Posted:
Meera Mohanty
At the end of the day, Deal Ya No Deal or Fame Gurukul is going to be relevant to our audience only if it is rooted in our own cultural idiom
Over the last few years, international formats seem to have outshone all other programming. What 'Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin' did for Sony is the kind of stuff that media folklores are made of. The truth is Jassi is not your asli Punjabi kudi grown up on sarson da sag, makki di roti and desi ghee. The original — silly fringe, oversized spectacles, denture and all — is Columbian. And our good old Jassi, and her German, Russian, Dutch, Greek and soon-to-be-created American sisters are all cast in the mould of Beatriz Pinzn Solano of the hit show Yo Soy Betty La Fea. Over the last few years, international formats seem to have outshone all other programming. What KBC did for Amitabh Bachchan's career or what Indian Idol and Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin did for Sony is the kind of stuff that media folklores are made of. Those running currently include Ek Ladki Anjani Si (Juana's Miracle) and Deal Ya No Deal on Sony, Fear Factor India on AXN, Heartbeat on Star One to name a few. The line-up of what's to come can't get any bigger: Extreme Makeover, The Apprentice and even the always-controversial Big Brother. They're all raking in the moolah, you would presume. After all Indian Idol reportedly recorded 5.5 crore votes (convert SMS into earnings); its first winner Abhijeet Sawant's debut album sold more than 9 lakh copies — a record five-year high. But producers of these mega shows insist that fiction is the staple of Indian television. "At any given time we have just one or two format shows on the channel. All other shows are home-grown content," says Anupama Mandloi, Senior Vice-President and Head of Programming, Sony Entertainment Television. No matter how many marriages, how many resurrections... the audience seem to never tire of their Baas, their Saas, and their Bahus.
| Catch all the action on Indian television, as format shows — both international and homegrown — vie for the viewer's eye. |
Over the last few years, international formats seem to have outshone all other programming. What 'Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin' did for Sony is the kind of stuff that media folklores are made of.
"Game shows and reality programming are only the icing on the cake," says Rajesh Kamat, Managing Director, Endemol, format owners of Deal Or No Deal, Fear Factor and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, known as KBC here.
CID
