MUMBAI: Star's Tamil entertainment channel Vijay TV has lined up two primetime shows for August. Daily soap Kanmani will go air from 16 August, while sitcom Thillu Mullu will be launched on 23 August.

Kanmani replaces one of the most popular Tamil soaps Kavyanjali produced by Balaji Telefilms. Both the new shows will be running Monday through Thursday. Kanmani stars popular faces in Tamil entertainment, including Charuhassan, Vijay Babu and Priya Mahalakshmi.

Kanmani taps the Saas-Bahu genre and the story revolves around Kanmani, the eldest daughter-in-law of an upper class joint family. Thillu Mullu, which represents comedy genre in Vijay's primetime line up, has been positioned in the 7:30 pm slot. Sunil Tagore - Aasai Thambi duo directed Thillu Mullu stars Mouli, Y.G. Mahendran, Pallavi, Rajashri, Oormila and Kutti Padmini.Since the last couple of months Vijay TV has been making an all-out effort to steal the thunder from rival channels Sun, Raj and Jaya in the prime time segment. A channel exective claims that Vijay has reached the number two position in the primetime segment. He attributes this feat to a change in its primetime programming strategy.

"While other Tamil general entertainment channels air soaps in the Monday - Thursday 9 to 10 slot , we rely on the comedy genre to fight the competition in this time band and we have been doing it quite successfully," the Vijay TV executive told Indiantelevision.com.

The channel launched a string of comedy shows, anchored by popular faces in the Tamil entertainment, in June. According to Vijay TV programming head Suresh Iyer, the channel will be soon re-launching its popular reality show Kadhai Alla Nijam in a new format. He says the focus is on the entertainment segment and the channel has no plans to try its hand on news telecast. As per the latest TAM figures that represent all Tamil Nadu 4 plus ABC C&S, 
Vijay TV holds 4.6 per cent channel share.