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War of the vocalists...
The first face-off between Fame Gurukul and Indian Idol is Sony's New Year bonanza
Subhash K Jha
As a New Year's special attraction, Deal Ya No Deal is bringing together the ten finalists of Fame Gurukul to compete with those of Indian Idol.
Nausheen Ali and Anuj Saxena, the original Kkusum and Abhay, will also be seen on Deal Ya No Deal, followed by a congregation of TV stars, including Apara Mehta, Tasneem Sheikh, Pooja Ghai, Amit Jain, Sumeet Sachdeva…
"…Yes, even TV stars from our rival channel," says Sony's Tarun Katial. "We don't discriminate on New Year."
In the meanwhile, Katial stoutly defends the melodrama and tears on Indian Idol 2. "The tears aren't orchestrated. They're genuine. Being an Indian Idol means so much more to the participants than it did earlier. The first time around the contestants didn't realise what being an Abhijeet Sawant meant. Now, just being in the Top 10 is bliss. And so, the desperation and tears. You can't force tears on reality TV."
But the big one for 2006 is Fear Factor. Tarun says, "It's the world's biggest reality thrill game-show that has been running in several countries for over ten years. We've already shot thirteen episodes on different themes in Malaysia with different TV stars and film actors. We go on air early next year. This is a genre that has never been explored on Indian television."
Fear Factor would be Indian television's first international production, with India, Malaysia and Indonesia collaborating on the project.
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