MUMBAI: After Indian Idol, Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa and Khatro Ke Khiladi, Sony Entertainment Television is all set bring another international format - Power Couple, to India. Hitting Indian television screens from December 12 onwards, Power Couple will be a one and half hour show and will be aired on Saturday and Sunday at the 8.30 pm time slot. Indiantelevision.com had reported earlier that SET would bring the Israeli reality show produced by Colosceum Entertainment to India.
The channel has roped in Ponds as the presenting sponsor and Priyagold Snakker and Ching’s Secret - I love Desi Chinese as powered by sponsors.. Besides, Power Couple also has Iodex and Dettol as the co- sponsors for the show.
The channel will also be airing strips of the show from Monday – Friday at 10 pm for 30 minutes, to run viewers through the journey of the contestants. Power Couple will be a 26 episodes series that will run for 13 weeks.
Power Couple will be hosted by Bollywood couple Malaika Arora Khan and Arbaaz Khan. The show celebrates the essence of true love as it gauges how far couples will go to prove their undying affection for each other. Pratyusha Banerjee-Rahul Raj Singh, Naved Jaffrey-Sayeeda, Jesse Randhawan-Sandeep Soparkar, Apoorva Agnihotri-Shilpa Saklani, Aamir Ali-Sanjeeda Sheikh, Delnaz Irani-Percy Karkaria, Salil Ankola-Ria Banerjee, Shawar Ali-Marsela, Ashmit Patel-MehakChahal, and Rahul Dev-MugdhaGodse will among the participants.
Speaking about the show, Multi Screen Media (MSM) CEO NP Singh said, “The good thing about Sony is whether we bring a show for the domestic market or for the international market, we are known for the bringing the best shows to the country. Sony has introduced some of the best reality to India like Indian Idol, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, Khatro Ke Khiladi and Dus Ka Dum which become very popular. Power Couple, our next international offering, was originally produced by Israel-based Dori Media. The producers plan to launch the show in US and UK as well. One of Sony’s greatest strengths in programming is that we’ve led right from the front in non-fiction content and in fiction as well. We have recently launched season two of Parrvarish and initial response is good.”
Talking to Indiantelevision.com about the promotional activities, SET SVP and head marketing Anup Vishwanathan, said, “We have planned a 360 degree campaign to promote Power Couple. It will be 8 week campaign for us including digital, radio, television and print outside and inside the network. We are also running a contest on social media where we are asking people to upload their and pictures and tell us about why they want to be the part of the show. We have already received 7000 entries for the same and shortlisted 400 couples.” SET has roped in Leo Burnett as the creative agency which worked with SET’s internal creative team for the show.
Colosceum Entertainment CEO Lalit Sharma said, “Basically we have been doing all sorts of reality shows from Splitsvilla to Roadies to Masterchef. This is a reality show in the positive space and this is an answer to any negative warrism kind of show. It’s high time that one should get into the positive mode and that’s made us believe that this will work.”
The production house has tweaked the format for its Indian audiences. Talking about the same, Sharma added, “The Israelis are more into showing skin, while Indian culture doesn’t allow that and that is one of the major changes we have made in this show. Besides, we have also changed the task format according to our needs.”
Power Couple has been shot in Goa in beautiful villa named Power Couple Villa. While Sharma did not mention figures, speaking about the production cost he said, “Power Couple is an expensive show. It’s cost is three times the Roadies cost.”
