Was slotting Savitri in place of Amrit Manthan an error?

Did Life OK make a mistake by shifting the time slot of Amrit Manthan (Director’s Kut)?

With a two-pronged strategy, one to meet in-house competition from Saraswatichandra (Star Plus), which is at 7:30 pm slot and secondly to vacate the 8.30 pm slot so that they could accommodate their latest Savitri (Flying Turtle Films) in that same time band, this Star network channel moved their number two ranking show Amrit Manthan to the 7.30 pm slot from its earlier time slot of 8.30 pm

Since both Savitri and Devon Ke Dev Mahadev are of the similar mythological genre the assumption was that, Savitri would get the added benefit of tune in from Mahadev which is the channel driver (1.9 TVR).

But, it did not help Savitri much as it opened at 1.2 TVR and its numbers dipped lower than Amrit Manthan as it was garnering 1.4 TVR in the 8.30 pm slot. This Adaa Khan led show had even touched 1.8 TVR when the ratings had resumed post the digitisation break but the sudden change in the time slot has hit the show badly. In fact, its ratings have gone down to 0.6 TVR.

Says Ankita Sharma who plays Nimrit, “Yes, the numbers are down, post the shift in the time slot. But I am sure that the channel has a strategy in place to help us get better numbers.”

According to a source, what must be hurting Life OK more is the fact that Savitri showcasing Ridhi Dogra, Yash Pandit and Angad Hasija is a much more expensive project than Amrit Manthan ever was.

Angad Hasija has admitted that the initial numbers of Savitri have come as a surprise. “We were all expecting better numbers. However since it is a new concept which includes ghosts and re-incarnation it is taking time to click with the audiences. However, I am confident that the story will now take off and the numbers will get better,” he feels.

Interestingly an industry insider told us that the channel took this step knowing very well that the core Amrit Manthan audiences will be lost with the time slot change.

All our attempts to contact Rajan Shahi producer of Amrit Manthan and Life OK General Manager Ajit Thakur remained futile. We also dropped a text to Shabbir Ahulawalia producer of Savitri but he did not revert till the time of filing this story.