Zee Entertainment will Debut ‘first-ever’ Hausa and Yoruba Productions

The Zee World TV station, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, has declared plans to create two homegrown productions in Hausa and Yoruba.

At a session with the Deepvision agency on Friday at the Radisson Hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, the media business discussed the intentions.

Somnath Malakar, CEO of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s Sub-Saharan African and Indian Islands division, said the 2 local films would be released in Nigeria in the next two months.

Most watched TV channel in Nigeria

As per him, the achievement, which he claims is a first of its kind, would aid the company in maintaining its position as the best in the industry “most-watched TV channel in Nigeria”.

“As I speak to you, in the next two months, for the first time ever, we’re doing two local productions in Nigeria for Zee World. And in the next one year in March, hopefully, we’re going to be up and running with Zee One local production as well,” he said.

Somnath further said that the channel’s dominance is due to the usage of “convenient language” and “cultural and value parallels” between India and Nigeria.

“You know Nigeria is similar to India’s culture and family values; that is why a channel that gives Indian content in a language of convenience stands as number 1. So this goes on to show the synergy of the two countries in thought process and preferences,” he added.

“Going further, we will extend that relationship by having contents, even more, closer to your heart in Hausa and Yoruba very soon.”

Due to the success of the channel’s initial reality dance show, Dance Africa Dance, the firm announced that the sequel, Dance Naija Dance, will premiere in the coming months.

As per Somnath, Dance Naija Dance is just for Nigerians in all 36 states, and it will air for 100 days over 20 episodes – two episodes each week.

The show’s auditions will be held in 3 cities: Abuja, Lagos, plus Port Harcourt.

“We created the first reality show, a local production, on our channel Dance Africa Dance, so in exactly one month and a half from now, we will be doing Dance Naija Dance in Nigeria,” Somnath said.

In February 2015, Zee World made its debut on Nigerian tv, quickly becoming popular amongst Nigerian families.