NEW DELHI: For the first time, a competition among music bands and not just singers or dancers will feature in Doordarshan’s weekend programme ‘Sur Sagar’. Veteran musician Leslie Lewis and singers Soham Chakraborty and Shilpa Rao, are the judges for this hour-long show which begins from 31 October.

The show will feature 20 bands and 20 singers who have been shortlisted to compete for the winning title. The audition for selection of these talents took place in six cities namely Delhi, Amritsar, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

The show will promote original compositions of the singers and the bands and not depend on film songs. The first season will have 52 episodes and will be aired every Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm.
Lewis said at a press meet in Doordarshan that he had agreed to be on the show after seeing the massive change in content on DD National, adding that a good song appeals to all.

Director Shonali Bose added that bands were being given recognition for the first time, despite the fact that all shows featuring singers or dancers always had a musical accompaniment.

Meanwhile, senior Doordarshan executives indicated that they have to walk on the razor’s edge as they have to take care of their public service broadcaster responsibilities even as they entertain audiences.

Both director general Lalrosanga and deputy director general Deepa Chandra said that DD could not be complacent because it had the largest reach in the country. She said bring a channel to TV and then ensuring it got good viewership was a major task in itself, particularly for a public service broadcaster.

They also said they were aware that DD’s largest audience was in the 15 to 40 age group and had therefore, planned its programmes accordingly.

Chandra added, “The slow and steady approach adopted by us to garner good viewership and ratings has started to show promising results. Keeping with that, our second stage of introducing fresh content in prime time band is beginning from 19 October.”

After the commencement of five new series in August, DD has announced four new serials commencing this month including two crime shows.