We are the preferred broadcaster for every production house.

Sameer Nair, who started his career with space selling for Yellow Pages, later became an ad filmmaker and worked extensively on the MRF Tyres brand. He began his journey with the STAR Network in 1994 taking charge of STAR Movies. Over the years, he has handled just about everything at STAR – from making shows and promos to movie acquisitions and then leading the creative team.

As chief operating officer of STAR India, he was given the responsibility of distribution, which was then constantly in the eye of the storm. Spearheading the distribution team, he made sure that STAR's distribution catapulted from 5.4 million subscriptions to over 10.7 million within six months.

Much of the credit for the numero uno position that STAR has achieved today goes to Nair. He is one of the key figures behind STAR’s rise to the top with Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), creating television history and also the launch of innovative and distinctive daily soap operas creating a new trend in the Indian television industry.

In an interview with Aditya Chatterjee and Prajjal Saha of agencyfaqs!, Nair talks about how STAR maintains its position as the leading broadcaster in the country and its future plans.

Edited Excerpts

STAR Plus boasts of a wide range of general entertainment programming, including soaps and serials. As a creative content team, we continuously innovate and experiment. We may not always succeed, but the aim is always to do unique, popular and distinctive programming.

Last year we produced a high-end action show titled JOSH that was hardly kitchen politics. We have a show titled Hatim which is fantasy and extravaganza. We do a wide range of children's programming like Shakalaka, Son Pari, etc. And, while STAR Plus continues its domination in Hindi general entertainment, we are now gearing up to launch STAR One. So the accusation of lack of experimentation or lack of adventure is a rather strange observation.

STAR One will be a Hindi entertainment channel but it would not have a wide array of viewers like STAR Plus has – that is SEC A to E and an age group of 6-60. STAR One has an attitude, and it doesn't have an aspiration to be at par with STAR Plus.

And unlike STAR Plus, STAR One would tend to take the drama out of the house with a different colour and different texture. If one differentiates the programming of STAR Plus with STAR One, it will be the difference between a kitchen and the lobby of a huge palatial building. Yes, both are premium but at the same time, offer a different view of life. And when we call STAR One a premium channel, it means that the production cost of the shows will be at par with STAR Plus, and not a cheap channel.

Basic human emotions like love, hate etc – whether in STAR Plus or in STAR One – remain the same. But you will see that how characters talk differently in the dramas of STAR One. We are launching the channel in October.

One more differentiator is that the stories on STAR One would be male dominated as India's working environment is male dominated, whereas homes are female dominated.

In that way, STAR One will represent an evolved way of thinking. At STAR One, the focus will not be at homes. We will showcase a different type of story telling. There will be proper drama and not just lifestyle or the type espoused by MTV and Channel [V].

To answer your previous question on STAR Plus primarily focusing on “kitchen politics”, STAR One will be a channel for those who complain that STAR Plus is getting boring. Essentially, it's targeted at premium viewers between the age-group of 26 and 34 years.

From an advertising point of view, we are looking at premium products and services catering to premium viewers.

I would not like to make any comments as such. Any suggestions of Kahanis… and Kyunkis....being non-cerebral would be a derogatory statement since all of them have been extremely popular serials.

Buying stakes in Balaji Telefilms was just giving an official stamp to the relationship we had. You can put it like this that we were living together and we just got married. It has been a great experience for STAR to work with Balaji and vice-versa. Essentially, we score well as a team.

I don't think the STAR-Balaji relationship would have any major effect on the industry. Balaji will continue producing shows for other channels. Internationally, FOX Television produces shows for other channels like MGM, and there hasn't been any problem ever.

It will never happen that STAR will only have Balaji shows, or only Balaji's shows will be on STAR. For instance, the soon-to-be launched channel STAR One will only have one show from Balaji Telefilms in the initial phase.

And if you talk about the best shows, I would say that the best of Balaji's shows are already with us on STAR Plus. And if you talk about first right of refusal, for any production house in the country, we are the preferred broadcaster. Why single out only Balaji? Whenever a production house comes up with an idea, it approaches STAR first. Every production house prefers to have its show on STAR plus.

It's very wrong to compare any show or format with Kaun Baenga Crorepati. KBC became a success because all the planets and the stars were in its favour. Jokes apart, shows like this do not happen every alternate Sunday.

But even then, the game show Khul Ja Sim Sim has done very well. We haven't taken it off. We thought that the programme needed a break. It will be re-launched soon with a new anchor, Hussain. Incidentally, we are also re-launching Kaun Banega Crorepati from July 2005. In June, we will start shooting and hopefully, the first episode will be aired in July.

No, particular reason actually. It's not like changing Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. We created Aman Verma. After all, who knew of him before Khul Ja Sim Sim?

Actually if you look at the numbers, it is a myth. While all our programmes are women centric, they tend to be family drama. And TAM figures indicate that more men watch STAR Plus than they watch cricket.

One can also argue that because it’s mostly single television homes, the poor man has no option than to sit and watch STAR Plus. But still it's a fact that more men watch STAR Plus.

And regarding kids, we have already broken lots of grounds in the last few years with original kids content. And, I think we were one of the pioneers to do shows such as Shakalaka..., Sonpari..., Hatim... and now Dekho Magar Pyar Se. We are trying to push further on this ground now.

Regarding male viewers, I would like to point out that STAR Plus will try to be – as it has been in the past – focused on women and family. So, it won't have a classic male story as one says, but it will definitely have male characters. And, as I said, for male viewership or rather evolved viewership, we are launching a new channel STAR One by October-end.

STAR Plus has a viewer base that is SEC A-E, 4+, male and female. So, as I have explained to you earlier, it’s not like males do not watch STAR Plus. The general programming at STAR Plus is skewed to family entertainment. But recently, we launched K-Street Pali Hill, which airs Monday-Thursday at 11.30 pm. This is a story of three men who share a past that comes back to haunt them, and is quite different from other daily soaps, we have done so far. So, clearly male viewers are very much in our focus.

We have taken on the distribution of Hungama, and will be launching STAR One next month. We continue to push for greater transparency in declaration of subscriber numbers. It’s not just about price increases but more importantly, about plugging the numerous leaks that exist in the distribution chain and getting our fair share of revenue.

TV viewership is fragmenting rather than declining, but that's bound to happen as more channels enter the fray. The challenge is to keep on innovating and continuing to tell great stories that keep viewers wanting more.

STAR Gold competes effectively with ZEE Cinema and SET Max. We had originally launched STAR Gold as a classic movie channel, and over the past 18 months, we have gradually metamorphosed into a contemporary blockbuster Hindi movie channel. We have upped our spends on movie acquisitions, and we are actively in the hunt for big titles. It’s now a matter of time before Star Gold overtakes the competition.

STAR Utsav has got off to a good start. In three short months, its audience share is comparable with SAB and Sahara. STAR Utsav has attracted our regular clients, but we are also focusing on local advertisers, who normally do not advertise on television.

Television and STAR Plus soaps in particular, have become part of the national consciousness, and its lead characters – whether Tulsi or Parvati have become icons. And since advertising tends to reflect audience tastes, it's actually complimentary when they spoof our shows. If done in good taste, it’s acceptable. Though recently, there was one particular campaign that was a bit over the top. But I guess two can play that game.

STAR Movies has deals with all major international studios, and will continue to broadcast the best of Hollywood movies. Competition exists but that will not impact STAR Movies' leadership position.

We were in negotiation with Freemantle to acquire the rights to Pop Idol, but before we could conclude negotiations, it was sold to Sony. However, Channel [V] has done two very successful seasons of PopStars, and is now doing SuperSinger. So the battle is really between Sony and Channel [V]. We have a musician of the calibre of Adnan Sami to lead our search for India's SuperSinger, so I'd say it's definitely round 1 to us.

We await our LOI (letter of intent), and hence, I cannot comment on exact dates and plans.