Reality shows that focus on grooming talent in the field of
acting have been utter flops. Zee Cine Stars Ki Khoj kicked off the
trend, but the show which came up with two seasons and four 'stars'
—Sarvar Ahuja-Aditi Sharma, Sabeena Sheema-Piyush Chopra — have failed
to achieve any dramatic success in Bollywood. While most of them have
disappeared after sloppy roles in shoe-string budget films, a few are
still struggling to make a mark.
Yet, none of this deterred Ekta Kapoor, who is all set to launch a
brand new, flashy, big-budget reality show for 9X — Kaun Jeetega
Bollywood Ka Ticket.
The show which brings together Bollywood verterans, promises to give
the winning pair an opportunity to act in a multi-starrer film, to be
jointly produced by Balaji Telefilms and Suneil Shetty's Popcorn
Entertainment on a mega budget of Rs 70 crore, to be directed by
Apoorva Lakhia. it is rumoured that other channels too are likely to
launch similar shows that sell Bollywood dreams. The format is suddenly
being touted as the future of reality TV in the country.
Kaun Jeetega Bollywood Ka Ticket will have 24 participants, 12 of
whom are popular television celebrities and the other 12 are aspiring
actors from different walks of life. They will be judged based on their
acting and dancing skills. There are four zones which will be pitted
against each other in the competition to find the next big 'lead pair'.
The celebrities short-listed for the show include Vikas Manecktala,
Mihika Verma and Raj Singh Arora who will represent the north zone;
Chetan Hansraj, Krutika Sehgal and Twinkle Bajpai who will represent
central zone, Reshmi Ghosh, Naman Shaw and Panchi Bora in the east zone
and the west zone will have Jai Bhanushali, Abigail and Karan Patel.
Every pair will be given a character each and a story to act out
together and each zone will have a seasoned Bollywood actor as mentor.
The mentors will personally guide and train their teams for the arduous
and exciting journey to Bollywood.
The mentors short-listed for the show are Shabana Azmi for the east
zone, Amrita Singh for north, Mahesh Manjrekar for west zone and Zeenat
Aman for the central zone. These mentors will judge the performances of
the participants and play a key role in strengthening the performance
of their respective teams.
"I have no clue why the Zee show didn't do well. May be the show was
not engaging enough. In any case, all reality shows don't do well,"
says Indrani Mukerjea, head of INX Media that owns 9X, who is confident
of the success of this glitzy show.
However, Sanjay Upadhyay, creative head of fiction at Sony who was
on the panel of judges for the first season of Zee Cine Star Ki Khoj is
cynical. He feels that such shows don't do well because of their low
entertainment quotient. "When you are searching for an actor, the focus
is more on performance and less on dance and music," he adds. Now,
that's probably why the importance given to acting and dance in Kaun
Jeetega Bollywood Ka Ticket is equal. Indrani defends, "This show will
have high level of entertainment. Acting and dance will be given equal
weightage."
Indrani also feels that such a show is the need of the hour. The
reason for doing Kaun Jeetega Bollywood Ka Ticket, according to
Indrani, is that currently there are too many reality shows of the same
kind happening all over. "We wanted to have a different show and the
way we have designed it, the show is going to be very entertaining and
engaging with best of mentors and television actors and common people
coming together on one platform," she adds.
While Zeenat Aman is quite excited about the show, Shabana Azmi says
what clinched it for her is that the show promises a movie for the
winning pair. "Also, the fact that actors will be groomed is extremely
good," says the veteran actress.
Even the celebrity contestants see the show as the best opportunity
to step into Bollywood. Says Chetan Hansraj, "The concept is really
exciting. I have been doing serials for the past four years and this
show might give me an opportunity to work in films."
Naman Shaw who was one of the participants of Cine Star Ki Khoj
looks at Kaun Jeetega Bollywood Ka Ticket as his second chance to give
films a shot. "I came to Mumbai to work in films. Cine Star helped me
get noticed and get work in serials. May be with this show I will get
into films," he quips.
Mihika Verma, on the other hand, feels the show will give a boost to
her career. "I think everyone has equal chance. I have done ramp shows,
modeling and serials. The experience should help me reach the finals.
But even if I don't win I am hoping to get enough mileage from the
show." she reasons.
In fact, it's a win-win situation for all. As Reshmi Ghosh puts it,
"Even if I don't win I am sure the show will help me get work in
films," she says.
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