New Series Alert: Faltu And Strings Of Love Coming Soon To Star Life

Star Life, a Bollywood based entertainment channel operated by Disney Star that is home to variety of original films and series is set to rollout two series: Faltu and Strings Of Love.

Faltu tells the story of a frustrated married couple names their fourth child Faltu (Useless) after her parents' frustration at the birth of a third girl and a stillborn twin son. However, her life changes when fate introduces her to young cricket coach Ayaan Mittal.

The female led drama stars Niharika Chouksey as Faltu Ayaan Mittal, Aakash Ahuja as Ayaan Mittal, Drishti Thakur as Tanisha Mittal, Thakur Rajveer Singh as Pappi Ji, Mahesh Thakur as Janardhan Mittal and Vibhavari Pradhan as Savita Mittal.

Based on the Bengali series Gaatchora, Strings Of Love (Teri Meri Doriyaann) follows two sibling duos whose bond will form with whom, the decision lies in the hands of God. Angad and Sahiba are pressured into marriage and from there their love hate story starts.

The family based drama stars Vijayendra Kumeria as Angad Singh Brar, Himanshi Parashar as Sahiba Kaur Brar, Tushar Dhembla as Garry Baweja, Roopam Sharma as Seerat Kaur Baweja, Jatin Arora as Veer Singh Brar and Prachi Hada as Keerat Kaur Monga.

Both series debuted a few months apart from each other with Strings Of Love being the youngest debuted earlier in the year. Considering how far off they are on StarPlus, Faltu and Strings Of Love will occupy the 18:00 and 18:30 timeslot respectively from 7 August.

Pending Development (Rumour): His Second Wife + Embrace Me + Mother By Chance + Maitree Coming Soon To Zee World

Zee World, is a Bollywood based channel operated by Zee Entertainment Enterprises that operates a variety of films and series is rumoured to be allocating the following series. It's currently unknown which feed will inherent the shows first as the channel operates two feeds: Southern Africa and ROA feed.

New Series

• Rub Se Hai Dua (His Second Wife): Dua is happily married to her husband until he makes a request to her. Her seemingly perfect life goes for a toss when he seeks her permission to marry another woman.

• Maitree: Maitree and Nandini are best friends since childhood but when they grow up, Maitree feels betrayed by Nandini due to some unknown reasons and a rift gets created between the friendship of the duo.

• Sanjog (Mother By Chance): The lives of two mothers from different backgrounds takes a turn after their daughters get swapped accidently at the time of birth.

• La Ja Gale (Embrace Me): Shiv and Ishani tie the knot to ease the path for their siblings’ marriage. Will their marriage, which has taken place under compelling circumstances, stand the test of time?

In other developments, since the division amongst regions Zee One has been able to build up their primetime offering with shows like Trinayani, Between You And Me and Carmen. Most of which have yet to be seen on the channel in Southern Africa or ROA.

Recap To Last Year: How MultiChoice Went About Phasing Out The eBranded Channels?

During the week, it was reported by my sources that eToonz alongside eExtra, eMovies and eMovies Extra would stop airing on DStv by the end of July. Since then, eExtra had been promoting several content without any mention of DStv which confirms everyone's suspicion.

These channels were reinstated in 2022 due to pending investigation - MultiChoice never intended to relaunch these channels as others had hoped. So the only way you can watch the final episodes of your favourite Kuiertyd shows would be to tuning in on e.tv or getting an Openview.

For those who still reside on DStv even after the termination need to note the following:

• DreamWorks was added as a replacement to eToonz to Compact consumers featuring various content already seen by the former brand: All Hail King Julien, Dragons: Race To The Edge, Boss Baby: Back In Business and Home: The Adventures Of Tip And Oh.

• Not having much alternatives to kiddies entertainment, MultiChoice extended the reach of PBS Kids to Easyview consumers. Access and Family consumers got a lot of kids channels e.g. Cartoon Network, Disney Junior and JimJam so they get nothing.

• Movie Room was added to all DStv consumers or better yet to the packages that offered eMovies and eMovies Extra. So basically 1 movie channel was given to Compact consumers while as KIX was added to Family and Access consumers giving them 2 channels.

• Each DStv package got 2 channels to replace the 4 TV channels while Easyview only got 1 channel.

• New channels added to the platform during the year include CineMagic, Magic Showcase, BBC UKTV, NHK World Japan, Moonbug and Hilaal TV so in a way you could say MultiChoice found a way to distract consumers from their absence particularly with Easyview consumers.

Kuiertyd Updates: SterStatus Makes It's Freemium Debut On e.tv, Doodsondes Returns For A Fifth And Sixth Season On eVOD, eExtra's Kuiertyd Being Ripped Away From DStv Platform + More

During the week, eMedia Investments had been creating a lot of buzz some good (and others not so great) and I just thought of wanting you refresh your memory to see what is happening across their platforms. 

e.tv

Since 2022, eMedia Investments had restructured the channel into the leading destination for local entertainment similar to Mzansi Magic and SABC 1 with most of their international content being reverted to eReality and eXposed with "premium movies on the eMovies channels.

As advised only 1 project is currently in development:

• Perfect Picture, a celebrity filtered reality show formerly seen on SABC 1 had been scooped up by eMedia Investments for a second season.

eExtra

Last month, Roekeloos Dade alongside uBettina Wethu exchanged timeslots meaning the Turkish drama would air 30 minutes early while the local series would air an hour later. It only made sense for eExtra to undergo similar changes with their consumers. 

• SterStatus, a fashion show formerly seen on Media24's Afrikaans lifestyle channel becomes the second project to have gotten revived by eMedia Investments following Die Kontrak. 

• From 31 July, Elif will be airing 18:00 followed by Om Elke Draai at 19:00 then Hart Van Goud at 20:00 and Die Put at 21:00. eMedia Investments hadn't provided the full 24 hour schedule should they do we'll gladly provide it but as of now Kuiertyd will look like this

18:00 Elif

19:00 On Elke Draai

20:00 Hart Van Goud.

21:00 Die Put

• The channel rolls out three new international telenovelas (two of which are currently streaming on eVOD): Winter Son, Chrysalis and Ramo. All shows but Elif ends next month as it continues to be Kuiertyd's longest running series.

• From July 4, Die Vreemdeling the first ever Turkish series to be made available on e.tv will broadcast as a double bill at 16:00.

eVOD

* The final two seasons of Doodsondes will launch exclusively on eVOD. Even Die Put has reached its final rounds on the streaming service both of which are slated for eExtra's Kuiertyd.

Other 

During the week, it was learnt by sources that e.tv's 4 channels would be exciting MultiChoice's DStv and after a few hours we managed to recieve word that eToonz, eExtra, eMovies and eMovies Extra would in fact end its run on the pay-tv platform by the end of July.

As mentioned, further content can be viewed on e.tv and several pay-tv channels on DStv. Of course with e.tv, this comes at a limited basis with some content be it drama related or cinema based taking longer to be viewed on e.tv than on eExtra or eMovies some never seen on the brand.

Could eToonz, eExtra, eMovies And eMovies Extra Be The Next Channels To Exit MultiChoice's DStv?

Last year, MultiChoice renewed their partnership with eMedia Investments for eNCA which meant eNuus on kykNET could live on a couple of years. Unfortunately, this new agreement didn't include eToonz, eExtra, eMovies and eMovies Extra therefore ending it's run on DStv.

At the time, it was learnt that MultiChoice would adding more channels during that financial period including Movie Room and DreamWorks and also extending the reach of existing channels KIX and PBS Kids. They even got kykNET to rollout it's international telenovela slate.

But that's where things get interesting because around the time all this happened. The courts made their ruling and it was advised that MultiChoice retain these channels following pending investigation which created an overflow of content amongst their portfolio.

It was stated by eMedia Investments that they'd love to see their channels remain on DStv despite the tensions the pay-tv company have with Openview. MultiChoice at the opted to move further and refresh their lineup which led to the cancellation of Tellytrack, ITV Networks, Novela Magic and MTV Hits.

Over to the cancellations, it was stated that the channels would remain on DStv for another 6 months but when 6 months had passed. eMedia Investments only responded to say that eToonz, eExtra, eMovies and eMovies Extra would remain on DStv until further notice.

In an recent enquiry by fans, eMedia Investments' team responded to say that these channels would only be on Openview. Although a date hasn't been provided I presume these channels would be going dark by from August as it would mark 1 year since it was reinstated.

And also eExtra is undergoing timeslot changes around same time, if my hunch is correct it means that consumers would be missing out on the final episodes of Hart Van Goud, Om Elke Draai and Die Put as the latter conclude next month on eExtra with only 2/3 available on e.tv.

As for the other three, the content is spread across DStv for eMovies and eMovies Extra there's Movie Room and TNT, and eToonz with DreamWorks or better yet Nickelodeon. Not that this content isn't on value but taking the platform to account you kind of see these three wouldn't make the cut.

eExtra at some point was guilty as charged but now you can view some fragments of these brands through e.tv and across several DStv channels.

Alongside e.tv channels, other brands whose futures are in question include factual and wildlife brands National Geographic and National Geographic Wild and children's brands Disney Channel and Disney Junior as The Walt Disney Company transitions to a streaming only module moving further content to Disney+.