Colors to air anime show on Sundays

Starting from December 23, Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) Colors will air the Indian adaptation of Kyojin no Hoshi (star of the giants), a popular Japanese anime (a style of animation originating in that country) show, on its Sunday morning 10 am slot. The Indian version will be called Suraj: The Rising Star, a cricket remake of the Japanese baseball anime series.

Colors, flagship channel from the Viacom18 stable, will be the first GEC to show original animation content. Talking about the strategy behind placing an anime show on Sunday morning, Raj Nayak, CEO, said, “10 am is a prime time slot on a Sunday. At one time, the whole country used to tune into TV at this time. We are looking at developing this time slot with original content. This will add more variety to our diversified programme offering.” The animation is done by Hyderabad-based DQ Entertainment.

The format of the hit Japanese ‘manga’ comic is with the Japanese publishing house Kodansha. Suraj: The Rising Star is a story of a 16-year-old boy, Suraj, who sets on a journey to be trained as a young cricketer. The show focuses on the hardships and challenges he faces towards attaining this goal.

The channel believes that as the show brings to light all the elements of family, action, fantasy and emotions, it will appeal to family audiences.

A senior programming executive from a rival channel said, “Colors is taking a few bold steps in order to find the programming mix.”

However, the anime series are very different and Indian audiences, especially of GECs, have not sampled them.”

Even the channel Animax, which was dedicated to anime, did not work in India. Sunday 10 am is a tough slot to crack, and we will wait and see if Colors manage to get viewership.”