"I love being the promo boy. I miss doing more creative work, I am not sure I love doing the managing as much. I would be much happier just writing promos and getting the hands-on the creative products rather than meeting the head of a large conglomerate," says Cyrus Oshidar, the creative brains behind MTV India. A unique channel with different appeal.

His parents wanted him to be a doctor but he fainted at the sight of blood. After graduating in Economics from the London School of Economics, he worked as a banker making loans to small businesses. But unfortunately both the ventures and the bank went bankrupt, so he tried his hand at Saatchi and Saatchi London as a student writer.

Realising his flair for creatives, he tried his luck Singapore. Later he flew to Bombay where he joined O&M followed by a stint with Ambience advertising as Creative director. After three years there he joined MTV as its creative director in 1997. In 2001, he was promoted as the vice-president creative.

With MTV began a stint of the creative, entertaining promos and tons of interesting television programming and of course the whole sexy imagery with the addition of Malaika Arora. He and his creative team have won loads of awards including 20 Promaxes, and the A&M Youth Marketer of the Year Award.

In this interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Trupti Ghag, he talks about things close to his heart, the channel and creatives.

Excerpts:

What is MTV according to you? Is it a music channel, is it a mass entertainment channel. How would you describe the operation?
MTV is many things to many people and it is many things to me. It's transcended a brand, when you think of music television you think of MTV. It's gone beyond that. It has become an adjective for strange humour. It's become another word for whacky. It's become a category, a descriptive for a kind of communication, and a description of a generation. In a sense it's a compliment, tremendous burden and responsibility.

It's been nearly seven years since I joined this place. It's gone from nothing to being a brand having reach and power and influence.

I remember me and Cyrus Broacha in Bombay Gym early on. Nobody knew or cared and it is still a little bit like that. That's the reason why it is working I think. A little bit of that informal, down home, dosti… It's a big organisation, it's a global conglomerate but it is very down home and still friendly.

We are not cold and lonely and we don't kill ourselves with style. We are much more approachable, friendlier, much more dosti much more yari… much more Indian because we are like that.

As an organisation, we hold each other's hands even if we are boys. We like being close to each other on a personal level and otherwise.

How would you describe the programming breakup?
It is essentially music. Even within the music there is western, eastern, old hits, new hits.

There is a humour block comprising Fully Faltoo, Bakra, and Gana Masti.

Reality TV, if you like, which is Bum Mein Dum and the current big one which is happening right now MTV Roadies. That's seven kids on a motor bike, from Chennai to Chail; we have already got some great programming, that's something to look forward to.

Technology with things like In-box, which is about mobile phones. There is Bollywood obviously with Big picture, Fresh Hits, Chill Out, Houseful. Fashion with Style check and one of our key upcoming properties the Style Awards. Actually Style Check and Style Awards are joined at the hip. These are the broad categories. There are many things within it but essentially it is whatever turns youth on.

Almost a year ago, you had introduced a programming block. With the general perception about the music channels being that they do not have appointment viewing, has the block strategy really worked?
We are much more than a music channel. MTV means music television but our demographic is young people. We do whatever it takes to reach young people.

Bakra has nothing to do with music, for example. Fully Faltoo is a spoof, Gaana Masti is a spoof on music but the programming itself is about humour. So we have transcended that and we have continued to move into different areas and interesting fields wherever we connect with young people whether its style awards, fashion or anything that takes our fancy. Lastly it was a spoof on Game shows.

As far as the programming block goes, they have worked fine but it is not like rocket science. We have the four-hour music blocks in the morning, which is back to back music, we have Graveyard Shift in the night which is back to back English music. We have within the day Sitar which is back to back thematised music based on stars. There is no such thing as a humour block but probably we are going to do that. So in that sense I would say that there is only a music block in the morning, couple of hours in the afternoon and late in the evening and around that we have built our core properties.

Lot of the programming is vignettes, which comes at different times. The channel is essentially snack in and snack out, all music channels are. But this is a channel that demands 33 per cent of that share, as per the latest data.

Being the creative vice president of the channel, how do you do plan the programming?
First it's not just me; there are a lot of able people around. There are a couple of Hindi writer who create a lot of Hindi programmes. Initially we started of with music and music based spin offs and Bollywood spoofs, in one sense.

Humour started with promos, years ago and it kicked in big time with Bakra and Fully Faltoo. These programmes are the landmarks that created humour on the channel and have continued to be at the forefront. So once you have the idea in place it is easy to find extensions. It is just a question of crafting.

Getting the broad ideas in place is more critical and but since we work within the parameters of music, Bollywood, so even if we are planning a new technology based show we know what you are working with. We normally follow that sort of MTV attitude, which is to take something and twist it.

Even if you are doing something like the Style awards, yes it has to be about style, but it is an MTV style award, so people have a certain expectation from that. There is a point of difference, which is what makes us uniquely MTV.

Why has MTV distanced itself from channel platforms?
We are free to air. To me it is a philosophy of who we are. What I meant about dosti, yaari, reachability, touch that is easily reflected in that policy. A lot of us felt uncomfortable about just the thought of it. We are the people's channel.

Presuming that CAS works, is there going to be changes in the programming line up?
I think that whole thing is a ball of confusion. I think the intentions are all fine but between the infighting and the bickering between the government, the channels and cable ops it's lost.

I just want to make programmes. CAS or no CAS does not make a difference.

We will continue to do whatever reaches people the best. Roadies would have been Roadies regardless; CAS wouldn't have made a difference.

MTV comes up with the most bizarre and whacky ideas. What really sets the creative juices flowing?
Being the creative head of the channel, people think that it is me. Sometimes it is not me; there are lots of other creative juices here as well.

Some of the best work is done by lots of the juniors who remain faceless. There are quite a few miss creatives and few master creatives here. The Hindi team particularly is quite strong there are only two boys here who work on Fully Faltoo. I think the team that does Bakra is incredibly strong too.

A lot of creative ideas are pitched in by the marketing team. Like the Bichade hua bhai contest is the marketing team's idea. It's almost a hereditary thing, if you got the MTV gene you are creative.

As a creative director you have a lot of awards to your credit, plus you have received some flak especially for the Gaseous Clay animation?
I think we have become a nation of contentious objectors; we are narrow-minded and petty. I think we don't use our brains and find things to pick on. My daughter's school teacher screamed at me for Gaseous Clay. I said would you rather hear the Dhuk Dhuk, it isn't such a big deal. It is about a guy breaking wind for God's sake. Who doesn't? Which school joke isn't about farting. I think ada-pada is a nursery rhyme for God's sake.

The idea came from my wife's cousin at his Navjot ceremony, where the chief minister was the chief guest. They asked him to sing and he couldn't remember any song except 'ada-pada'. That's where ada-pada and Gaseous Clay was born. That's the time when there wasn't much of clay-mation in the country and we wanted to try it. Poga was a more refined form of clay-mation but in a totally different way. Clay is much more obvious much more in your face, Poga is a little bit more erudite. A lot of things we do, you are not really supposed to get it. Sometimes it is to wonder what it really was.

Someone in MTV once said if one in 10 people get it, it's great, one in 20 get it, it's genius, which is not the rule that you would stick to all the time. For advertising you would not but it is equally important in MTV to be crystal clear as it is to be completely vague.

It is what gives us the whole romance, a little bit of that unknown, the mystery of them not getting it. 'Was it funny or wasn't it? What's he saying? What was that all about?' is equally important.

What is the MTV style award?
Thematically it's our version of style. It's our tribute to Indian style. All the things that make us Indian make us stylish. It's as much as Rajnikant as it is Shobha De. It is as much the ramp as the road. It is about safari suit whether you like it or not. If you think it is only worn by fat business men then no. If you walk away from this country ten years hence your collective memory of Indian style would be all things that make us Indian and stylish.

We are saluting the people who are more stylish in different spheres. The most stylish people in politics, the most stylish people in sports, business, film.

What is style to you?
No hair!

For me style is your individuality, it's got nothing to do with the way you dress at all. For example, the way Rajnikant throws his 'chasma's' (goggles) in the air, the way he delivers his dialogues as much as the way he delivers the punches. I think Govinda has got incredible style, it may not be what I wear but again it is not about clothes to me.

Let you be you and who cares what others think. Showing someone who is actually a complete processed product makes no sense to me.

What is the music break up on the channel?
At the moment it varies between 70:30 and 90:10. But it is usually 70:30, that's the norm.

How important is reality genre to your television?
For us we have always believed in Reality TV. As a channel, we have our feet rooted to the ground. As a channel, we get our inspiration from the things around us, people around us. Bakra is in many ways the grandfather of reality TV. Bum Mein Dum is reality show in a sort of game challenging kind of way. Love Ke Liye the things that kids do for love we played it for quite a while. The problem is that once these things become a tag, people start selling it as a brand of reality.

In India you have to be clear of what people want to see. In the West it is much more voyeuristic. People like to see it where everyone is a real person. In India we are still by and large a poor country. You want to get away from reality.

That is why we see Hindi films, that is why our heroes are such superstars. Heroines are completely over the top. That is why there are 300 people in the dance scenes. More is merrier; we want to get away from reality.

So here reality works at a different level. At a challenge level perhaps. When we do all this reality stuff are we actually reaching the masses, the people you want to reach. When you make people's dreams come true perhaps we are. It has to be reality that works. There is no point in me putting the camera into my house and hope to get a good TV. It might be reality but it is not something that you want to watch.

What is the system for commissioning programmes?
We don't commission too much. While Bum Mein Dum, Roadies are commissioned programmes, the concept, casting, the whole set, up is ours. Miditech (the producer) has the book, they have the chapters, headings and they have the character. They just have to make sure that all of them tell the story.

G Spot is doing part of Bakra, but we have been doing it for the past three years. We are coming to the time now that as we are getting bigger and successful that we don't have the time and hands. We'll find the hands and feet, but the brains will remain ours.

I don't mean to be patronizing in any way to the people we outsource to, but the concept comes from us. Poga is not made in house but I have written it, we have chosen the character, so we know exactly who he is what he is and that's my voice in the promos. We are very clear creatively where it goes. It's only when the physical pressure of creating it becomes too much we outsource and even then we like to keep a control of things. But as we get bigger and do awards you will find bigger programmes handed out.

How was Bakra brought in?
Bakra is essentially Candid Camera. It is not some hugely original concept with which we have changed Indian advertising and television. What gave it the peculiar personality is Mr Broacha. As a channel we have been meaning to do Candid Camera since 1995, but then Mr Broacha who was the comic genius went one better and did something with Vasant as a pilot and that's how it was born. It worked well and he is an integral part of it now but it is essentially a candid camera show.

In that sense quite a few concepts are imported...
Yes and no. If you look at a lot of shows here, the VJ hunt was created here and is being exported. About 10 of our promos are being exported globally. The Lift Man is running in Germany, Russia, France and the States, Latin America basically. The Chai boy, Malishwala, Gaseous Clay which is running in Germany for a while with subtitles. A lot of our work is exported.

As for Bakra as a format, Jackass in the states came up with it after Bakra. It's similar but much edgier. It is what the viewing public want there but here if we do it we will have the public screaming blue murder. Love Ke Liye was thought of here, Loveline existed abroad but it is much more different here. It is much edgier abroad. In fact I don't think we have done much justice to Loveline.

It's a mix, whatever has been imported has been imported as a concept, in broad terms and adopted. It is never the same, can never be the same. It's a different culture. There are enough instances that have been created here and exported, marketing properties, VJ hunts, Youth Icons, Kids marketing forum, and youth marketing forum.

It often seems like the channel depends a lot on one heavyweight anchor Cyrus Broacha?
The morning block of five hours of music programmes also rates. A look at our rating and the answer is no.

No Cyrus is invaluable, no Cyrus is irreplaceable. But Broacha is an integral part of the channel, if you give it a few pillars I could happily credit one of the pillars to him. MTV and he are very very close and it is through his own talent. I am a huge fan of Mr Broacha.

Are none of the other VJ as popular as Cyrus?
No other VJ had as long a run as Broacha besides Malaika and she has made an equal impact in another way. I don't think that when we think of sex appeal we think of Cyrus Broacha, thankfully.

I think Malaika is also very popular and has achieved that through her hard work and talent. I think the new lot has to be given a chance. I think you grow to like people.

Nikhil is also extremely popular.

What is the competitive scenario like? Do you constantly take notes?
To me there is no competition going on, there is just an irritation. We have never even looked at it. It only bothers us now because of the constant bickering. Just because you have money to burn doesn't make you the best channel. Let's not pick on each other.

Show us how to do something for once. Teach us, don't keep talking.

Any future plans for the channel?
The plan is to keep reinventing ourselves. Next year you will see a completely different channel.

How has the seven years in the channel been?
However much I bitch about it, it has made me who I am. I am known because of MTV and whatever brains I have.

MTV transcends music channel, it is the spirit of young people, it is the opportunity to speak up, voice, and sometimes it is shout. It has the ability to impact people with our pro-social stuff like Aids.

We have done so much with Doordarshan, with the government of India, Staying Alive for eg. The whole Aids thing is something that as a channel we personally championed. I remember five-six years ago when we did the first Aids spots, then MD Sunil Lulla said why are you bothering.

But we did it anyways and since then it has taken off. Now of course it is a glam disease so everybody wants to be a part of it. MTV reaches many people, it can impact many people's lives, it does a lot of pro-social work.