DreamDTH Explains: A detailed guide to East Indian TV channels (Part 1: Bengali channels)

What Star Jalsha makes today, the rest of India watches tomorrow

Now, Star being the dominant broadcaster in an Indian regional market is not an especially new phenomenon, since Star Maa, Asianet and Star Pravah control the Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi markets respectively, as does Star Plus at the Hindi national level. What makes Star Jalsha unique, however, is that many of the most successful serials it has made for Bengali audiences are later adapted and remade by other GECs of the Star network in seven other languages. Though other Star GECs’ original productions are also remade into other languages — such as Pandian Stores (Star Vijay), Diya Aur Baati Hum (Star Plus) and Aboli (Star Pravah) — Star Jalsha alone accounts for the maximum number of such originals from which adaptations are created.

For example, what originally aired as Sreemoyee on Star Jalsha was remade into the blockbuster Anupamaa on Star Plus (Hindi) and Aai Kuthe Kay Karte! on Star Pravah (Marathi), as well as Intinti Gruhalakshmi on Star Maa (Telugu), Baakiyalakshmi on Star Vijay (Tamil), Kudumbavilakku on Asianet (Malayalam) and Inthi Nimma Asha on Star Suvarna (Kannada) — as well as the short-lived Shanti on Star Kiran (Odia) which was axed after only a few months, because the channel as a whole was underperforming. Other serials to be similarly remade over the years include Ishti Kutum, Ke Apon Ke Por, Potol Kumar Gaanwala, Kusum Dola, Bojhena Se Bojhena, Khorkuto and Mohor — many of which date to the mid-2010s, well before Star Jalsha’s big rebrand in February 2019 that saw it introduce bright green, orange and yellow graphics and a new programming schedule. However, several of the channel’s serials do not get adapted and/or are discontinued within a year or two.

Star Jalsha shows are one of the biggest reasons why Star Plus is an unconquerable force in the Hindi pay-TV segment, particularly with the shows launched since 2020: Anupamaa (remade from Sreemoyee), Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin (from Kusum Dola), Imlie (from Ishti Kutum) and Teri Meri Doriyaann (from Gaatchora), as well as previously Shaurya Aur Anokhi Ki Kahani (from Mohor) and Saath Nibhaana Saathiya 2 (from Ke Apon Ke Por), though Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai — on air for nearly 15 years since 2009 — and its spinoff Yeh Hai Chahatein remain its most successful shows.

These adaptations are also the biggest contributors to the success of other Disney Star regional GECs — with Star Pravah in particular shooting to the top of the Marathi ratings chart after years of domination by Zee Marathi, also thanks to Star Jalsha remakes like Lagnachi Bedi (also from Kusum Dola), Sukh Mhanje Nakki Kay Asta! (from Ke Apon Ke Por) and Thipkyanchi Rangoli (from Khorkuto). But the one-year-old Star Kiran has been a complete failure in comparison, and all its remade serials have been replaced by dubbed serials as it struggles for ratings, even though its HD version has now been added by Tata Play and Dish TV.

As such, being so heavily successful from serials, Star Jalsha was traditionally weak in reality shows — showing almost nothing but serials all 168 hours of the week, apart from the occasional Sunday movie — until its February 2019 rebrand, which saw it introduce new reality shows. Though its focus on reality shows has definitely increased compared to the 2010s, with shows like Dance Dance Junior, Ismart Jodi and especially Super Singer Junior, serials still form the bread-and-butter of the Star Jalsha schedule (as we also touched upon in 2022 in the rebrand of Zee Bangla Cinema, and the serial-centric nature of Bengali viewers) — in contrast to other Star GECs like Star Pravah where reality shows are a more regular feature. South Indian GECs are on a different level, as they lay great emphasis on new movie premieres and airings of existing movies, which is rarely the case for Bengali or Marathi GECs, and rarely so for Hindi. Hence only a few premieres are shown on Star Jalsha; Jalsha Movies gets the rest.

Competition from other established Bengali GECs

Zee Bangla: traditionally strong in reality shows, but turning slowly towards fiction shows

On the contrary, Zee Bangla, historically the second-largest Bengali GEC, has always been known as much for its non-fiction shows as for its serials, which have been on air for over a decade and a half — in contrast to Star Jalsha’s reality shows, none of which existed before the rebrand in 2019. Zee Bangla was the third Bengali GEC and fourth Bengali channel overall to launch an HD feed, which it did in November 2016 along with Zee Marathi — some months after Star Jalsha and Jalsha Movies did so in April 2016, and Colors Bangla in early May, at the same time as Colors Kannada, Colors Marathi and Star Pravah.

Some of the most popular reality shows that have aired on Zee Bangla since the 2000s include the quiz show Dadagiri Unlimited, hosted by former cricketer Sourav Ganguly; Dance Bangla Dance and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Bangla (especially the kids’ versions), adaptations of Zee TV’s reality shows; and formerly Mirakkel, a stand-up comedy show. These have aired during primetime at night, but some more have aired on weekdays in the early evenings: Rannaghar, a cooking show — though this was discontinued in 2023, and replaced by a family game show, Ghare Ghare Zee Bangla — and Didi No. 1, a game show for women, and one of the longest-running game shows in Indian TV.

However, Star Jalsha’s success has increasingly made Zee Bangla adopt a similar path, with a greater focus on serials as against reality shows, and some of Zee Bangla’s shows have also been remade in other languages and shown on Zee TV/Tamil/Keralam/Sarthak (Odia)/Punjabi, etc. — for instance Mithai and Bhootu, which were remade on Zee TV with the same names, as well as Deep Jwele Jai which was remade as Rishton Ka Manjha. Moreover, movie premieres are not as high-profile in Bengal as they are in South Indian languages, so Star Jalsha and Zee Bangla have only a handful of them in the year, with others being premiered on Jalsha Movies or Zee Bangla Cinema.

Other GECs: Colors Bangla, Sun Bangla, Sony Aath + Aakash Aath, Rupashi Bangla

In sharp contrast, Viacom18’s regional GECs have rarely been popular, and Colors Bangla (renamed from ETV Bangla in 2015) is no exception. For many years it survived only on dubbed shows like Naagin that were aired on the main Colors channel in Hindi, until it underwent a rebrand in August 2021 with a new graphics package and several original Bengali serials, in a bid to revive its prospects. That has in no way helped to change its lacklustre fortunes, and most other Colors regional GECs — from Tamil to Odia to Marathi — are struggling similarly, with only Colors Kannada (previously the market leader) and Colors Gujarati (where there is no other Gujarati GEC at all) succeeding.

In fact, Bengali is the only major regional language not to have an adaptation of the popular reality show Bigg Boss — even though the then-ETV Bangla had it in the past — which is an anomaly given that Colors (Hindi), Colors Kannada and Colors Marathi, as well as Star Vijay (Tamil), Star Maa (Telugu) and Asianet (Malayalam), all have popular Bigg Boss localisations.

Sun Bangla, launched on 3 February 2019, has faced mostly the same fate — though it achieved brief popularity for some time, occasionally appearing in the BARC Bengali top 5 until 2021 — as it survives only on serials (some original, others remade or dubbed from Sun TV’s Tamil shows) with no reality shows or movies. However, one advantage of Sun Bangla is that it is a free-to-air channel, like Sun Marathi, as compared to the pay nature of Bengali GECs. Moreover, Sun Bangla and Sun Marathi are both slated to launch HD feeds in the near future — which were added on Sun Direct in November 2023 as test feeds — alongside the new channel Sun Neo in both SD and HD, which will likely be a Hindi GEC.

Then there is Sony Aath, which was launched in 2009 as Channel 8, then acquired by the then-Multi Screen Media (now Culver Max Entertainment or Sony Pictures Networks) and rebranded accordingly. This channel has chosen to stay off the beaten path and instead show a unique mix of dubbed Hindi serials from Sony TV and Sony Sab — especially crime, investigation and horror shows like CID, Aahat and Adalat, in addition to other dramas like Vighnaharta Ganesh and Baal Veer — plus producing original Bengali animation shows such as Gopal Bahar, Nix, Nut Boltu and Panchatantrer Mantra. Like Sony Marathi, it has not considered launching an HD feed, though both do use the superior 16:9 aspect ratio.

Finally, there are a handful of small independent Bengali GECs, including Aakash Aath, which is run by the Surana family and was launched back in 1999 as Aakash Bangla before adopting its current name in 2013; Rupashi Bangla, which was launched by the then-Rose Valley Group (now Brand Value Communications) in 2009, and later expanded to News Time Bangla and Dhoom Music; and CTVN AKD Plus (on air since 2006) by the AKD group, which also has Uttar Bangla and Calcutta News.

In the next instalment, we will first look at Odia channels — where a strong local broadcaster, Ortel, has so far been the leader over Zee, Star and Viacom18 — after which we will cover Assamese and Bhojpuri channels on a single page, since they have comparatively less to discuss (and have very little, if any, presence from national broadcasters) but nevertheless have recently grown significantly.