The latest Star Plus campaign on ‘Victim Shaming’ urges society for a shift in attitude towards how victims of sexual assault are treated. In a public service awareness initiative by Star Plus, actor Amitabh Bachchan questions culprits of character assassination with one pertinent question: “Whose fault is it?” Narayan Sundararaman, General Manager-Star Plus, talks to IMPACT about the campaign and more.
On the campaign: ‘Kya Qusoor Hai Amala Ka’ is about a girl who has been through a horrific crime. She is the real victim but the society at large indulges in victim-shaming. We hear about these stories when such crimes happen. We questioned why the victim is blamed and decided to address this through our ‘Nayi Soch’ initiative. We want to drive a change in our society and that’s the objective of Star Plus’ ‘Nayi Soch’.
Roping in Amitabh Bachchan: With this campaign, we wanted to question society and needed a voice of credibility. There is no better voice of credibility in our country than actor Amitabh Bachchan. We approached him and he connected with the campaign and said he definitely wanted to be a part of it.
Building on the Nayi Soch proposition: In the last nine months, we have done a lot around our ‘Nayi Soch’ campaign. In October, our campaign with Indian cricketers questioned why cricketers shouldn’t have their mother’s name on the jersey. The issue was around the identity of women and the campaign was well received. Recently, our campaign with Aamir Khan showcased Gurdeep Singh & Daughters. We are conditioned to think that the sons will take forward the family legacy but girls are equally qualified and capable of carrying forward a legacy. We also have done campaigns for our shows – for example, ‘Naamkaran’ questions the source of identity, and the protagonist questions why she can’t build her own identity.
Response to afternoon slot: It’s early days yet, but the response has been extremely encouraging both on the advertiser front as well as viewership. The ratings are in line with our expectations. We are focused on how we can build it further. The afternoon slot has potential and original programming in this time slot will help us unlock its potential. Building viewership will take some time.
On Star Plus’ performance: Our healthy performance in the last few weeks has been driven by the consistent showing of our prime time shows. We launched ‘Dil Bole Oberoi’ at 10.30 pm in February and it has done very well for us. Our 9.30 pm show, ‘Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai’ brings in really good numbers and ‘Ishqbaaz’ at 10.00 pm continues to do well. Our weekend non-fiction show ‘Dil Hai Hindustani’ also had a good run.
