Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan returns with the second edition of his much appreciated talk show "Satyamev Jayate" and says it is for "those who love their nation". Since it has all the ingredients to keep his audiences interested, he is not worried about TRPs.
The second edition has got the same slot as the previous season - it will go live March 2 at 11 a.m. on various channels of Star in six languages.
Tell him that Sundays are usually for movie viewing by families and he tells IANS: "Whoever is concerned about their nation will watch the show. An unbelievable number of viewers had seen the show last season. It's the right time for the show."
"I would say our show is very entertaining. It has a love story, an epic love story between the country and its people. We also have villains in it and music towards the end. What more can you ask for in terms of entertainment? It's a Sunday matinee show," added the 48-year-old. "Satyamev Jayate" comes at a time when the country is gearing up for the general elections in April-May.
The success of TV shows is measured by ratings, but Aamir has no faith in the system.
"The TRP game doesn't make any sense at all. The Indian population is around 120 crore (1.2 billion) and you have just 7,000 sets (to record the ratings). On that basis you will tell me what people are watching, then tell me how funny it is... So I have detached myself from TRPs," he said.
"I don't believe in 7,000 boxes. I am just not interested in TRPs, so I am not rating the success or failure of my show on the basis of TRPs. We have based the success of our show on ground reactions," he added.
Aamir made his TV debut with "Sataymev Jayate" in May 2012 and the show, dealing with sensitive social issues like female foeticide, domestic violence and child abuse received a warm welcome from the TV viewers after it went on air on Star Plus. Some of the episodes recorded the highest ratings.
However, the format of the show will be slightly different this time, being divided into three parts.
"The format is the same, but the only difference is that we have divided the show into three parts. We will have 13 to 14 episodes but it will be divided into 3 parts. We are taking three months in a year. It will be a month of 'Satyameva Jayate' (at a time). Now we have made our website more vibrant and dynamic. For e.g. if there are five Sundays in March, on all Sundays you can see the show."
"We are giving time to the audiences to digest the topics."
Aamir will dedicate the first episode of Season 2 to Dashrath Manjhi, who single-handedly carved out a road by cutting through a hill in Bihar.
"We thought we should start Season 2 from where we left Season 1. It's also that we get so much inspiration from Dashrath Manjhi's story that we thought we will start the show with it. Let people criticise us, laugh at us or say I am doing it for publicity, we will stick to our thoughts," said Aamir who went and met Manjhi's family in Gahlaur village.
But he is not ready to talk about the other issues that he will highlight on his show.
"The idea of keeping it hidden is that we don't have an agenda or something because these are strong social political topics. If I would tell you what the topic is before the show comes, you may not watch it. You may think it's boring. Because you don't know what the topic is, you all will sit and watch and then you will feel, 'Thank god I saw it'," Aamir said.
