Reality TV roller-coaster trundles towards Indian themes

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">mumbai: clutching a desperate roadmap and with time running out, reality television has started its search for the pulse of the indian viewer. everything exotic from new york police car chases to humankind’s staged skirmishes with nature in the australian outback has been tried—there has variously been curiosity, coldness, controversy and contempt.now, reality programmers feel local flavour is needed to get viewers interested. india has already been the setting for an episode of amazing race on axn, which took the camera through deshnoke, jaipur, the ‘temple of rats’, udaipur and taj mahal. in eco challenge, going on air in may, some shows will have indians in them. zee, in fact, has actually started a desi reality show called <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">romance adventure aap aur hum</span> (raaah). after its aborted attempt with prisoners of war, the channel is now experimenting with the roaring seas of karwar instead of san francisco beaches, putting local couples on yaks and mountain bikes instead of showcasing hunks in hawaii. while axn claims the indian episode of amazing race did very well, a zee official says, “foreign reality programmes show a lot of things you don’t do in india, like bungee-jumping or ski-diving, making it difficult for the indian viewer to relate to. raaah is local, talks about relationships and shows familiar activity like cycling and camping.’’ however, reality tv hasn’t had a smooth ride in india. while ripley’s believe it or not on axn, commando on bbc and popstarsamazing race and fear factor have struggled. survivors ii, despite good viewer ratings, had to be withdrawn after it ran into trouble with prevention of cruelty towards animals after it showed a rodent being killed by one of the participants. after showing seven episodes of temptation island, star got nervous after an online viewer poll revealed that people were against an indian version of the programme. apart from closely testing and screening survivors iii before introducing it in india, star has not yet considered bringing the second temptation islandf15 series here. “reality shows are very expensive, and succeed only if they are well produced. if not done well they turn to watered down, tacky, low-cost shows,’’ says a senior executive for programming for star. according to partha sinha, marketing director of zee network, reality programmes are typically slow. “right now, they are not a huge favourite with indian audiences.’’ director of doordarshan, mumbai, mukesh sharma, debunks the ‘reality’ tag altogether. “it is fiction because such shows are staged. as a broadcaster, i had done some programme when r.d. tyagi was the city police commissioner and caught things like naka-bandi on camera. in india, if somebody comes closest to presenting reality shows, it is journalist nalini singh.’’ however, rohit bhandari, senior marketing manager, with set india says reality tv as a genre owes its popularity to the fact that “a lot of viewers are what we popularly describe as ‘arm-chair viewers’ who like to experience real-life drama without actually going through the hardships themselves. it gives them a unique sense of thrill to see the human spirit overcome seemingly impossible odds’’. he also points to the popularity of reality drama, in which the line between reality and fiction is blurred. it depicts fictional characters inspired by real life heroes and has situations that bear an uncanny likeness to real-life situations. the agency on axn, for instance, is about the inner workings of the central intelligence agency. </div> </div>