ZEE PLANS BIG FOR NIGERIA AUDIENCE

– Vanessa Obioha

Since its entrance into the Nigerian market in 1996, the biggest Indian Entertainment company, Zee has been able to entertain it’s viewers with the best of South-Asian entertainment. However, the company took a notch higher when it redirected its mission to create unique Bollywood content for Nigeria and other African countries. The birth of Zee World available on only DStv and GOtv, the world’s first Bollywood English dubbed channel in Africa, triggered a new wave of fame for the entertainment company. With contemporary movies and series, Zee World has grown to become a staple in most Nigerian homes. Its growing fan base led to the birth of other channels such as Zee Bollymovies, a first of its kind English Bollywood Movies channel; Zee Bollynova, a dedicated Bollywood telenovela channel only available on Kwese TV; and Zee Cinema International, a Bollywood movie channel in Hindi and English subtitles available only on Startimes.

Currently, Zee offers 12 channels across Africa with a reach spanning over 173 countries and access to more than 1.3 billion viewers globally.

This has only been made possible by the effective team headed by Harish Goyal. Goyal who comes with two decades experience is committed in promoting and pushing the brand to the rest of the continent.

Goyal however attributed the success of Zee in Nigeria to the cultural resonance between Indian and Nigeria.
“Nigerians love music and drama, which are very strong features in our content. Even the daily hustle in the cities like Lagos is similar to that of India. Our foods are spicy so also are yours. There is a lot of similarity between the two countries.”
He further debunked the general perception that Bollywood is depriving Nigerians from enjoying local content.
“The way I see it, we are complementing each other not competing. We have a Zee studio now so in the future we are looking at collaborations with Nollywood.”

Some of the programmes to look up to in the upcoming months on the different Zee channels include the return of popular series such as Twist of Fate season 2, King of Hearts season 2, as well as new series- Bride with Benefits, Begusarai, Amma and Iron Lady.
A number of blockbuster movies will also premiere on Zee BollyMovies later this year, including the 2017 crime thriller, MOM, starring the Bollywood legend Sridevi, who sets out to avenge her step-daughter after the justice system failed to convict her attackers. With the help of a shady detective, she takes the law into her own hands. Other movies on the channel will feature A-list actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Amitabh Bachchan and many more.

On Zee BollyNova which offers a wide range of entertainment with food shows by celebrity chefs Sanjeev Kapoor and Ripu Raman Handa, viewers can catch up on reality shows such as ‘Look love what you made me do’, for the romance lovers and Fear Files, for those who enjoy a good scare, not to forget much-loved series like Saloni, Destiny and The Vow coming in May 2018.

Viewers can go on an exciting and adventurous ride on Zee Cinema with the channel robust film collection which boasts over 4200 movie titles with leading Bollywood superstars likeAamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, DeepikaPadukone and many other A-listers featured.