Dil Se Dil Tak - A Meeting Point

I just watched Mauli Dave playing co-host on Rock-n Family on Zee Television. It’s prime-time viewing. It reaches a relatively large audience in India, though the show by itself isn’t interesting. But it still has people like Ajay Devgan, Kajol and Tanuja on the show.

As for Mauli’s performance, I wish she could stop crinkling her nose. And hope she works on her Hindi a lot more - if she is serious about a career in television. But inspite of Mauli’s drawbacks as an anchor, she still has landed upon a gem of an opportunity to remain in public attention.

And that is why I am a bit disappointed with the news that Raja Hasan would be spending a few months away in Dubai hosting a program that has very few viewers. Contrary to what I had assumed, the Middle East programming of Zee has hardly any viewership - even in the Middle East or Pakistan. The prime channel - Zee TV, might have a clout in the region, but these shows are not aired on it. I see very few advantages of his new anchor role.

Had it been a 10 day shoot - like back in 2006 when Vinit had hosted the show, - the whole programming was wrapped up in a week, I would have had no problems. But these programmes are based on voting results - so it could keep Raja away from Mumbai for at least 3 months. And that is not very good news.

I am personally not really fond of Raja doing other roles like anchoring or acting in TV serials. But at times, out-of-sight is out-of-mind - and possibly why Raja needs to make TV and media appearances from time to time. But if this Middle East-Pakistan show isn’t going to be available to people in any region - neither Middle East, Pakistan, India nor even USA/Canada, I see little point in wasting time there.

Though the judges of the show haven’t been announced, I would expect them to be people who would be relatively “not-so-busy”. Last time it included the likes of Bappi Lahiri, Ismail Darbar, Remo Fernandes - who really weren’t very active in the Mumbai industry. I would be really surprised if a composer-with-work would join the show next week. That is because three months away from Mumbai is a long time. And Raja could be missing out on a lot of opportunities back home.

If Zee has taken a decision to telecast this program (even if it delayed by a week) on one of its newer channels like Zee Next, I could see some sense. But that is highly unlikely as this is a program based on public voting from a few limited countries.

To be honest, I am now struggling to find plusses in Raja decision. I don’t even see any significant monetary gain as Raja is still under the Zee contract. All I can see is Zee trying to pump up its viewership base in the Middle East using Raja as a bait.

I just hope I am wrong and somehow there is someway that Raja’s career gains a lot out of this new role. What’s your take on this?

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Tags: raja hasan, saregamapa, mauli dave, zee tv