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OodlesDoodles

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Posted: 18 years ago

Fear has a new name

Some of the stunts that contestants have to perform in Fear Factor

Eating tarantula rolls and cockroach sushi. Drinking bullfrog-blended swamp water. Hurling cow stomachs at each other. Ugh? Well, not really. Some of these images make for the best television worldwide.

Little surprise then that Fear Factor won NBC's highest ratings for a summer premier, was the top-rated French Canadian programme and was also one of the most watched shows in Russia.

And now, after travelling 106 countries, the Endemol show is getting a desi avatar on Sony Entertainment Television. Fear Factor India is perhaps the first real foray into adventure reality television in the country.

Says Tarun Katial, executive vice-president and business head of Sony: "There are enough reality contests for creative people and even our channel has had its share in Indian Idol and Fame Gurukul. But we figured out that there's no reality contest on television for a macho man or a brave woman. That's when we thought of bringing Fear Factor to India."

The first season of the show will play out over 13 episodes. Each episode will have three sets of stunts and the winner of every episode will take home Rs 10 lakh. The winners of each episode will then feature in a grand finale where Rs 1 crore is up for grabs.

"It's the first time that India will get a first-hand taste of an adventure reality show. A completely different kind of emotion is involved in a contest like this. It will also give variety to the reality shows already on air," adds Katial.

To be hosted by actor Mukul Dev, the show will be telecast on weekends, a continuation of the channels' attack on the Friday-to-Sunday television programming. Fear Factor India will be shot some time in September in the exotic locales of Kuala Lumpur alongside the Indonesian and Malaysian versions.

So get ready for a tight ropewalk between skyscrapers or a blind scramble through a rat-infested underground tunnel, all of which, the channel assures, will be "very safely done".

The auditions (August 27-29) for the first season were carried out in Mumbai only and the finalists are to be picked by Wednesday. And what about the NBC version of the show aired on AXN where the TRPs have reportedly dropped below one? "AXN is part of our bouquet. So strategic planning should take care of the differentiation between the two shows," Katial reveals

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OodlesDoodles

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Posted: 18 years ago

Fear Factor on from March 10
By: Shaheen Parkar
February 21, 2006

Svetta Keswani gets ready for the ride of her life

Though some of the participating celebrities (read TV actors) have already spilled out the astronomical amounts they won as cash prizes on Sony's desi version of Fear Factor (even though they were supposed to keep mum), the channel still wants to keep it as a surprise element for viewers.

Fear Factor will be a weekly show from March 10, and will air at 9 pm on Fridays. It will be part of Sony's reworked Friday line-up, Shukhar Hai Shukravar Hai (which was the channel's tagline a few years ago). Fear Factor will be followed by the new-look CID and Balaji's Kandy Floss.

AXN effect

Informs Anupama Mandloi, vice-president (programming), Sony, "Fear Factor will run for 13 weeks and has 36 celebrities besides others, overcoming the various obstacles and hardships.

One of the Fear Factor contestants gets a bird's eye-view

The show has been shot in Kuala Lumpur by the AXN team and is similar to the international format. With Mukul Dev as anchor, each episode has three celebs and three members of the general public, competing for the prize."

Fear Factor is a production of Endemol Entertainment, USA (the one on AXN is the original show). Sony remains the producer of the show, with Moving Pictures overseeing the India operations.

Among the small screen participants of are Riva Bubber, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Sachin Sharma, Sandeep Rajora, Narayani Shastri, Svetta Keswani and Bakhtyaar Irani. As for whether payments have been made to the actors for their feats, Mandloi says, "It will be in done in due course, as procedure demands."

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New-look CID, Kandy Floss from March 10

As part of Sony's Shukhar Hai Shukhravar Hai line-up on Fridays, Fear Factor at 9 pm will be followed by the new-format one-hour CID at 10 pm, and Balaji's Kandy Floss at 11 pm, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at small screen and Bollywood stars.

"The CID episodes will be a start-to-finish story. It will be shot on a lavish scale. The first episode, titled The Jewel Thief, has Aman Verma and is shot on a train," reveals Anupama Mandloi of Sony.

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OodlesDoodles

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Posted: 18 years ago

Manav-Shweta's Fear Factor
By: Sandipan Dalal

Manav Gohil and Shweta Kawaatra

Actor couple Manav Gohil and Shweta Kawaatra will be the first couple to test their physical and psychological limits in the second series of Sony's Fear Factor India, to be shot between November 26 and 29 in Malaysia.

Talking about his preparations, Gohil says, "The very thought of participating in the show gives me a kick. I've always been driven by adventure. I was a little down when I couldn't make it for the first series due to my hectic schedule; I'm not making any special efforts now, other than working out at the gym regularly; building my stamina and ensuring I stay fit."

Manav's snake-savvy

The homework started when Gohil and Kawaatra attempted to take lessons from former participants (who took the test in September), as the latter shared their tough experiences and encounters alike.

Says Gohil, "They all said that it was quite an experience. A few had to attempt a mid-air jump from an aircraft; some landed up with electric fish and a few even pounced on glass sheets. But I believe it's all in your psyche — if you are willing to execute it, you will emerge a winner."

The actor confesses to have developed a taste for bungee jumping, paragliding and water rafting over the years. During his college days, he says he conducted trekking tours to Dalhousie and Manali.

"Once, we were making our way through a jungle during a college camping trip, when I spotted a Himalayan viper. I had to catch the snake before it could attack; I was shivering, but managed to a get a firm grip on it before it made a move," the actor remembers.

Manav is looking forward to the brief that will give them a feel of the daunting tasks. "But the idea of facing such challenges is yet to set in. I'm sure I'm going to feel the anxiety a week before D-day," adds Gohil.

Shweta's goose bumps

However, wife Shweta (presently in Australia) is yet to prepare herself. Gohil informs us that heights, streams of water and worms are "fear elements" for her. Despite the obstacles, the actress is not wavering. "Honestly, it's not her cup of tea," explains her husband.

"She simply wants to explore an adventurous show that we've seen on AXN so far. It's definitely an experience, irrespective of whether you lose or win. Shweta's aware of the fact that she can't overcome the levels ,but she's going to cheer for me — in return, I'm going to give her mental calm."

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OodlesDoodles

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Posted: 18 years ago

Fear Factor to go desi by year end
By: Shaheen Parkar
August 27, 2005

Gobbling a plate of creepy crawlies neatly sandwiched in a roll or spending time in a sandpit with scorpions for company. A tightrope-walk between skyscrapers or a scramble through a tunnel full of rats. These daredevil, stomach-churning challenges are the mainstay of AXN's Fear Factor.

This popular adventure show now has a desi version – Fear Factor India, which will air on Sony by the year-end, with Mukul Dev as anchor. Besides the common man (selected through auditions), there will also be celeb participants and Rs one crore in prize money.

Fear Factor is a production of Endemol Entertainment, USA (the one on AXN is the original show). Sony remains the producer of the show, with Moving Pictures overseeing the India-end operations.

According to Tarun Katial, executive vice-president, Sony, "The channel has always been in the forefront of launching new initiatives. This is one of them. It is time for the Indian audience to watch an action reality on in numerous countries worldwide."

Fear Factor India will be shot in Malaysia next month. Why not in India? "That's because the logistics of the show are huge and Endemol is setting up the infrastructure in Malaysia especially for three countries — India, Indonesia and Malaysia — to shoot with participants from their home countries," adds Katial.

Incidentally, Fear Factor makes its Asia debut with a shoot in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. The first season of Fear Factor India will play over 13 episodes, with three stunts being performed by participants.

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Rs 1 crore at stake

1. The winner of each episode of Fear Factor India bags Rs 10 lakh.
2. Episode winners will also feature in a grand finale, with Rs 1 crore for the ultimate winner.

Telly actors participating in Fear Factor India, according to the channel:

1. Salil Ankola
2. Achint Kaur
3. Vikas Bhalla
4. Tina Parakh
5. Rohit Roy
6. Akashdeep Saigal
7. Narayani Shastri

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OodlesDoodles

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Posted: 18 years ago

Sony set to launch 'Fear Factor'

The big one for Sony Entertainment in 2006 is "Fear Factor", a thrill game show, which is going to be Indian television's first international production with India, Malaysia and Indonesia collaborating over the endeavour.

Says Tarun Katial: "It is the world's biggest reality thrill game show. It has been running in several countries for over 10 years. We have already shot 13 episodes on different themes in Malaysia with different TV stars and film actors. We go on air soon. This is a genre that has never been done before on Indian television."

In the meanwhile Tarun stoutly defends the melodrama and tears on "Indian Idol 2".

"The tears are not orchestrated. They are 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. Hence the desperation and tears. You can't force tears on reality TV."

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OodlesDoodles

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Posted: 18 years ago

Fear Factor comes to India

Patcy N | March 07, 2006 20:01 IST

Sony Entertainment Television has launched two new shows, the desi version of Fear Factor and a show called Kandy Floss, both of which will start from March 10.

At the launch, which also announced the changed timings of two other shows Deal Ya No Deal and CID, the organisers put up a live version of sorts for each programme.

For Fear Factor, a young man gulped down cookies filled with worms.

For Deal Ya No Deal (which will now be telecast at 8 pm on Fridays), Divya Palat hosted a Rs 1,000 prize money event -- the original anchor Mandira Bedi being unwell. The CID team enacted a short play about a murder.

Archana Puran Singh explained what Kandy Floss is about -- a fun show about gossip and controversies in the television industry. Singh will host the show, and it will feature television stars as themselves.

Fear Factor -- which has been shot in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia -- will be hosted by Mukul Dev, and the contestants will range from television actors to ordinary people. Some of the actors to be featured are Mandira Bedi, Achint Kaur, Rohit Roy, Vikas Bhalla, Chetan Hansraj and Ameen Sreen. Each episode's winner will take home Rs 1 million. It will be aired at 9 pm every Friday.

CID will be telecast at 10 pm on Fridays, followed by Kandy Floss at 11 pm

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Monika

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Posted: 18 years ago

Earthworms infested cookies, anyone?

Gross!' is what everyone said at the Sony press meet when a contestant smacked his lips in delight after gobbling up cookies that were dropped in a glass-box full of earthworms by 'Fear Factor' host, Mukul Dev. The guy further boasted, "Oh this is nothing, on the show I had a milk shake that had fish eggs, blood, 2 bhejas...blah blah.'. If you haven't yet seen the Sony promos for their new action reality show then you would be wondering what we are talking about.

Sony is all set to launch their two new shows, 'Fear Factor' at 9 pm and 'Kandy Floss' at 11 pm as a part of their brand new Friday package called 'Shukr Hai Shukrwaar Hai' or 'Thank God It's Friday' on the 10 tApart from the new shows their ever popular, 'CID' now shifts as a one hour show on Friday at 10 pm and 'Deal Ya No Deal' at 8 pm.

'Fear Factor' will be hosted by Mukul Dev who will take the audience through hair raising chills and death-defying stunts that have never before happened on Indian TV. Participants including some TV celebrities like Chetan Hansraj, Rohit Roy, Achint Kaur, Mandira Bedi and Nausheen Ali Sardar have overcome their fears and participated in some jaw dropping and stomach churning action.
h of March.

Fear Factor' is an international show and is hugely popular in many countries like USA, Canada, Russia, France and Australia and is brought to India by Endemol International. Before appearing on the show, all contestants had to go through a medical check-up and Endemol International has taken all safety measures to safeguard the contestants. The stunts include lying in a box containing snakes, tight rope walk between skyscrapers, getting into a scorpion infested pit and several such mind-boggling acts.

'Fear Factor' was shot in Kuala Lumpur where the Indian participants were taken. The gutsy participants apart from overcoming their fear also get to win a whopping prize money of 10 Lakhs. The show's host Mukul Dev was earlier seen in popular shows like 'Gharwali Uparwali', 'Bhabhi', 'Kya Hadsa, Kya Haqeeqat', 'K Street Pali Hill' and 'Kaalchakra'.

Kandy Floss' on the other hand is India's first gossip show on popular television stars. The show comes from Balaji's stable and is hosted by none other than the sassy Archana Puran Singh. She has a sexy co-host called Kandy who actually is an animated character. The show is about gossip from the world of television and showbiz. Kandy is this mysterious party-hopper who will dig out the goriest details and scandals from the entertainment world

http://tvguide.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1443902,curpg -2.cms

Edited by monika.goel - 18 years ago

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Monika

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Posted: 18 years ago

Fighting fear

TV stars never had it so bad.
First, you saw them sweat, pant, cry and exult on Nach Baliye. Now Sony will show

them, shorn of makeup, biting their nails, cyring out in pain, howling in fear. Welcome to Fear Factor India, that debuts on Sony tonight.

"It was nerve wracking," admits Chetan Hansraj. The five days spent at the Endemol facility in Kuala Lumpur brought out the best, and the worst in the dashing actor, thus far confined to portraying his histrionic skills in Balaji soaps. "They took us blindfolded to the venue, drove us in circles till we didn't know where we were, and let us open our eyes only we were at the exact venue where we had to perform the stunt. And then, they wouldn't even let us go to the loo for half an hour before the stunt," he laughs.

"Man, they really put the pressure on us," concurs Amit Sareen, who was one of the six TV celebs who participated in the first 13 episode run of Fear Factor India. The fact that the editions of Malaysia and Indonesia were also being shot at the same time in September last year hardly helped, the Indian one was the only one doing its first season.

"I did my best to put people at ease," says host Mukul Dev, "sometimes, even egging people on to take on the risk they wanted to back out of. And then there were times like when I had to nearly shout at Mansi (Verma) to quit yelling....she really got hyper when the worms crawled over her!" he laughs.

In retrospect, the actors, roped in to provide the glam quotient to the reality show, feel it was a good idea to be 'exposed' in quite a different fashion than they usually do.

But why just TV stars? "Well, simply because television stars' availability is easier to ensure than that of Bollywood stars," acknowledges Endemol India MD Rajesh Kamat.

There's a jackpot of Rs 10,00,000 awaiting the winner after each episode, in which TV stars will be interspersed with ordinary citizens. There have been stringent medical check ups for all participants before they plunge from skyscrapers or agree to get buried with snakes, but nevertheless, are made to sign an indemnity bond, just as a formality!

By THE TELLY CHAKKAR TEAM

Posted on 10 March 2006 5:30 pm

Edited by monika.goel - 18 years ago

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7187

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Posted: 18 years ago

Feb. 07, 2006

Many 'Factors' to consider on Asian TV

By Janine Stein
SINGAPORE -- Localized versions of "Fear Factor" have TV audiences gripping their seats and mounting up ratings for broadcasters across Asia. But while the competitors face nail-biting challenges, the real drama is taking place behind the camera as the producers gingerly navigate the sensitivities of Muslim and Hindu religious values.

Pork and pigs were, for example, kept well away from the Malaysian and Indonesian teams, while no cows or cow parts were used in the stunts for the Indian team, said Leng Lai, group executive director of Malaysian production and media conglomerate Juita Viden Sdn Bhd.

Exacerbating the cultural challenge, teams from those markets were shot simultaneously at the end of last year at the new "Fear Factor" facility in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

Out, too, were snakes, which can't be on a Muslim menu, said South African stunt consultant Francois Grobbelaar, who worked on the "Fear Factor Malaysia," "Fear Factor Indonesia" and "Fear Factor India" shoots. He has worked on more than 100 "Fear Factor" episodes around the world.

"We also had to be very careful about what we made the contestants wear," Grobbelaar said. "Lots of the stunts were water-based. Because of censorship and the time slot, contestants wore full swimsuits instead of bikinis. And if the girls weren't comfortable, they could wear tracksuit pants as well."

This posed particular problems with the body-contact stunts. "If you are wearing a bikini with 50 rats on you, it's a completely different feeling than wearing a full swimsuit because there is a lot less contact with the body," Grobbelaar said.

Strict programming codes also restricted scenes that would fly in other markets. "It made it a lot more challenging for us," he said.

The solution was to ramp up the fear factor by casting contestants with bigger fears than might otherwise have been cast, Grobbelaar said. In addition, the crew created a more scary atmosphere with lighting and other effects.

The local versions of "Fear Factor" are part of Endemol's rapid ramp-up in Asia. These include "Big Brother" in Thailand and the Philippines, where the series was national network ABS-CBN's highest-rated show last year. The latest "Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity" edition debuted Saturday on ABS-CBN in the 9 p.m. slot.

The "Fear Factor" Asia series were the biggest co-productions Endemol had done in the region, said Ed Sharples, Endemol's Bangkok-based managing director for Southeast Asia.

"Fear Factor Indonesia" is being broadcast on free-TV network RCTI; "Fear Factor Malaysia" airs on free-tv station ntv7. Sony's pay TV channel, Sony Entertainment Television India, will air "Fear Factor India."

"Fear Factor Indonesia" currently is atop its Sunday 9 p.m. slot. In Malaysia, where the show airs Fridays from 8:30-9:30 p.m., the series is on average the No. 3 show for the week after Japanese cartoons, though some of the episodes have attracted more than 1 million viewers, according to data from Endemol and Juita Viden.

Second seasons of "Fear Factor" are being discussed with Asian broadcasters, though none have committed yet.

With the ongoing support of the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism, plans are to take the second series to locations across Malaysia. Season 1 was confined to the Klang Valley area around Kuala Lumpur.

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7187

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Posted: 18 years ago

Fear Factor comes to India

Patcy N | March 07, 2006 20:01 IST

Sony Entertainment Television has launched two new shows, the desi version of Fear Factor and a show called Kandy Floss, both of which will start from March 10.

At the launch, which also announced the changed timings of two other shows Deal Ya No Deal and CID, the organisers put up a live version of sorts for each programme.

For Fear Factor, a young man gulped down cookies filled with worms.

For Deal Ya No Deal (which will now be telecast at 8 pm on Fridays), Divya Palat hosted a Rs 1,000 prize money event -- the original anchor Mandira Bedi being unwell. The CID team enacted a short play about a murder.

Archana Puran Singh explained what Kandy Floss is about -- a fun show about gossip and controversies in the television industry. Singh will host the show, and it will feature television stars as themselves.

Fear Factor -- which has been shot in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia -- will be hosted by Mukul Dev, and the contestants will range from television actors to ordinary people. Some of the actors to be featured are Mandira Bedi, Achint Kaur, Rohit Roy, Vikas Bhalla, Chetan Hansraj and Ameen Sreen. Each episode's winner will take home Rs 1 million. It will be aired at 9 pm every Friday.

CID will be telecast at 10 pm on Fridays, followed by Kandy Floss at 11 pm.

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