With Star Plus, Sony and Zee TV firmly entrenched, Sahara TV is fighting for the fourth place. How do you survive in such a competitive scenario?We are launching two mythologies in the prime-time slot. Draupadi, produced by Cinevista Communications, will come in April. The one-hour show will be stretched over 100 episodes. We are pitching it as our channel driver.

What are its credentials?
We are treating it as a contemporary topic, though it is a costume serial. It is about The Mahabharata but retold by Draupadi. The Mahabharata is shown from a woman's perspective. That's the difference. In The Mahabharata, the worst sufferers were women. No one cared for so many who were left widows.

Which is the other serial?
We are launching Om Namo Narayanaya. It will be a one-hour prime-time show. We are planning to launch it after six months. Creative Eye is doing it for us. Devotion is the central theme. We believe it will succeed. There is so much of violence on TV, even in our channel. Dealing with all forms of Bhakti, Om Namo Narayanaya will be different. It will be a soothing experience.

How are you positioning your channel differently?
We are also bringing in a daily comedy serial. Other channels have daily soaps. We are having a daily thriller. At the same time, we have programmes targeting all sections. In March, we are launching Daaman. It will be the first serial on our channel against a Muslim backdrop. But basically it is a human drama. Our children's slot is working as well as the other channels. We have a mix of cartoon shows and children's movies. We are trying to have that sort of a climb-up in our other programming genres.

Are you looking at particular days to take on competition?
Our relatively stronger days are on Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Though Kagaz has a consistent viewership, Friday is still not strong for our channel. On Mondays, we have film-based programmes.You have put news at 10:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Is that a disadvantage as you can't build on the momentum of the channel.

That was a problem for Star Plus as it had news at 9:00 p.m. Though it was the highest earning show on the channel, the tune-in advantage couldn't be built. The 9:00 p.m. slot is for entertainment. As Star Plus had an early evening news at 7:00 p.m., it had to directly compete with all regional DD channels. But we have our first news at 7:30 p.m. And at 10:00 p.m., it is late prime time. Our news is doing well and is not affecting our other programming.

But after the success of KBC, prime-time viewing is starting early. With the news slot at 7:30 p.m., don't you think it is a limitation for the channel to expand on general entertainment viewership?

It is too early to conclude. But our news band is performing. We are not going to disturb the scheduling now.

How do you tackle late prime-time?
We are starting Mari from February 19. It will be a daily show five times a week, aired at 11:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon. It is a Hindi dubbed programme of a popular Spanish serial with a global story. It is a woman-centric story and has an adult theme. We believe it is a good property to extend our late prime time viewership. After 11:00 p.m., we were airing repeats. We have decided to reduce the number of repeats. Late prime time has audience not only for talk shows but also for fiction programming.

What about non fiction programming?
We are starting at 9:30 p.m. a half-hour weekly show, Haqeeqat, in March. It is based on true human right violations. We have slotted it for later part of the evening because it has violence.

But you still don't have a strong soap to capture the prime-time slot.Our problem is that our better programmes like Kadam are episodic shows. Mini series can never be channel drivers. We need habit forming shows like KBC. It is important for a new channel to have shows with a continuity drive. We are planning to introduce dailies in prime-time.

You haven't used movies to drive the channel?
Big movies were not available. Events have given us good ratings. In some movies, we have gone up to a TRP of 2. But we haven't had the movies like Sholay to give us big ratings.