Thaindian News

June 17, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): The headline, above, is not our construction, but this is precisely the language used by SAB TV upon pipping Imagine TV to the post vis-a-vis the TAM ratings.

After achieving a career high of 101 GRPs, SAB not only celebrated its success, but began to flaunt its muscles too. This was displayed through an illustration, which read “SAB kicks out Imagine TV’ and had a caricature of a karate kid, bearing Dilip Joshi’s face, drop kicking a small opponent. That wasn’t all. The channel, astonishingly, even managed to create a small video wherein its officials and key players sang the SAB success saga. Here, the SAB men took direct pot shots at their rivals, which it beat to achieve the number fifth spot. SAB clearly doesn’t hesitate in naming and lambasting their opponents.

SAB business head Anooj Kapoor thanked his team and as well as his producers for dishing out excellent shows. However, he missed out on Rajeev Singh, producer of “Yeh Chanda Kanoon Hai,’ but quickly to corrected himself.

When asked whether they are going over the top with their celebrations, Kapoor said, “We’re just going with the spirit.” Much to our surprise, Kapoor, even disclosed that the video had been prepared in advance.

Moving away from the proud display, one shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it was a party. The cast of “Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’ minus Dilip Joshi and Disha Wakani were the first to arrive. Divyanka Tripathy and Rajesh Kumar, leads of the newly launched “Mrs. and Mr.Allahbadwale’, were late entrants. Tripathy, wore a simple salwar kameez. The girl was shooting over time and didn’t get much time to dress up for the occasion. Rohitaashv Gor and Suchita Pawase, actors from “Lapataganj’ too, had to fulfill their shooting commitments and arrived late. Juhi Parmar and hubby Sachin Shroff walked in sporting casual wear. They were among the very last ones and didn’t hang around much. One person who was conspicuous by was Smriti Iraani. Perhaps, with her show “Maniben.com’ going off air in two weeks, Mrs. Iraani didn’t really have cause to celebrate, deciding to skip the occasion instead. Swapnil Joshi was the last one to arrive and headed straight for the bar.

From the look of things, a lot of SAB actors appeared to be shy. It was only Kavita Kaushik who could be spotted on the dance floor. The party continued well past mid-night, and if Gurcharan Singh, a.k.a Roshan Sodhi of Taarak Mehta fame, is to be believed, the “Taarak’ team was planning to hit a pub.

No matter how audacious SAB chose to be, it was purely their night of celebration. After all, who knows what might happen in the next TAM rating. “Imagine’ the mood in the SAB camp then.

– Mayur Lookhar/Sampurn Wire