Saturday 1 June 2013

We don’t invest in content as heavily as we need to: Colors’ Nayak

Mumbai: If you want to watch smartly written, performed and produced fiction dramas on television, you are better off downloading or hiring DVDs of American, British and, on occasion, Swedish, series.
Addictively intelligent fiction shows are coming out of America, in particular, faster than you can say The Wire, but Indian channels continue to wring out tears, false and real, through soaps and licensed reality show formats.

The problem, according to Colors channel chief executive officer Raj Nayak, is that India hasn’t yet evolved a culture of nurturing new talent. In the interests of having a profitable year, Colors is sticking with the tried and tested: it welcomes back the sixth season of the well-received Jhalak Dikhhla Ja, the Indian version of the American show, Dancing With The Stars, from 1 June. The continued popularity of the show, which pairs film and television personalities with professional choreographers, is proof that Indians can’t get enough of music and dance based talent shows, Nayak said in an interview. Edited excerpts:

What’s different about the sixth season of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa?
The format is such that certain things follow a template and there is nothing you can do about it. The key challenge is the panel of judges, who play a very important role since they are the face of the show. Then there is the casting of the right celebrities, who have to be well-known and are also reasonably good dancers. Choosing contestants remains a challenge because of the millions of people who approach us. It’s tough to identify a person who is well-known to dance before the camera.
The other component is the choreographer. If the contestants are the heart of the show, the choreographers are the soul. Unfortunately, we don’t end up planning in advance since people don’t know their dates, so the choreographers don’t get more than 30 days to prepare. But, then, if everything were so perfect, it would become mechanical. The rawness of the participants comes through.
We introduced lighter moments last year since the show had become too rigorous. We brought in the element of humour. This time we have two male anchors, Manish Paul and Kapil. The set is much bigger, and 3D technology will happen inside the show. We are also seeing if we can take the show outside the studio.

So the dance shows remain a popular format within reality television programming?
Dance and singing shows will always be there, but when it becomes too much, there will be fatigue. We do have a herd mentality, we all do the same thing, in the media and in life. The good ones, if successful, will continue.
American television is going through a tremendously creative phase, but Indian television hasn’t moved beyond soaps and reality shows.
There are a few reasons why we can’t have the same sophistication of writing or production values as in American television. We don’t invest in content as heavily as we should. Earlier, huge carriage fees ate into the profitability, and channels hardly made any money. The advertising rates have barely gone up in the last 10-12 years. When the full impact of digitization starts to show, when there is a decrease in carriage fees and an increase in subscription revenue, we might see a change.
Our costs of production are also very low, and we function on a day-to-day basis. There is no time to breathe, it is so cut-to-cut. We are unable to go out and scout for writers. Once we build and develop a pool of fresh talent, it will happen by default rather than by design.
We are now beginning to can seasons at Colors. With the Indian version of 24, for instance, we will have a whole season in the cans before it goes on air, which should be sometime within the next few months.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has directed that advertising per hour of programming cannot exceed 12 minutes. How will this affect you?
Ideally, we would have liked that the full impact of digitization in terms of low carriage fees and subscription revenue had started happening before this got implemented. However, what the regulator has done is good for the industry, although the timing may be debatable. We have announced a hike in advertisement rates. The benefits will be seen in a few years. Content will increase, as will the dynamic of the costs.
Digitization is not happening at the speed at which it needs to. It has all happened very fast. But the toothpaste has left the tube, and there is no going back. Over a period of time, digitization will allow more and more niche channels to occupy space. There’s no reason we can’t have a legal channel or a gardening channel, for instance.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/2548-we-don%E2%80%99t-invest-in-content-as-heavily-as-we-need-to-colors%E2%80%99-nayak.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/2548-we-don%E2%80%99t-invest-in-content-as-heavily-as-we-need-to-colors%E2%80%99-nayak.html

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