Television screens dripped with a new face over the weekend -- Jackky Bhagnani, with or without his Youngistan costar Neha Sharma, which released last week. From Friday night, Jackky?s been Sony?s guest star at Prime Time. Earlier, he ?played the gallant knight in Ek Nayee Pehchan and helped Sharda (Poonam Dhillon?s character) out of a situation. Sony?s dailies like Nandini and Bade Achche Lagte Hain too featured him . The latter was a roadside scene, where Jackky and Neha halt for a chaat while Raajat Kapoor and Rahul Shergill stop to meet them. Sony?s thriller shows like CID and Adalat had Jackky Bhagnani open the episodes; ?and then on Sunday night he was among the celebrity parade at the Boogie Woogie finals, along with? Varun Dhawan, Nargis Fakhri, Ileana D'cruz and Shreyas Talpade, the latter unveiled the poster (!) of the ??first Marathi film he?s producing. The finishing touch was Amitabh Bachchan..??

The top billed show which attracts celebrities is Colors? weekend channel driver Comedy Nights with Kapil. The net has even listed the episodes, 66 in all, with the names of the stars and a mention ?if the appearance was as a guest or a film promotion! The coming Sunday, Amitabh Bachchan makes his debut on the show.

Since? the mid-1990s, ?Television has become an integral part of movie promotion. The channels were ever willing ?to telecast film-based segments; ?from breakfast shows to lunch time news and prime time news, they telecast interviews, interspersed with songs and footage of scenes. Film publicists were a happy lot, as all such exposure was for free. Moreover, the channels? correspondents and the PR team formed? a mutual admiration society. Electronic Press Kits (EPK) were and is? a priority, with ?premier shows being given? the first option.? ?The PROs ??preferential treatment? to TV crews, is because of the medium?s outreach. TV reached even villages in the interiors with perhaps a single TV set. The ?print media winced, as budgets were cut.

Soon film review shows took root, where stars and directors appeared for a chat. From film based shows,? reality shows were the next stop, thanks to KBC and Amitabh Bachchan;? the trend spilled over into ?daily soaps, comedies and crime shows as well. Film PR, channels and TV producers included fiction shows ?to reach out to maximum viewers on weekdays Prime Time. Abhishek Bachchan appeared in?? early episodes of? Balika Vadhu.?? Shah Rukh Khan on Madhubala, Vidya Balan is a Balaji favourite and has appeared on Bade Achche Lagte Hain twice over.

The major reason why stars latch on to general entertainment channels ?is that GECs reach around 30-40 per cent of? television?s Hindi speaking viewers. A study revealed that in recent years TV has emerged as the largest? platform for film promotion, simply because its impact on the buzz of a film was more than double of that from posters and trailers in theatres. With marketing and publicity becoming key components of pre-release strategy, aggressive promotion on TV is important. No? wonder,? film stars walk that extra mile and hop from one channel to another to grab eyeballs. In fact, reality shows like Comedy Nights with Kapil,? Jhalak Dikhla Ja and Naach Baliye were known to? overlap on? celebrity guests.

It is essential to create a buzz for one?s film. ?Irrespective of how a film eventually fares at the box-office, in-your-face promotion on TV is the name of the game.