'Ashoka' tug of war between Star Plus and Colors

King Ashoka and his life-changing journey, that of going through a state of grief after the blood-filled Kalinga war, thus embracing Buddhism, has not been showcased on Indian television so far. Now, what we hear is that two popular GECs, Star Plus and Colors, recently got embroiled in a ‘war’ of sorts to present the story of Ashoka on screen, as per sources. For the uninitiated, news of Star Plus in association with Swastik Productions planning a huge show on King Ashoka was reported first in media. Star and Swastik who were on a high after the super-success of Mahabharat, wanted to make a project on the mighty warrior after doing quite a lot of research and planning. They were also in talks with actor Shaheer Sheikh (who was part of Mahabharat as Arjun) to play Emperor Ashoka. But, it was Colors who suddenly took the upper hand and announced their project of making a show on Ashoka. They came out with an announcement about Contiloe Telefilms making a historical for Colors on Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat. They also released a first look promo of their show, thus making things official in the content market. This decision of Colors apparently stunned Star Plus, the numero uno channel, and they were taken aback with the sudden development. And now, the big news coming in is that Star Plus, after going through a major brainstorming session, has decided to shelve their idea of making a show on King Ashoka. Says a highly placed industry source, “Star Plus and Swastik were very clear with their idea of making a project as big and huge as Mahabharat. However, their ideas came to a screeching halt when the competitive channel Colors took an overnight decision of announcing their big-ticket historical show. The fact that their promo and first look was nothing but a graphical representation of the warrior’s picture gave out clear indications that they are still at a very nascent stage of planning the show. The casting process was triggered after the announcement was made.” And now, claims another source, “Star Plus went through a series of high-level discussions whether to go ahead with Ashoka or not, and have arrived at a decision of shelving the project. Instead, the channel is determined to work on a completely new concept, which will redefine television viewing in India.” In defense to the announcement coming on Colors, an associated source told us that Contiloe Productions has been working on the show, to air on Colors related to King Ashoka for over a year now. Well, for viewers, they will enjoy and watch the tale of King Ashoka’s life on Colors. And as per our info, the Colors and Contiloe Productions’ show should hit screens post the culmination of Bigg Boss, that is end of December 2014. Colors spokesperson chose not to comment on the development. We also tried to reach Siddharth Tewary (Producer Swastik Productions) and also Abhimanyu Singh (Producer Contiloe Productions) but did not get any response till the time we filed the story. So all our wonderful readers, what do you think about this channel war to make a big-ticket show? Will Colors do a swell job, now that they are on course to making this project? You readers can certainly drop your comment here.