In a Facebook post, the director and the lead actor of the popular comedy television serial, ‘Tito Satya’, Deepak Raj Giri has announced the end of the serial. In the Facebook post, Deepak has not given the real reason of the end of the serial. He has instead told that, the serial had to end because “the team wasn’t able to address the expectations of the viewers.” That might be one of the reasons, but not the real reason.

Read the full announcement below (in Nepali):

Video report:

Media Hub owes Rs. 5 million to Tito Satya team

The real reason behind the end of the serial is the financial transaction between the ‘Tito Satya’ team and the distributor company Media Hub. Media Hub is the company that has purchased the broadcast slot in Nepal Television. The company deals with the collection the money from the advertisement and paying the serial producers.

According to Deepak, the company has yet to pay a sum of Rs. 5,000,000 as per the agreement between the serial team and the company. The shortage of cash had been a real bottleneck in the production of the serial in the last few months. When no new episodes couldn’t be produced, Media Hub had been broadcasting the old episodes without any disclosure to say that they were not new episodes.

This is not the the first time the serial production team and the distribution company. Last year, the serial had stopped for few weeks when the credit amount to be paid to the serial team crossed Rs. 5 million mark. The company president Saroj Dhital and the serial team had agreed to discount the payable amount to Rs. 4 million and start the serial again. (read the May 2014 report in Serialsansar)

World Vision Advertising Fraud

This year, Media Hub had failed to get the slot in Nepal Television as World Vision Advertising had won the contract. But, it later turned out that the company had submitted a fake document to support its financial status. That had caused two comedy serials ‘Bhadragol’  and ‘Jire Khursani’ to stop in Nepal Television. Media Hub later acquired the rights of those serials. That made Media Hub the sole distributor of all the four popular comedy serials in Nepal Television. Watch the following video reports to know what had happend:

Report on the resumption of the serials:

‘Jire Khurasni’ and ‘Meri Bassai’ in the same boat. Will they stop?

For the last few weeks, all the ‘Tito Satya’ episodes were repeat episodes and no new content were produced. It is same of other two popular comedy serials ‘Meri Bassai’ and ‘Jire Khursani’. The serials are also in the similar financial condition as Media Hub has stopped paying them.

It was easy for the ‘Tito Satya’ team to decide on ending the serial. That was because, they has recently produced two successful movies ‘Chha Ekan Chha’ and ‘Woda Number Chha’. (Watch ‘Chha Ekan Chha’ here). The success of the movie has given them confidence to produce more movies – which are more profitable than serials. But, the makers of ‘Meri Bassai’ and ‘Jire Khursani’ don’t have such alternatives.

Why isn’t Media Hub paying the serials?

Why Media Hub is not paying the artists is a big mystery. Let me analyze the possible reasons (these are speculative reasons):

• Are the serials are not making enough money? (very unlikely reason): All of these serials are the most popular serials in Nepal Television and they are advertisement magnets. They should be making a lot of money. So, the first reason can be easily ruled out.
• Did they agree on paying higher than they could pay? (unlikely reason): The second reason doesn’t seem to be possible because, these  serials have been running for more than a decade. All the payment agreements should have been matured enough to create such problems.
• Force serial makers for discount – Last year Media Hub was successful in reducing the payable amount by as much as 20 percent (from Rs .5 M to Rs.4 M). Repeating the similar conditions would make a lot of financial sense.
• Force the serial makers to stop producing new episodes and earn ad. money from the re-runs instead of the new ones. If this were the case – that would be unethical practice. But, it is a possibility.

What Next?

Deepak Raj Giri, Deepa Shree Niraula and Nirmal Sharma are teaming up to produce the next movie ‘Chha Maya Chhapakai Laideu’. Deepa is planning to debut as a director by directing the movie.

In addition to movie, the team is also in talk with other channels to produce another television serial. They are confident that they will make a comeback soon in different format and location.

Deepak and the team had decided to change the format of ‘Tito Satya’ after the 600th episode of the serial. They had realized that the content has been monotonous and uninteresting and wanted to revitalize it. But, as they had to abort the project, there is a possibility that the new concept will be a new television serial in a different channel.