Reality rocks for Sony-JDJ

Page

Shruti

@shruti

Alumni

+ 9

Posted: 17 years ago

Reality rocks for Sony

Sony may not be the pioneer of reality TV in India, but it sure takes the concept to another level. Early this year, the channel created a buzz around its reality show Bigg Boss that brought a motley of TV and film stars under one roof, literally. Item girls Kashmeera Shah, Rakhi Sawant, model Carol Gracias, Anupama Verma and TV stars Rupali Ganguly, Amit Sadh, Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kissen and the forgotten hero Rahul Roy were cut off from the world and put up in one house for a month. Based on the concept of the survival of the fittest, the show had one elimination every week. Aryan Vaid wooed Anupama Verma, Rakhi and Kashmeera nearly had cat fights, Rupali cried at the drop of a hat and Amit Sadh pined for his love Neeru. Once the show was over, the Aryan-Anupama affair went kaput leading to speculation that it was a TRP- boosting exercise. Recently, Kashmeera revealed that all of them were told to play-act in the house, raising the question - how real are reality shows? The show continues to be in the news long after it's off air. Incidentally, Rahul emerged the winner and won a booty of Rs 50 lakhs. Rakhi's career got a new lease and went on to host/judge many a reality show.

Season 3 of Indian Idol started sans Farah Khan and Sonu Niigaam who opted out of the show as they were busy with Om Shanti Om and a world tour concert respectively. Alisha Chinai and Udit Narayan replaced them and this time the panel had a fourth judge in Javed Akhtar. Anu Malik continued to be a judge for the third time, though he operated a lot in absentia. Whenever he was on the set, there was a lot of tu tu main main between him and erstwhile foe Alisha. But what really set this Idol apart from the first two was that both the finalists Prashant Tamang who eventually won and Amit Paul hailed from the North-East. There was a near-riot in the region when a stray comment by a RJ triggered off unpleasantness.

Musical shows continue to be a mainstay on Sony with K For Kishore launched last week. The show endeavours to pick a singer-performer who comes closest to the legendary Kishore Kumar and is judged by Sudesh Bhosle and Bappi Lahiri.

Jhalak Dikhhla Ja—-DancingWith The Stars; season 2 had Jeetendra, Urmila Matondkar and Shiamak Davar judging it. The celebrities included hockey player and coach Mir Ranjan Negi who's in news after Chak De!India, singer Mika, composer Aadesh Shrivastava and anchor Cyrus Broacha. The rest comprised TV and film stars including Prachi Desai, Sandhya Mridul, Sudha Chandran and Sonali Kulkarni. This time the show introduced a wild-card entry after Prachi's exit. It raised a lot of speculation as Ekta voiced her displeasure at her eviction and asked for a tweak in the format with the wild card round. Prachi went on to win the finale beating rival Sandhya.

Taking a cue from Laughter Challenge, Sony launched its version of stand-up comedy with Comedy Circus by pairing a TV actor with a professional stand-up comedian. Even professionals from across the border like Shakeel and VIP. The unique concept saw Swapnil Joshi, Kiran Karmarkar, Ali Asgar and Urvashi Dholakia bringing out their comic side.

Towards the year-end the channel has launched another show that promises to tickle the funny bone with Champion Chaalbaaz No 1 that is being hosted by Cyrus Broacha and Sajid Khan. The show that invites participants to pull the most audacious prank is an exercise to crown the biggest prankster.

Sony was in the news when they got Smriti Irani to produce her first independent show Virrudh. Though talked about for its different concept, the show didn't register on the TRP charts. Another unique show was introduced in Amber Dhara about conjoined twins. Renuka Shahane made a comeback with Jeete Hai Jiske Liye, a serial based on a Spanish tele-novella but it was pulled off air within a couple of months due to lack of TRPs. Karamchand was revisited with Pankaj Kapur and a new kitty Sucheta Pavase but it failed to recreate its earlier magic.

Sony's oldest shows Boogie Woogie and CID continued to rule in their tenth year.

The channel also launched an Ekta Kapoor show Khwaish, which was aired on Pakistan TV. The show, however, failed to garner the expected response. Now another show from Balaji Telefilms Kuchh Is Tara, a modern love story is expected to weave its magic on the viewer. A fiction Tujko Hai Salaam Zindgi that traces the journey of a girl becoming a cop, was launched in December.

http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=18455