MUMBAI: "It's not just another talent show!" That's what Sony Entertainment Television (Set) touts it's talent hunt Indian Idol as, which is based on American Idol. Sony is positioning the show as the most involving and entertaining show that one will ever see on television. The ground activities across 10 cities will kick start from 17 August.

Says Set senior vice president marketing Albert Almeida, "The two critical words for Indian Idol are - involvement and entertainment. It is going to be a television phenomenon which will have people glued to their television sets."

On 17 August, the Indian Idol team will hit Pune and will stay put there till 19 August. Thereafter it will go to Bangalore (20 - 22 August), Hyderabad (23 - 25 August), Chandigarh (27 - 30 August), Lucknow (31 August - 2 September), Indore (3 - 5 September), Kolkata (7 - 9 September), Delhi (15 - 17 September), Mumbai (23 - 25 September) and Ahemdabad (7 - 9 October).

Indian Idol has the potential to allow the viewer to play a large part in deciding in what will eventually happen and be instrumental in choosing that One Indian Idol. The hunt has been positioned with the slug - 'Sab Kuch Bhula De'.

Keeping this in mind, Sony is leaving no stones unturned in terms of being innovative and different and create a large role for consumer involvement at an early stage. Says Almeida, "The Idol team with our key anchors - Aman Verma and Mini Mathur will visit all the 10 cities. It is going to be a multi pronged activity. We will talk to all our audiences - the cable trade, the media and the regular viewers in the three days that we are in each city." Physically, the team will be there for three days but the activity kicks off in a city four days before the actual event plus all the residual excitement that will be captured by the media thereafter.

Be it the local cable operator, the print and radio medium, Indian Idol is going to be omnipresent. "In each city we have a specific deal with our cable operators in finding this "Idol". Also through our print, radio and television partners - we will be kick up the hype that Indian Idol is coming to your city to infuse that expectation among people."

A contest has also been built in wherein Sony will provide people with a chance to skip the registration and jump into auditions.

The cable operators on their behalf will run a similar contest on their local cable channel to increase participation. In Pune, Sony has tied up with Lokmat, where they will release an ad jointly with the channel and convey the contest details to the readers. Planet M and Café Coffee Day have been roped in as the ground partners for Indian Idol. So it all boils down to building interaction, involvement and engagement for with the three critical audiences - the media, the cable trade and the viewers.

The judges for Indian Idol are music composer Anu Malik, singer Sonu Nigam and choreographer-director Farah Khan. The show will be produced by Optimystix and Miditech.

The Sony marketing team headed by Almeida is all poised up for the biggie which is set to hit Indian television in October.

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