Hungama TV’s Anu Sikka joins Nick as director, programming

Nick has appointed Anu Sikka as director, programming. Sikka hails from Hungama, where she was creative director, non-fiction (game shows) and acquisitions.

Talking about Sikka’s induction, Hema Govindan, vice-president and general manager, Nick India, says, “Programming is by far the most crucial ingredient in our mix. Sikka is a person who not only has proven programming credentials, but also has the necessary expertise to work in a kids’channel.”

Sikka comments, “Nick’s main strength has always been content, due to its access to original Nick programming from all over the world, and more importantly, its ability to experiment with new genres. Working with such a channel will be quite exciting and challenging.”

Sikka had earlier been with Hungama TV, ever since its inception in July 2004. There, she was responsible for setting up the overall animation strategy for the channel, acquisitions, scheduling and research, and also worked closely with the marketing and sales departments.

Prior to that, she was executive producer, SAB TV, for around two years (2002-‘04). There, she was made in-charge of the Delhi bureau. Sikka played an important role in setting up the in-house production team and was responsible for starting a daily current affairs band on the channel.

Sikka started off her career in 1993 doing research for Newstrack. In 1995, she went on to join Business India Television, where she worked on projects such as ‘Choice Aapki’ (the game show) and Googly (a cricket quiz). She went on to produce, direct and edit a daily sports programme for DD Sports International. In 1999, she did a year long stint each as a producer at Tara Punjabi and Wahindia, respectively.

After a couple of freelance projects, Sikka joined SAB TV in 2002. She has produced several shows there, such as ‘Faces and Names’ anchored by Vir Sanghvi, ‘Court Martial’ and ‘Line of Fire’ anchored by Karan Thappar, ‘Jan Sansad’ anchored by Harish Gupta, and ‘Kuch Khaas Baatein’ hosted by Swati Chaturvedi.

She has also directed ‘Kuch Diil Se’, the talk show hosted by Smriti Irani.

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