By A Correspondent
The Adhikari brothers – Gautam and Markand – have been true pioneers in the Indian television space. Having been among the first private and independent programmers for Doordarshan and private satellite television, the brothers went on to publicly list their company, launch a comedy channel in SAB and then sell it to Multi Screen Media (Sony), launch two other channels – Janmat which later turned into Live India and Mi Marathi, both of which were part-sold, and more recently he launched music and entertainment channels Mastiii, Dabangg and Dhamaal. Here too, he pioneered the concept of focused regional plays with channels catering specifically to certain states in the Hindi Speaking Markets.
- Markand Adhikari
And now it’s a ‘Maiboli’, a Marathi humour-and-music channel that has had a quiet launch today (August 8). “I live in Maharashtra, Marathi is my first love and we started out with Marathi-language content,” says vice-chairman and managing director Markand Adhikari. While he regrets that Mi Marathi couldn’t take off on expected lines after construction major HDIL bought majority stake, he is hopeful that Maiboli will be a success from the beginning.
The reason: humour has always been the core strength of Adhikari Brothers. MaiBoli will a 24-hour free-to-air channel with music and humour in equal measure. The music will appeal to all age groups, says Anita Verma, vice-president – programming who informs that the channel’s tagline is ‘Aapli Aaplya Mansaanchi’. “Comedy will be in the form of short three-odd minute standalone skits starring well-known theatre and TV performers like Sunil Tawde, Anshuman Vichare, Pradip Patwardhan, Santosh Pawaar, Digambar Naik, Arun Kadam, Kishori Ambiye  and Vijay Patwardhan amongst others,” she says
- Anita Verma
The music bands of Maiboli are designed as per the mood of the slot which suits it the best. The day hence commences with ‘Bhakticha-Thheva’ which is a devotional band of soulful and spiritual songs, followed by ‘Priteechi Jhul Jhul Gani’ of romantic numbers, ‘Mast Madmast’ band of high-spirited fast numbers, ‘Sur tech Chhedita’ of soothing and relaxing songs and  ‘Chandne Shimpit Jashi’ of classic romantic and sad songs.
The distribution spread will grow across Maharashtra over the next few weeks and months and simultaneously a marketing campaign will also be initiated.
“After the South and Bengal, Marathi is big for regional television,” says Mr Adhikari. And how are his other channels doing? “Mastii turned No 1 within four months and has been No 1 or 2 ever since. Dabbang has also been No 1 in UP and Bihar for two years. Marathi has been on the cards for a while, and we thought the time was right.”
But isn’t everyone talking of another slowdown and liquidity crunch? “On the contrary. With digitization, things have improved and will be even better in a couple of years. In fact the In times of come, with digitization, the time for media has come. In one or two years, media will have a golden period,” forecasts Mr Adhikari.
What next, after Maiboli? “We will obviously expand,” says Mr Adhikari who is simultaneously also stitching up plans for the expansion of the Governance Now magazine that he runs.