SHOWS

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 Pinzón 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.

"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.

The reason why format shows seem so overwhelming is the superbly orchestrated marketing drama that supports them. The buzz (or fuss) created around the participants of reality shows is incredibly indulgent in tele-time. Moreover, celebrity anchor fees, celebrity guest fees and prize money add up to make the cost per episode much higher than that of fiction shows, points out Kamat. Plus, "a daily runs for about 200 episodes, a weekly reality show will do 52 episodes a season."

But surely the icing is rich enough to entice both FremantleMedia and Endemol to set up shop in India. Season two of Indian Idol was produced by Fremantle. Heartbeat and Deal Ya No Deal are Endemol formats currently produced by Synergy for Star One, and by Miditech for Sony respectively. Further runs and all new Endemol formats will be undertaken by the India arm. Nirat Alva of Miditech, which produced Indian Idol 1, admits that though they may have had an advantage earlier ("of knowing what works and what doesn't on the ground"), things are very competitive now. "Endemol has a quality team of great dynamic professionals, who are equally aware of the Indian scene."

More than a `mould'

Miditech has acquired the licence to produce formats owned by the Swedish reality programmer Strix, such as The Farm and Survivor. "People see us as the reality TV guys, but the truth is we do everything across the board, from documentaries for National Geographic and Discovery Channel to soaps," says Alva, adding that format shows aren't ready-to-cook dal makhni, and do involve creativity.

"I don't know whether you can call Gali Gali Sim Sim (the Hindi version of Sesame Street) a format show or if it wouldn't be more appropriate to call it a brand," he says. Kamat agrees, "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."

Sony may have had a very rewarding experience with format shows. Yet, warns Mandloi, "Dependability is not a term associated with entertainment.

This is a high-risk business. There are no guarantees. Format shows provide a blueprint but do not ensure success."

Miditech's own RAAH (Romance Adventure Aap Aur Hum) may not have done too well, but its Extreme Makeover series for Sony may just be the heart-wrenching, soul-stirring reality show we have been waiting for. Alva claims it rises far above the perverse voyeurism it is usually accused of. "It's not purely cosmetic, in fact it is being produced by a primarily women's team, who are socially very, very sensitive. We'd like to believe we are giving the person a second chance," says Alva. Case files belong to the boy whose smile was smashed by a cricket ball, or the girl whose face is a melted grimace from the acid thrown at her. "We've had some amazing responses, from top doctors and hospitals who believe it is about giving back. They have offered to take cases that were too complicated beyond the purview of television, and treat them anyway," he says. "I'll be honest. It also makes for fantastic television."

Sony won't share figures, but it is confident that Indian Idol was the "biggest phenomenon ever to hit Indian television". "We have created an equity with the Indian Idol brand and it's here to stay," says Mandloi. "Audiences everywhere are the same. As long as shows address universal emotions of love, hate, anger, jealousy, greed, desire, etc they will succeed in addressing a larger cross-section of the audience."

Before you can say `So much for the uniqueness of Indian Television!' here's the good news. Zee has stuck to desi formats, and rather successfully. Antakshari ran more than 600 episodes and into 12 years. Saregama and pa, is still going strong. Though Cinestar Ki Khoj, and now Business Baazigar are a little more format-ish, they're home grown. And there's Star One's Great Indian Laughter Challenge and Nach Baliye. The latter seems to have set the new trend of marrying celebrity with reality TV like in Synergy Communication's game show Heartbeat.

According to Alva, going regional is yet another option. He cites the outcome of Indian Idol 2, where a populist vote worked in north Indian Sandeep Acharya's favour. "Karunya (the runner-up) was a very talented singer, and many would say a better singer. If there was more connectivity with southern audiences, it might have guaranteed him more votes." (Trivia: Karunya is currently recording for a Vidhu Vinod Chopra film). Star's already ventured there, taking mug and Koffee with a K to a show hosted by Suchi on Vijay TV.

Those in the business believe it's only a matter of time before they make their own blue books and syndicate the shows, and Indian formats are ready for export. Endemol is in discussion with broadcasters and will in a month begin airing shows designed in India and for an Indian market. According to Kamat, it is simple arithmetic. "Our philosophy is quite clear, we have more than 900 format shows, and we add a hundred to that every year. So every country produces about two to three new formats."

Till then you'll just have to make do with Endemol's biggest format show, Big Brother, which accounts for 30 per cent of their global turnover, or will it be Bade Bhai?