Times are tough in television these days with the advertising pie shrinking. And channels are resorting to the tack of running older shows. Star, Zee, Sabe, DD have all done it. Can Sahara TV be far behind?

Not really. Following the lead of other satellite channels which have started repeat telecasts of successful shows, Sahara TV has started airing Wilayattee Babu from 5 November.

An episodic sitcom series, Wilayattee Babu's star cast includes Shekhar Suman, Sudhir Pandey, Rakesh Bedi, Farha, Divya Seth, Seema Kapoor, Navneet Nishan, Bharat Kapoor, Bhavna Balsavar and Yunus Parvez. Each episode aims at hilariously highlighting the differences between the Asia and the West, and the storyline revolves around an NRI's antics on coming home to India.

Produced by Future Communications and directed by Raju Parsekar, Wilayattee Babu was earlier aired on terrestrial channel Doordarshan.

Says Sahara vice-president communications Priya Raj : "Satellite channels have a different and better reach than a terrestrial channel and we hope to get a better response. This was a weekly show earlier but now it is being aired as a daily at 7.30 pm Mondays to Fridays. Within the next two to three weeks, we should know viewers' response and ratings. Currently, we have feedback that the show is getting a good response, that there is good awareness about it."

The show presently has two associate sponsors in All Out and MDH Masala, and is on the lookout for additional advertisers and sponsors.