Take 3

Abhijeet sawant is just back from a show in the West Indies and will head to Vietnam for another one in March. "They are starting Vietnam Idol and as a promotional campaign, they are showcasing successful South Asian winners of the contest," he says. Quite right, despite a second season since his SMS-fuelled victory in 2005, Sawant remains the face of everything Sony's Indian Idol promises (or just about).

He's got shows, half a dozen Hindi film numbers so far and second album that's slated for release in April. On the other hand, Sandeep Acharya, his successor is a blink in memory.

"Despite good ratings Indian Idol 2 didn't match the buzz of the first schedule. But that's how things go.

The first season establishes the show, the second season usually sees a dip and the third resurrects. It happened to American Idol but today it's into its sixth season," says Niret Alva whose Miditech has been producing the reality talent show in India. Indian Idol 3 is slated for a May or June opening. "The challenge is greater now. There's a viewer fatigue from last year that we have to beat."

Sony is certainly hoping for the Alva principle to work. The channel has been on a spree with reality formats, starting with Star One's Nach Balliye wannabe Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa to Bigg Boss. It's brought back popular bahus—a now glossy Renuka Shahane and Smriti Irani in a coup of sorts—for its family dramas. But nothing quite matches its first trump, Indian Idol.

"The kind of mix of entertainment and talent you will see with this new schedule is going to be its USP, " says Sandiiip Sikcand, creative head of Sony. His assurances probably come from a revised format that will now see Alisha Chinai and Udit Narayan as judges along with Anu Malik, hosts in Mini Mathur and flavour-of-the-season Hussain Kuwajerwala. But Alva pegs reality TV as the extra edge.

"We are going to have more footage from the auditions, a faster pace in the contestants' stories, but we won't reveal their characters as fast as we did in Indian Idol 2," says Alva. Auditions have already started in cities and towns that were off the TV map so far, like Srinagar. This is were Alva believes he will get his best shot for TV.

"They usually accuse reality TV of scripting its episodes. You have to see this to believe what we get to watch. This is mass culture in action. And mind you, participants today are very camera-savvy. We simply create the conditions, they give it the right tadka," says Alva. Sony will be counting on the flavours to be a hit.