(1 September 2005 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: After tapping the comedy genre successfully with shows such as The Great Indian Comedy Show and The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, Star One has now unveiled a big ticket reality talent hunt property Nach Baliye.

The celebrity dance talent hunt show, made on a budget of Rs 200 million approximately, will launch on 11 October.

'Nach Baliye' will be the first reality show in India to feature married celeb couples competing against each other

Nach Baliye will see 10 real-life television celebrity couples fighting it out in the dance floor to win the favour of the audiences as well as expert judges. The winning couple will walk away with the 'Nach Baliye Champions' trophy.

The half-hour show placed in the 9 pm slot will run Tuesday through to Thursday. The episodes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays will capture the reality aspects of the competition while the Thursday episodes will showcase the actual performances by the celebrity couples.

"When we launched Star One ten months back, we had set two internal objectives. One was to present differentiated programming while the other was to reach the number two position in the Hindi general entertainment space within 12 months. As you know, we have fulfilled our first objective and are clearly on track to achieve the second objective, says Star India COO Sameer Nair, adding that Nach Baliye is part of the channel's continuing efforts to introduce variety programming.

Speaking on the conceptualisation of the show format, Nair said it was an original concept from the channel. "While doing our homework, we had gone through various Western dance shows which are of reality formats. But nothing fit our requirements and conditions. During the brain storming, this idea of bringing real life celebrity couples together as contestants evolved. That is how Nach Bali happened," he says.

The channel hopes to explore the reality genre to its utmost by covering the real lives of the celeb couples. The Tuesday and Wednesday episodes will provide an insight into the lives of the couples - how they live, who are their families and friends, how they adapt to normalcy and how, they also go through all the trials, tribulations of any other married couple when faced with a challenge, states an official release.

By selecting stars who are supposedly "poor dancers", the channel looks to make the show more exciting by telecasting the training sessions as well.

Star One's decision to attempt the dance talent hunt genre coincides with the good success some of the international networks enjoy with this genre. The ABC show Dancing With The Stars, an adaptation of the successful BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing, has made dance-learning a craze in the US, according to an AdAge.com report. The show has non-dancing celebs partnering with professional dancers and having a 'dance-off'. Additionally, Fox unveiled its American Idol spin-off So You Think You Can Dance, the search for talented dancers, this summer.

Channel to spend big on promotions:

According to a Star One executive, the channel will be spending about 40 per cent of its marketing budget on Nach Baliye. The promotional activities unfold with a promo series on KBC 2 on 2 September. Then the phase-to-phase campaign will begin with a series of teaser promos.

According to the executive, the promos initially will try to create awareness about the "marital status of the celebrities participating", since the common man may not be aware of that connection. The channel will launch the final leg of the campaign in the last week of September.