How immersive cultural research is helping Zee with viewership share

The broadcaster sent teams to engage with audiences for its regional language programming

A 45-year-old man falls in love with a 25-year-old woman. That thereon begins the trouble, as does the story of Jothe Jotheyali, the Kannada remake of a popular Zee Marathi show, Tula Pahate Re.

Jothe Jotheyali, which went on air in September 2019, has, along with Paaru and several other such shows, solved a piquant problem for Zee Kannada. Though the channel was leading in viewership share in Kannada, thanks to non-fiction shows such as Comedy Khiladigalu, getting audiences hooked to its fiction programming was a challenge. And without the deep engagement and steady audience that fiction gets, Zee Kannada