Punjabi to Bangla: TV channels bet on regional languages for success

Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Gujarati, Odia are among the new languages driving growth and action in the television market

Vanita Kohli-Khandekar  |  New Delhi 

What is Punjabiyat? What touches Punjabi audiences the most? Prathyusha Agarwal, chief consumer officer of Zee Entertainment, said that in the run-up to the launch of Zee Punjabi in 2020, “we spent three months in 2018 trying to understand the passions in Punjab”. They were love for the army, stories of partition, and strength of Punjabi women, which then came to be reflected in shows on Zee Punjabi.

The channel has done well to gain a (claimed) third of the small Punjabi general entertainment market. Similar intense exercises in understanding movie-viewing habits ...

First Published: Mon, March 02 2020. 23:10 IST