Discovering India
SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY
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"Most Extreme" is here and there is more to come, promises Discovery Networks' Raja Balasubramanium
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From early next year, we plan to devote two hours on India-related stories on Discovery channel Raja Balasubramanium
PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA
BRINGING NATURE TO YOUR DRAWING ROOM Raja Balasubramanium, Brand Director, Marketing, Animal Planet and Discovery channel
This is also a `top ten' show but not what you usually think of with such a tag. Stretching far, far away from the typical weekly film countdown numbers dished out as `top ten' shows on channels, this one talks of top ten super senses and other behaviours in the animal kingdom for a change.
Aired every Monday at 8 p.m. on Animal Planet from November 21 through the month of December, the series is called "Most Extreme".
Says Raja Balasubramanium, the channel's Brand Director, Marketing, "Animal Planet has three time bands each day - safari, fun zone and masters of the jungle. Starting at 8 p.m., these one-hour time slots stretch till 11 p.m. every day. `Most Extreme' falls in our safari band. Each story of the series does a countdown of the ten most extreme animals for any given behaviour."
Starting with `Stinkers', which featured the biggest stinker in the jungles of the world, it showed `Super Senses', a countdown of the top ten super senses in the animal kingdom and a subsequent comparison with our feeble five senses.
In queue are shows on top ten most extreme defenders, most extreme daredevils of the natural world and the top ten extreme eaters in the animal kingdom among other parts of the series.
Raja is hopeful that the show would click among Indian viewers.
"But usually, the big cat shows are a big grosser in India," he says. Quite content with the content of Animal Planet, he says, thsere is no plan to overhaul the channel. And come next year, it will feature Indian safaris too besides a slew of new programmes in the January-March slot.
More time on India
Talking about Discovery channel, he says, besides other shows, the big show to hit the channel this year end is "Retrospective-2005" which would include all the important events of the year.
Also, one more show that he is excited about is, "Beyond Tomorrow", a series on innovations and inventions. It is likely to hit the screens coming February.
Saying that Discovery has a rather "upmarket profile" when it comes to viewers in India, Raja announces, from early next year onwards, the one-hour slot devoted to India-related stories on Discovery will stretch to two hours. Which means, a lot more local production will be flashed on Discovery.
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