EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: ZEE WAGERS ALL ON REALITY SHOW 'PRISONER OF WAR' AND A SLEW OF NEW SERIALS

(Posted on 9 March, 1:30 pm)

Zee group chairman Subhash Chandra has proved time and again that he is a man who plays for high stakes and he was true to form on Monday, 5 February. Though he was conspicuously absent from the proceedings at the press conference during the day, that he had written the script was much in evidence. The sheer scale of what Zee is attempting has to be admired. Fortune favours the brave it is said. If they can carry it through that is.

In what looks like an all or nothing gamble, Zee TV laid down the gauntlet to its rivals on Monday and announced the commissioning of India's first ever reality TV show and the rollout of over 17 new programmes over the course of the next two months.

But the motor which Zee hopes will drive the engine of its revival is clearly its reality show POW (Prisoner of War). Prisoner of War is based on the UK Channel 5 game show called Jailbreak which ran last year. There's some patriotic masala thrown in with the prisoners having to escape from behind enemy lines.

Chandra, in his effort to find something new and different to hook audiences, is hoping that POW will do what gameshow Sawaal Dus Crore Ka singularly failed to do. Later in the evening Chandra held a party for advertisers and ad agencies which he personally attended, something he has not done for several years now. He met up with the major advertisers, spoke to them at length. It clearly indicates he himself is getting his hands dirty and gearing for battle in a bid to get Zee TV back on track.

Partha Pratim Sinha, senior vice-president marketing, Zee TV, admitted as much while announcing the show's launch at the Taj Hotel in south Mumbai: "POW and reality television are the spearhead of a brand new programming initiative being developed by Zee TV. The reality TV concept has caught the imagination of viewers across the world, irrespective of age, sex and social background. We are today presenting the future of Indian television."

And if viewers are not ready for "the future of Indian television", Zee has a number of new serials in the pipeline which it will be unveiling over the next two months. The programmes cover the whole gamut from a mega serial like Sansaar which spans five continents, to family soaps, comedies, courtroom dramas, women-oriented stories. The whole lot it would seem. Zee is basically trying to cover all bases in its new programming effort.

Coming to POW, it will be shot on location at a specially constructed set at the ZEE group's EsselWorld theme park in Mumbai. The set is being constructed on an area of about 40,000 sq. feet, the biggest set for a television show in India.

The set will closely recreate the conditions typically found at a POW camp. An advisory committee comprising experts from various fields, including combat and technical experts has been formed which will oversee all aspects of the show, from set design to programme content. According to Sainath Iyer, president-corporate communications, the contestants are being chosen on the basis of a talent search which will commence in the next ten days. There will be nine per show and evaluations are being conducted on various parameters, from the physical and the mental aspect to the emotional and social aspects.

While head of programming and Zee TV president Madhavi Mutatkar refuses to put a figure on Zee's financial stake in the programme, she says it is an in-house production and no expense is being spared in terms of investments. That applies to the other shows as well, she adds.

Mutatkar says the show will have a twice weekly telecast plus daily update capsules. An interesting feature of the programme will be that it will be supported by an interactive website providing streaming content on developments at the show. "Audience interaction will play a key role in the development of the show," says Mutatkar. "The website, by virtue of being live, will enable viewers to get an update on the show as often as they want."

So far so good. Looks like the Zee team is putting together a worthwhile package which if due attention is paid to production values should put Zee back in business in what it did best till Star's Kaun Banega Crorepati sent the whole works into a tizzy. Good programming is what its all about.

There are some worries though.

Firstly it is that of production values. Old time thriller director Vivek Agnihotri has been roped in to direct the show. Zee has promised that production will be of the highest order but it is also looking at a very quick rollout of the programme. Let's hope that the two contradictory pulls don't make for a mish-mash. The SDCK debacle will hopefully have made them the wiser for it.

But the major concern remains that of how Indian audiences will take to this genre of entertainment. The West has witnessed a blitz of reality shows like 'Survivor' and 'Jailbreak' but it has to be noted that in these countries there is a real culture of celebrating the physical. Man against the elements is something that westerners immediately relate to. For the average Indian "Sirius, Altius, Fortius", is just so much poppycock. As the popular Govinda ad goes: Yeh arraam ka mamla hai (its all about comfort). Your Indian Joe wants to escape from reality. He's not looking for more of it.

There's another practical problem involved. Where will you get the participants who will measure up. One lot who can be discounted from the outset would be our cricketers. Barring a few notable exceptions, fitness has never been high on their agenda. Jokes apart, there are logistics involved at the screening level as well. In the original 'Jailbreak', the selection of candidates was a major exercise in itself because thousands of candidates were evaluated before a final ten were selected.

Be that as it may, there's a whole lot riding on Zee's new initiatives and its success or otherwise will likely set forth what shape the Indian television landscape takes.