Zee TV to launch new comedy show 'Gangs of Hasseepur'

Premiering on April 26, the show will feature different formats of comedy genre and will be telecast on Saturday-Sunday at 8 pm

Sohini Sen | Mumbai | April 18, 2014

Zee TV has bit the comedy bug at last. The Hindi GEC has just announced its one-of-a-kind comedy show, "Gangs of Hasseepur". The show will go on air on April 26, and will come on weekends at 8 pm.

However, Zee is confident that it will not be just one of the pack. Gangs of Hasseepur is a political comedy show, which will have different format from stand up comedy, to role play, to skits and spoofs.

Being judged by Mandira Bedi and Tanishaa Mukherjee, the show will be hosted by Ragini Khanna. Popular comedians Raju Shrivastav, Suresh Menon and Bharti Singh will be leading the comedy gang while giving a whole new set of younger, fresher faces a platform to showcase their talent.

"I think the timing is perfect for a comedy show, especially with elections and everyone talking to seriously about it. The line of the show 'jo cheese aapko rulati thi, wohi aaj hasaayengi' is exactly what it is. It is a comic relief to the mundane and painful part of our everyday reality. Every episode will have around 10-15 comedians, some known, mostly unknown. I started working on this show as soon as I joined. An idea came to me which I thought was relevant, and here we are," said Namit Sharma, Programming Head, Zee TV.

Currently, the plan is to have the show for 8-10 weeks, which should cover the election season and government formation time period. They don't have any fixed plans of what happens to the slot after this, but hope to bring it back, as another season or maybe a special episode, like Diwali etc. The show will be marketed through radio, news channels, and a lot of focus on digital and viral content.

The show will be produced by Essel Vision Pvt Ltd along with comedy veteran Pankaj Saraswat, who is credited with bringing the comedy genre to Indian television.

"This is a very last minute job. In two weeks we went mad and crazy, but we reinvented the comedy genre and it has come out nicely. It is not just a stand up, it is not just interactive, or just spoofs or gags etc. The focus was very clear this time, with the election, which gives us a lot of meat to deal with," added Saraswat.

Sohini.Sen@BestMediaInfo.com

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