By Shailja Kejriwal
Chief Creative - Special Projects, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd
It’s amazing what a bored rain-drenched evening can throw up. I was done with watching back to back movies, finished the 9th season of Grey’s Anatomy, surfed 400 channels 15 times over and it just wouldn’t stop pouring! Defeated, I started surfing the Internet for something new and chanced upon a show called ‘Zindagi Gulzar Hai’ from Pakistan.
And I was hooked… rain on! After that, it rained Pakistani shows on my iPad. I didn’t step out of the house for a week. I looked disgusting, but felt elated. That’s how I spent the monsoon of 2012, as an idea slowly took shape in my mind. Would the rest of the country also enjoy content from the other side of the border as much as I did?
That winter, I went around the country meeting friends, friends of friends, their friends and all I did was to show them Pakistani shows, songs, movies, Coke Studio… It was bliss!
I got in touch with writers and directors from Pakistan, and felt like I was in creative heaven. By then, I was on a mission — I just had to share the absolute brilliance of creative minds from Pakistan with people in India. I could almost feel the power of a cultural collaboration and the exciting possibilities it could throw up.
But it was Pakistan I was talking about. My closest friends declared me mad. I would have believed them, had I not by sheer chance met Punit Goenka. The first and only person who believed in my madness was the CEO and MD of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited. It took him precisely 10 minutes to join the ranks of the mad, and I couldn’t believe my ears when he said “Let’s do it”!
It can’t be so simple, I thought. He would realize his folly soon enough. But Punit stuck to his guns (More power to him!). And we began working on this idea. As team members started joining in, a small idea grew into a project. Then Akash (Chawla), the National Marketing Head said, “I believe in this as well.” Our team grew each day with new believers. There was palpable energy. Mukund in Dubai was helping us get the content that we wanted, with some trepidation but full support. The promo teams began forming, both external and internal, and Sarita, the Promo Head, started cutting some wonderful promos and we were on a roll!
The project started taking the shape of a whole and soul channel. Editors worked tirelessly, the sound guys gave fantastic feedback, our Programming Head, Vanita, moved from Zee TV to work with us. We found our own marketing and business head in Sumona and Priyanka. Usha Thomas, PR head of ZEEL, patiently bore the brunt of our collective nervous energies.
Now, there was the power of five — five women who absolutely and tirelessly worked to make our channel a reality. But we needed a name. And that’s when Bharat Ranga, the Chief Content and Creative Head of ZEEL, came in. He gave this project its identity, and Zindagi was born.
As we ready for launch, with all guns blazing, I see the combined effort of this entire team, the energy and positivity, all leading towards D-Day, June 23 -our day of reckoning.
It’s amazing what one bored rain-drenched evening can throw up. I hope it pours on June 23 too!
(June 23 is the launch date of Zindagi, the latest GEC from the Zee stable with syndicated Pakistani content)
Feedback: shailja.kejriwal@zee.esselgroup.com
