WHEN its first tentative strains were heard in mid-1994, courtesy the then newly-launched Channel V, it was at best a soft, tremulous, barely audible hum. Two years on, the localisation mantra has assumed the proportions of a mighty, high-decibel blast. And the message emblazoned right across the small screen is big and bold: go desi or go bust!
Not surprisingly, virtually all the foreign satellite TV channels that have established a presence in India have quickly opted for the former course. Diving deep into the well of indigenous talent—there's absolutely no dearth of it, as they've found—they have come up with a foolproof formula that is destined to go places: Indian concepts plus Indian execution equals neat Indian profits. And, thanks to the resultant shift in emphasis, Indian software producers have never had it so good.
As a case in point, take Channel V, where it all began. The channel today airs a solid, uninterrupted block of locally-produced programmes—behind? The 24-hour American music channel that is still touted as 'the real thing' has woken up to the wisdom of going 'local' in its Asian avatar while staying 'global' in its reach. Says Cyrus Broacha, one of the new Indian faces of MTV, a young veejay who now presents Made in India on the channel and will also be hosting the upcoming campus show, MTV U:
"We will always speak a global language because MTV is watched in 72 countries. But there will be a bit of Hinglish just as there is a bit of Spanish in MTV's programming for viewers in Spain." It is as simple as that. MTV's 'bit of The Vibe, BPL Oye, First Day First Show, Videocon Flashback, Soul Curry and Planet Ruby—on prime time, between 7.30 pm and 10 pm. And that's only a small fraction of its local produce: Channel V has nearly 10 more 'made in India' shows on its weekly bill of fare, including the Marc Robinson-hosted Hinglish' is represented by six shows that are conceptualised, produced, edited and delivered completely by indigenous talent:
Get It, Get A Voice, MTV India Hitlist and Club MTV, the Indian version of the smash hit American dance show, The Grind, which is co-hosted by new MTV acquisition Kamal Sidhu, besides, of course, Made In India and MTV U. "MTV's marriage with India, as we see Indian Top Ten and Eveready Red Alert, a five-minute live bulletin board aired on the hour, all through the evening. The other two foreign channels on the Hong Kong-based network—STAR Movies and STAR Sports—have also turned their attention to altering their programme mix with the predilections of their Indian viewers in mind. The strategy is beginning to pay off.
If Channel V's there, can MTV be far it, is being strengthened," says a channel communications executive. "We hope to give Indian pop artistes a platform that will help them reach out to the world." To further that cause, Sunil Lulla was recently rushed in from Taipei to take over as MTV India's creative head. Even prim and propah BBC, as British an institution as the Buckingham Palace, has drawn up ambitious plans to rope in more local software houses for the production of India-specific infotainment shows. "We have to have local content," says Narendhra Morar, commissio-ning editor (India), BBC World-wide Television. "We can't impose . a foreign product on the viewer."
One channel that does thrive on foreign products—classics from Hollywood's golden era, no less—is TNT & Cartoon Network. But they, too, are turning to Indian film stars for a bit of help. Beginning October, TNT is launching an 'image campaign' that will have actors like Ashok Kumar, Shashi Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah talking about films from the Turner Broadcasting System archives that have inspired them. Says Celia Chong, vice-president and general manager, TNT & Cartoon Network: "India has a long and rich cinema tradition. So we have to be here." She, however, hastens to add that whatever TNT does in India "has to relate back to the films we air".
Discovery, another purely American channel, is all set for the premiere on October 11 of Beyond the Himalayas, an ambitious five-part cinematic travelogue made by Goutam Ghose during the Silk and Jade Routes expedition undertaken by a team of Indians last year. The breathtaking visual chronicle of a fascinating journey will be the first major locally-produced series that Discovery Channel will be airing. Coming up in the months ahead are more shows acquired or commissioned in India.
It is clearly not without reason, then, that STAR TV owner Rupert Murdoch, who is known to be worried about the network's mounting losses, has decided to pull out all the stops in his characteristically aggressive bid to mop up a larger share of the advertising revenue that is up for grabs in the growing Indian market. STAR TV's India operations will soon be headed by an Indian. The network has already commissioned a fairly large number of local shows, some for STAR Plus, others for the new Hindi channel that is close to fruition. Besides, the network is also setting up its own production facility in Bombay.
Former Doordarshan chief Ratikanta Basu is due to assume charge of STAR TV India in early October with several other DD hands and, equally significantly, the modalities have been worked out to transfer the control of Murdoch's Indian operations, represented by the Bombay-based News Television (India), to a Mauritius-based NRI, Max Mendonca, who is believed to be a frontman for the Australian media magnate.
Obviously, Murdoch is playing for keeps. So the changes in STAR TV's approach in India will be more than cosmetic. "It is not merely the dubbing of foreign pro-grammes in Indian languages that we are looking at. We are also commissioning original shows in Hindi and English," says a STAR TV official. More important, by hiving off 51 per cent of News Television (India) to International Graphic Holdings Ltd, in which Mendonca holds a 60 per cent stake ostensibly on behalf of Murdoch himself, the latter is paving the way for securing uplink facilities for his network when the Indian Government does open up the sector to Indian-owned satel-lite TV and software companies.
Once that happens, it will be a virtual windfall for private Indian software producers, especially for the more established ones—United Television (UTV), Television Eighteen (TV 18), Living Media's TV Today and New Delhi Television (NDTV). "It is only a matter of time," says TV 18's Raghav Bahl, "before the Government lifts the restrictions on providing uplink facilities to private players." And that, he says, will com-pletely revolutionise the way infotainment programmes will be planned and executed.
IN fact, it is Bahl's three-year-old company, TV 18, that is expected to lead the pack when the revolution begins. Its track record is on its side. From being a small creative hot shop, TV 18 has grown into a corporate hotshot in next to no time. UTV and NDTV, too, stand to gain enormously as the process of Indianisation gathers momentum and uplink rights are granted to private producers.
"We see ourselves as the market leader in he area of producing software for foreign channels," says Bahl. TV 18 has been producing a host of slick shows for BBC, STAR Plus and MTV for several years now, besides doing a two-hour package, including the immensely successful daily show, India Talks, every day for ABNi, the round-the-clock business channel in which Bahl's company has a sizeable stake.
Bahl is especially excited about MTV U, which is one of two programmes TV 18 is currently producing for MTV, the other being the Tara Deshpande show, Get A Voice. "Cyrus (Broacha) is a great guy to work with and the MTV U concept—it's a campus show that will profile college kids all over the country—is new. I have a gut feeling it will work." That is the feeling among media observers about Prannoy Roy's proposed shift to STAR Plus and BBC as well. NDTV, the company Roy owns, has been at the receiving end of the whimsical ways of the new dispensation in Shastri Bhawan and Mandi House. NDTV insiders suggest that Roy has had enough, and is actively negotiating with STAR for a News Tonight-type show. "There is no way NDTV can get along with Mandi House anymore," they say. "In any case, the tone and tenor of The News Tonight is better suited to the STAR Plus profile."
It's not STAR alone that NDTV is looking at. Roy has also been commissioned to produce an India-specific weekly newsmagazine for BBC World. TV Today's Newstrack, too, is reportedly shifting to a weekly slot on BBC.
Suddenly, the infotainment giants, no matter how shabbily Doordarshan treats them, have become hot property. But the benefits of localisation are, in the long run, expected to accrue to the accounts of smaller but no less ambitious entertainment software producers like Nirja Guleri and Gautam Adhikari, too. In fact, many of these Bombay producers have been approached by STAR TV to make programmes for them. These shows are scheduled to go on air by November, within a month after Basu takes over.
There is a question that is frequently asked: do the foreign channels pay well enough? "Doordarshan's budgets are still the best," admits Bahl. "But the foreign channels do not pay too badly either." In the end, what really matters is that a comfortable relationship is developing between Indian software houses and the foreign satellite TV players. Says BBC's Morar: "I have dealt with TV 18, UTV and NDTV in the past. I find them professional and of international calibre."
The goodwill is mutual. Says Bahl: "It is a complete relationship of support. There's no arrogance, no talking down to anybody." And that's one area where Door-darshan, perhaps even the private satellite channels, have been found woefully wanting. In the recent past, with a new team taking charge of Doordarshan, many produc-ers, perceived as favoured players during the previous regime, have suddenly found themselves out in the cold. Guleri's Chandr-akanta was unceremoniously axed to accommodate a tacky Shri Krishna in April for considerations that were not strictly above board.
Adhikari, who produces Shrimaan Shrimati and Marshall, has had both pro-grammes in the Mandi House firing line. While Shrimaan Shrimati has been given a new slot on Friday on DD Metro, pitting it against Chitrahaar on the national net-work, Marshall has been dropped altogether. For the foreign channels, especially STAR, which is all set to launch a Hindi channel within the next few months, the mess that Doordarshan has created couldn't have come at a more opportune time.
THE sports channels, STAR Sports and ESPN, whose rivalry in the region has become a seesaw battle, are not lagging behind in the race to localise their content. While ESPN has the rights to the Calcutta
Super Division soccer league, STAR Sports has taken it upon itself to give Indian soccer and hockey a new thrust by launching a new magazine show, Sports India. "Our intention," says Kelly Butler, head of sport, STAR Sports, "is to create new stars in these disciplines and narrow the gap between cricket and other sports. " The channel has already zeroed in on soccer sensation Bhaichung Bhutia and India's football captain I.M. Vijayan as prime candidates.
Butler is especially enthusiastic about the pan-Asian prospects of Indian field hockey. "We hope to expose the game and its emerging stars across the entire STAR TV footprint, like we've done to Chinese soccer. The Chinese national football league is today keenly followed all over Asia." So here come Dhanraj Pillay and Mukesh Kumar, larger than life, larger than ever before, on the small screen.
Wooing the Indian viewer has become a whole new ball game for the foreign channels. So, whether Indian hockey makes it big on TV or not, the tussle for viewership has opened up new avenues for producers who are tired of dribbling around aimlessly with Doordarshan's highhanded honchos to grab their piece of the action.
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