MTV revives 'Bakra'; to launch 'MTV Jhand Hogi Sabki'

After Haunted Nights, MTV has announced the launch of yet another series in association with Balaji's Alt Entertainment, called 'MTV Jhand Hogi Sabki'.

The show, however, is similar to the brand's international property, MTV Punk'd. Hosted by young actors Siddharth Gupta and Ashish Juneja, 'MTV Jhand Hogi Sabki' will see celebrities pull pranks on each other.

Starting May 24, the show will be aired every Saturday at 7 pm. It replaces MTV's flagship property, Roadies.

According to Vikas Gupta, programming head, MTV, "What we are now doing is interesting tie ups. This helps us take the same programming to the viewers, but with a different perspective. The show's association with the right names and right brands seems to be working for us. When we did Haunted Nights with Ragini MMS (hosted by Sunny Leone), the slot saw 50 per cent jump in viewership for the channel. We are looking at more innovative ways of doing the same kind of programming."

He goes on to add that every time the channel thought of bringing back 'MTV Bakra', it felt it needed bigger faces and bigger people to pull it off. "That's why we thought that reviving Bakra with Jhand will be very cool," Gupta adds.

The channel has planned five weeks of telecast for 'MTV Jhand Hogi Sabki'. The audiences will see celebs such as Varun Dhawan, Siddharth Malhota, Anu Malik and Ekta Kapoor spinning plans to play pranks on friends and colleagues, while young Bollywood stars like Nargis Fakri and Shraddha Kapoor will be seen at the receiving end of the pranks.

"We at MTV believe in going into territories which are experimental in nature. It is not your sure shot GEC way of getting people to watch it but we are going extra miles to do something really different. Whether it will work or not is something that will unfold at later stages," Gupta says.

Kapoor adds, "It's always fun to pull pranks to see how people will react to them. Being on MTV Jhand Hogi Sabki was an experience. I did it to promote my film Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi. I don't think I ever laughed as much as I did on the show when I saw my friend falling for my prank. At one point, I was tempted to spill the beans."

The show will be supported by a 360 degree marketing campaign and will be promoted across all social media platforms of the channel.

MTV has roped in Addiction and Liberty as the sponsors for the show.

Besides MTV Jhand Hogi Sabki, the channel will also launch the new season of Splitsvilla on June 14.