Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

IPL has been gaining daily popularity and is now the most popular event not only in India but in many places. The supporting of teams will very soon reach cult proportions. The greatest benefit we think is getting rid of the staple diet of saas bahu type serials and soaps served to Indian Viewers since long. When the entire world is moving towards realty shows and innovative formats we saw Indian Television dishing out a whole bunch of rotten and stinking serials based on age old family melodrama with predictable twists and turns and with a simple intention of pulling it towards infinity.

The viewers could do nothing except digest that over rotten food similar to the food handed over to prisoners who have no other option but to gulp it down. Yes, occasionally we saw a breeze of fresh air like an ugly betty or a American idol clone but the saas bahu type survived given the long standing nexus between the producer, programming head and a bunch of plastic actors. Even scripts and sets were guided by advertisers and TV channels old or new always wanted to tread the proven path and no one ever had the guts to step out on the road less traveled.

IPL came in such a scenario and captured all hearts, minds and eyeballs irrespective of age, class or sex. Starting from the housewife to the office goer, the college and school kids, girls, women, men everyone got crazy and waited anxiously with crossed finger for the next match. Cricket and Movies have always ruled the Indian mind and is a prime driver. So with IPL, all popular channels and particularly those whose dependence was most on this over-rot serials got washed away pretty fast.

As of now every one is effected — be it Sony, Star or Zee - all of them and Star is trying desperately to break away with a Quiz show with SRK which will probably succeed provided there is no time clash with IPL . Of course channels will claim that they are not affected - but a close look at the fine print will always show that such data is for a insignificant span of time over an insignificant mass and an insignificant age-group and based on something called TAM which operates the people-meter here with even less than 0.1 percent coverage of the TV viewing public. Indeed funny how such a thing can be even be considered as a benchmark.

We sincerely believe that IPL will break all records mostly due to the format of the Game which is as close to a Realty show as possible plus the band-wagon of Bollywood stars attached with the event.

There is a possibility that we will have the real option to put a finishing nail to this stinking trail of Indian Television Soaps finally.

© IPL Cricket Forum.

From April 18, all cricket lovers are in for a bonanza, till the final
on June 1. The viewers will get to see a lot of high-on-adrenaline
action on the field. It’s already been announced that the inaugural
Indian Premier League (IPL) match will be between SRK’s Kolkata Knight
Riders and Vijay Mallya’s Bangalore Royal Challengers at the
Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore.

Quite obviously then, in a
cricket crazy nation like ours, everything else will take a backseat.
Even movies, our other everlasting love and teleserials. With 59
matches, all played during late afternoon and evening coinciding with
prime time TV, the event may well spoil some good parties in Bollywood.

In
the words of Lalit Modi, Chairman and commissioner, DLF IPL, “The live
in-stadia entertainment, combined with on-field action will hook
viewers onto this new adrenaline packed live family entertainment
format. It’ll also be attracting a younger fan base, including women
and children.”

The general entertainment television is pulling
out all stops to ensure that the audience does not abandon them. The
Twenty20 matches will start from 4 pm onwards, with the day’s last
match starting at 8 pm. While 4 pm to 6 pm is crucial for music and
kids channels, 9 pm to 11 pm is prime time for channels Star Plus, Zee
TV , NDTV Imagine, 9X and Sony Entertainment Television.

April
is the peak season for advertising agencies flush with funds at the
beginning of the new fiscal year. With summer and vacations a step
away, it is also the season for aggressive advertising for summer
products.

Most channels are launching new, big budget shows to
keep viewers from switching loyalties, with big buck celebrities being
roped in. Star Plus is all set to launch ‘Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez
Hain?’, a game show with Shah Rukh Khan. Zee Entertainment Enterprises
Ltd has recently launched ‘Rock-N-Roll Family’ with actors Kajol and
Ajay Devgan as Judges, while INX Media will launch ‘Chak De Bachche’,
yet another talent hunt show.

Cricket experts also feel that
the Indian team’s T20 triumph and their victory in Australia will
further boost the TRPs for this first-of-its-kind tournament. Also, the
tournament will stretch for almost a month and a half – 44 days to be
precise. And cricket enthusiasts will try their best not to miss a
single evening. Does that send a shiver down Bollywood’s collective
spine? What will happen to the new releases falling within this period,
or for that matter, the weekend business?

“It will surely hit
the Box Office in a big way. Whenever there is something big like this
happening, the curiosity levels are high and that will have people
glued to their TV sets. The same happened when Big B and SRK hosted
KBC. Later, of course, it’ll all depend on who’s playing against whom,”
says trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

Producer Ravi Chopra’s film,
Bhootnath, is to be released during the same time. He says, “How
popular it is going to be will be known only once it kicks-off. ICL per
se has not been a run away hit but considering there are big stars
involved in IPL, it can be popular. Our release date, as of now, is May
9. We will assess the situation and take a call by then.”

Adds
producer Mukesh Bhatt, “The amount of money riding on it, the presence
of Bollywood stars and the tremendous media hype has already made IPL
an exciting concept. Frankly, it will be suicidal to release a movie in
the first week and the last week of IPL. But as it is said in
Bollywood, you don’t know the fate of the movie until it’s released.
The same goes for IPL.”