It's Laloo vs. Sharma at Aap Ki Adalat on India TV

Aap Ki Adalat, the most successful talk show on ZEE TV, hosted by Rajat Sharma, is making its comeback on India TV from August 15. The first guest to be grilled will be none other than Railways minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.

When asked by agencyfaqs! as to whether Yadav was an obvious choice due to his entertaining abilities, Sharma who also heads India TV says, "Yadav has been a lucky mascot for me, as he was also the first guest on the previous series of Aap Ki Adalat on ZEE."

He further said, "The motto behind Aap Ki Adalat is to make personalities accountable in front of the public and asking uncomfortable questions with a smile. So there would be other personalities who would follow."

Although, Sharma didn't reveal the names of the other personalities to be featured on the show, he mentioned that celebrities from all fields such as sports and movies would be featured in this show.

"Any controversial personality would be make it to Aap Ki Adalat," he added.

But will this Aap Ki Adalat be on the same line as the previous series? Sharma says, "The basic content and concept will remain same but we have have tried to give it a larger image by having a bigger and colossal set."

The set for the current show has been designed by Nitin Desai and the lighting has been done by Ashok Mehta. The show will accommodate around 200 studio guests as compared just 50-60 people in the previous series.

There would be a couple of more shows coming up on India TV. Sharma says, "Only 30 per cent of the programmes, which we have planned for the channel, is currently on air. There will be many programmes that will be released in the coming months."

Just a week after Aap Ki Adalat's launch, Tarun Tejpal-hosted Aaj Ka Tehelka will make its debut. This ten-minute show would investigate one major incident of corruption every day.

The channel will also telecast programmes on business and entertainment. Sharma clarified that the entertainment show will not talk about film releases or reviews but would talk on the controversial subjects related to the entertainment industry.

India TV has been a anchor driven channel and two new faces to air on the channel would be Sudhir Choudhry of Sahara Samay and Satish Jacob of BBC. Jacob would be hosting a show on external affairs and international news.

For the entertainment show, the channel would go in for a celebrity host from Bollywood; the personality is yet to be finalised.

When quizzed about its distribution problems, Sharma agreed that the channel is not available in many pockets of Delhi and Mumbai and hoped to solve the crisis in few days. The distribution in the metros is controlled by the MSOs (multi system operators) and the channel's management is having discussions with them.

He added that India TV has been able to penetrate in smaller towns of the Hindi-speaking markets such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajashthan, where there are small cable operators.

When quizzed further on the fact that the TAM figures doesn't reveal his claims, he says, "The competitive channels have been in the market for more than a year now and we are just eight weeks old, so it would take some time to rise on the TAM charts."

To promote the channel and specifically Aap Ki Adalat, the management is planing a 360 degree campaign which includes hoardings, cross-channel promotions and print. For cross-channel promotions, the channel is looking forward to advertising in regional channels. © 2004 agencyfaqs!