What makes reality shows, home-grown or Indian adaptation of foreign ones, and rock in India? Here’s reality check!

Sheetal

After the lockdowns, reality shows have returned with a fresh energy. While old shows like Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati and Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss Season 15 still enjoy mass popularity, new players like Shark Tank India too have captured the viewers’ imagination. And now, with actors like Ranveer Singh and Kangana Ranaut entering the scene with The Big Picture and Lock Upp, the popularity of this genre is only increasing.

We are excited about Lock Upp. It is a home-grown show and we are extremely excited that it is going to be streaming on MX and AltBalaji. Also, I believe it encourages a lot of creative minds and writers/thinkers to make made in India reality shows. I think Lock Upp is the start of that for us. It is a great project that is going live starting February 27 and we are very sure that given the format, we have something really exciting for the viewers to keep coming back to the platform every night. —Mansi Shrivastav

We bring you experts’ take on reality shows and also their verdict on original shows versus Indianised adaptation of foreign shows as pointed out by Kangana in a recent press conference.

Made in India

Talking of reality shows of Indian origin, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is the first name that comes to mind. It is the oldest show running on Zee since 1995. The show, hosted by Sonu Nigam, inspired regional TV channels to adapt it in regional languages. For that matter Ranveer’s trivia-based show The Big Picture is also an original concept. And so is Remo D’Souza’s Dance Plus which airs on Star Plus. MX Player and AltBalaji have joined hands for captive reality show Lock Upp, which will go on air this February 27, is another home-grown concept.

Mansi Shrivastav, SVP and head, Content Acquisitions & Alliances, MX Player, says, “Whether home-grown or international, the focus and incentive for creators is to bring the best of content and formats for our audiences. If there are great shows and formats that have done well in some parts of the world, I think we would want to bring those to India. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s great to see exciting formats entering the country and taking a customised form.

Success matters

Farah Khan has a long list of shows that she judged or co-hosted, right from Indian Idol (2004) to Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 1(2006) to Nach Baliye 4 (2008) to India’s Got Talent Season 4 (2012) to Bigg Boss Halla Bol (2015). She says, “A reality show will not survive if it does not have something good to offer. The origin of the show does not matter, at the end of the day we Indianise everything. If we can do it to Chinese noodles, what chance does an American or British show stand? We can make it our own with the right intent which is to showcase the unending talent of India.”

Indian Idol is inspired from American Idol as India’s Got Talent came from global the British Got Talent franchise. Shark Tank India, which premiered this year, is also the Indian adaptation of American Shark Tank. Rising Star, judged by Shankar Mahadevan and Diljit Dosanjh, which introduced the concept of singing live while the audience vote, is also an adaptation of Israeli show, Ha Kokhav Ha Ba (meaning The Next Star), which gave some stiff competition to the Idol and The Voice franchise. India has all the three versions. The Voice India aired on Star Plus and it is inspired from a Dutch show, The Voice of Holland by Dutch producer John De Mol, which later became a global franchise. Then there’s Kaun Banega Crorepati which has completed more than 1,000 episodes. Amitabh has taken it to the heights just like the original show, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?’s host Chris Tarrant.

Rising popularity

Farah Khan shares that the pandemic has definitely brought fresh ideas and energy into the non-fiction genre and social media has a huge role to play in it. According to Mansi, “One of the reasons behind the craze comes from watching your favourite celebrities reacting to certain situations, performing tasks as they own their true selves. The other reason is we are a huge population and a diverse country, so it’s wonderful to see a story of a girl or boy-next-door coming from small towns, making the journey to become a famous singer or dancer or performer.”