by Subhash K Jha

Suddenly the 9-10 pm slot is going for a total revamp on Sony Entertainment. On 24 April two big daily soaps will make their simultaneous debut in the super-primetime slot.

The two soaps, both from reputed production houses, will further consolidate Sony's efforts to promote a different kind of prime-time entertainment.

Says Sony's Anupama Mandloi, "These dailies are Thodi Khushi Thodi Gham which is produced by Vipul D Shah and Shobhana Desai who did the super-successful Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka and Alp Viram for us, and Aisa Des Hai Mera which is being done jointly by Lekh Tandon and Manish Goswami.

The story had been brewing for three years. Aisa Des... is the true story of girl's journey through life."

The USP of both the new Sony soaps is their strong socially relevant content. No namby-pamby efforts to woo the audience. Thodi Khushi... is about a Bahu (Sneha) who questions the patriarchal system in her sasural.

Says Anupama, "Both are relevant to contemporary society and they don't beat around the bush. The focus is on fresh storytelling. We don't really play up the traditional conservative element in the soap."

In their effort to provide a different entertainment Sony has also introduced two new non-fiction programmes Fear Factor and Kandy Floss at prime time.

"And they're doing very well. Though the shows aren't really targeted at kids they love it. These are shows that make you sit up on the couch. We're attempting new things at prime-time. I was shocked to hear that the chunk of audience for Kandy Floss is kids between 4 and 14."

However Sony isn't planning to prepone Kandy Floss's timing from 11 pm to an earlier time. "However what we're doing is to do an exclusive week of Kandy Floss at 10 pm next week every day."