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Life Ok, Star India's second general entertainment channel, will be launching a monthly awards property called Life OK Now Awards starting May 31.
The awards will beproduced by Reliance Broadcast Network's Big Productions and will give out accolades in eleven categories every month.
In addition to the Screen Awards that the channel has the broadcast rights to, Life OK will develop its ownawards property. While a panel of industry experts will shortlist the nominees every month, the final judgement will depend solely on audience voting.
For this, the channel has tied up with all leadingtelecom operators so that the viewers can vote in by SMS, missed callor through the online medium.
Apart from conferring awards, the eventwill also act a platform for the channel to extend the brand of itsshows to Bollywood with specially designed acts. The channel hascarried out something similar during the Screen Awards in Januarywhen lead actors from its shows shared the stage with likes of Shah Rukh Khan.
Additionally, Life OK has also approached the makers ofupcoming films and offered the event as a platform to promote films.For the launch installment, Akshay Kumar has been roped in as theface of the event and he will be seen promoting his upcoming flickHoliday.
Every month, a new celebrity will beselected to be the face of the event.
The move comes as a part of thechannel's strategy for disruptive programming in every genre. As Ajit Thakur, General Manager, Life OK puts it, "Whether it is fiction orreality shows, we have always tried to do something different. Forfiction we got mythology and romantic dramas, but never opted forkitchen politics as our content, and will continue to stay away fromit. In case of reality, we got shows like The Bachelorette andWelcome, consciously keeping away from song and dance talent shows."
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The launch of the monthly awardproperty gives Life Ok the scope for disruptive weekend programming,not to mention the chance for audience engagement through call forvoting. The channel will also be launching special programming aroundthe event to create daily interaction opportunities.
Media planners however are skeptical ofthe initiative. "The thing to be seen is how the channel willcombat viewer fatigue. There are more than enough awards shows andhaving one every month may be taking it too far. But then, Life OKhas managed to break the GEC mould in the past, so you never know,"says a planner who wished to remain unnamed.
Thakur, is confident that viewerfatigue is nothing to worry about.
"The problem would have beenwhen enough movies were not released every month. Our research showedthat the movies released in the first half of the year are oftenforgotten about in the annual awards. Here, we are trying tocelebrate good movies and performances every month and at the sametime, involving our audiences by getting them to chose their favourite fare of the month," he explains.
There also is no worry in Thakur's mindabout competition with Screen Awards since the Now awards will be ona smaller scale and will have more contemporary content.
Screen willcontinue to air on Life OK and will be positioned as an annual award with a credible jury, while Now Awards will focus on celebrating thehere and now in the Bollywood space. The channel is looking at ropingin six sponsors for the event and has already got four on board.
Apart from the Now Awards, the channelis also looking at launching new shows to maintain freshness incontent. Life OK's longest running and tent-pole show Mahadev will beseen coming to a logical end this year and will be replaced by two new tent-pole properties. The channel will also start premieringmovies over the weekend, starting with Yaariyan this Sunday (May 18) followed by Jai Ho!
