Since its launch in 2008, Colors tops the charts among general entertainment channels. CEO Rajesh Kamat explains why

What was the brief given to you when Colors launched 15 months ago?
We were the 11th entrant into the crowded General Entertainment Channel (GEC) market and were clear that by the end of the year we wanted to create enough of an impact to break into the top three. To realise this, we had to disrupt the habits of the audience. We had to offer them products that were not only superior in terms of quality—the music, the direction and the production—but we also needed to create content that was different from what was on air already and we could not veer drastically away from what they watch.

What were the real risks that Colors took?
The audience, chiefly women, had been watching shows that had a protagonist and a vamp or a villain; so the characters chiefly bore shades of black or white. We wanted them to relate to the characters so we experimented with grey. We had shows like Balika Vadhu where Dadisa believes in child marriage but has a softer side too. Our big risk was to take up social issues like child marriage and female infanticide.

In an industry where scripts change overnight, depending on the audiences’ reactions, do you not find yourself succumbing to pressure?
We are as clued in to the audiences’ response as anyone else. Do we make changes overnight? No. But we do take action by the end of a fortnight. For example, when Balika Vadhu took a sad turn after Pratap’s death, our viewership went down drastically. We immediately took action and altered the plot. Similarly, when, during Fear Factor, we received an overwhelming response about Akshay Kumar’s casual, raw approach to hosting the show, we stuck to it. But if the response says that we need to change drastically, then, instead of changing the plot, we will launch a new show to cater to that audience.

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