Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

When Viacom 18's entertainment Channel COLORS is launched today it would really be the day when the argument would stand on its head. But for that we just have to rewind to a scenario ten years ago, when television was still in its nascent stage, cable television was trying to stand on its head, and no film star was ready to be associated with television. It was viewed with derision and now the scene is such that the faded stars, or the yesteryear stars, are trying to give a fillip to their career through television. Akshay Kumar is being projected as the brand ambassador of this new entertainment channel, and riding on his current popularity the channel would hoping that it would be able to carve a niche for itself in the cluttered world of entertainment.

But would an Akshay Kumar be able to sustain the eyeballs for a new channel. The real challenge for this channel would be to come up with the content that would force the viewers to shift their loyalty to this new channel. From the carpet-bombing of the programme that Akshay Kumar is going to launch on this channel, it is apparent that the nascent channel is trying to get its TRP riding piggyback on with the charm of Akshay Kumar.

The status of pariah associated with television is a thing of the past. It all started with Amitabh Bachchan, followed by Shah Rukh Khan and now even Salman Khan has succumbed to its charm. The factor which makes the established stars succumb to its charm, apart from the moolah associated is the opportunity to converse with the fans in their drawing rooms. For the fans it indeed is a bonus to be able to interact with their heartthrobs in the cozy comfort of their sitting rooms. But the sheen starts to wear off if the content is not engrossing, as then the urge to play with remote starts rearing it's head on too frequent a basis, so the content has to be the factor to allow a star to continue to invite the fans to eat out of their hands.

It would indeed be interesting to watch whether Akshay Kumar is able to do so with his new venture on television.