telefilms Ltd, which announced last Thursday that its promoters had placed 5 million shares with a U.S.-based institutional investor, will receive around Rs 500 million in the transaction, merchant banking sources point out. CIBC Oppenheimer paid slightly less than Rs 100 a share for its stock holding in Zee, the sources say.

The shares reportedly represent 1.3 per cent of ZTL‘s paid-up capital and lowers the promoters‘ stake to around 59 per cent. The group promoters had earlier borrowed around Rs 2200 million from ZTL for the Essel group. They had announced that the entire amount would be returned by June 30. However, the Essel group has since then managed to pay back Rs 600 million.

Rajesh Jain - president - corporate finance and strategy, when contacted refused comment on the identity of the FII while maintaining that Zee had raised a total of around Rs 600 million in the current transaction. "The institutional investor who has purchased these shares is a long-term investor in ZTL," an official release had said. Sources aver that if the official figure of Rs 600 million proves true, then it is likely that the balance of Rs 100 million will come from Zee‘s promoters. Head of corporate affairs R.K. Singh has said the money from the transaction would be coming in before the end of the week.

Jain, when queried as to when the balance amount would be returned, said: "We are committed to returning the full amount with interest at the earliest possible time."

With this placement, the promoters‘ holding stands at 59 per cent, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have 21 cent, financial institutions and mutual funds 9 per cent and the balance is with the public.

The figure of Rs 2200 million is what the Zee Network had reportedly advanced to Essel group investment companies, which was subsequently transferred to cornered bull Ketan Parekh‘s investment companies.

CIBC Oppenheimer‘s interest in Zee stock could be because at Rs 100 a share it is seen as a good buy, the sources say. There is also the added advantage that a bulk amount of stock was being made available to Oppenheimer which otherwise would have had to be mopped up from the market.

Sony Entertainment Television has finally decided to pull the plug on its high profile gameshow Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke, industry sources indicate. The last of the series, episode number 90, was canned recently, and the show will be going off air by end-September, the sources say.

Rekha Nigam, senior vice-president - programming and production, SET, however denies that JCPK, hosted by filmstar Govinda, is coming to an end any time soon. "We have some great episodes lined up and there is no question of the show going off air just yet," Nigam stresses, adding that, as with all programming on the channel, there is a continuous review process going on. Nigam said the shows were being recorded keeping in mind Govinda‘s busy schedule. "We have enough episodes in the can to see us through for the near term," Nigam adds.

Speculation that JCPK‘s days are numbered has been doing the rounds for a while now and has increased since it went from a thrice a week airing to a twice-a-week show from 2 June. It now airs on Fridays and Sundays with the Saturday slot being given over to movies.

As to the possible reasons for JCPK‘s imminent demise there are many. Falling TRPs is an obvious one. Add the cost factor - an estimated average cost of Rs 4 million per episode - and the returns in terms of ad revenues are just not there. While the same could be said to some extent about Star India‘s Amitabh Bachchan-hosted gameshow Kaun Banega Crorepati vis-୶is TRPs (4.6 as per market research agency ORG Marg‘s Intam data for the week ending 1 July), the difference is in the profile KBC enjoys. KBC has helped lift all the shows which have been worked around it but JCPK was never anywhere close to becoming Sony‘s channel driver.

So what next from the SET stable? All indications are that another possibly even bigger blockbuster show is on the anvil. When and what form it takes is the question.