Revival drama

Several shows that once ruled the small screen are making a comeback, though in an avatar that suits the new-age audience.

Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega came back after two-and-a-half years

By Priyanka Bhadani

A show that created ripples in the early 90s, Antakshari, is set to make a comeback to television very soon. The makers are trying to revive the format that became a household name at one time, upgrading it to suit the audience taste.
Quite interestingly, in the last few months, few other popular shows on television that once ruled the audiences’ hearts have been brought back from the back-burner. Boogie Woogie on Sony Entertainment Television (SET), one of the initial shows to explore the dancing talent of the country, concluded its seventh season a few months back. The show made a comeback in December, 2013 after a hiatus of almost four years. Now, the makers are working on the next season, which may hit the screens in sometime. Another one is Cinestars Ki Khoj on Zee TV that has been brought back after almost a decade. Even Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega made a comeback after a gap of almost two-and-a-half-years and is currently being aired on SET.
Shailesh Kapoor, CEO Ormax Media, says that shows are being brought back to beat the fatigue that has seeped among the audience in the last few years because of the countless reality-format shows. “Some of the popular formats like Indian Idol or Sa Re Ga Ma Pa haven’t done too well in terms of ratings, and thus the channels are opting for titles that the audience has not been exposed to much,” he says.
The makers of these shows say that bringing a show back always has a reason. “The revival of Cinestars Ki Khoj was important because the film industry has opened up to different kind of talents today and our show can become a platform to bring such talents to the fore,” says Namit Sharma, programming head of Zee TV.
But bringing an old format that has met certain expectations of the audience already and has set a benchmark during the time it was aired, isn’t easy. To make sure that it creates the same magic again, the makers have to work hard on the format.
Ravi Behl, the co-producer and one of the judges of Boogie Woogie that has been brought back twice (after a long-running first season in the late nineties, the second season of the show was brought back after almost five years in 2003), says that since everything around you is continuously evolving, you have to make sure that the format of your shows are similarly evolved when it hits the screens again.
“However, one has to stick to the core idea and the essence of the show. While doing the seventh season, we made sure that we don’t dilute the format as well as the talent by giving importance to anything else. But to keep up with the time, there were many changes made in terms of how the show looks — lighting, sets — everything became a lot more glitzy,” he says
Gajendra Singh, who has been the brain behind many musical shows on TV, during the launch of India’s Raw Star, spoke about his desire to bring back Antakshari. Singh, who has experimented with many formats in the last two decades, seems to agree with Behl. According to a report in a daily, aims to retain the basic essence of the show by roping in Annu Kapoor as a mentor and keeping the names of the teams — Deewane, Parwaane, Mastaane — like in earlier times.
But Sharma begs to differ as he says that everything about Cinestars Ki Khoj is new, especially because it is being launched after a huge gap. “It is as good as a new launch,” he remarks as he adds that while the team keeps referring to the older season, it also comes up with newer ideas as it has to cater to a new generation. “We have been continuously coming up with new ideas to groom the contestants in the best possible way. When this show was first launched, it was mainly about stage performances, but now we are testing the abilities of the contestants in various aspects like their presentation, reaction in different situations etc. We are putting them through many paces so that they become adept to all the challenges that they may come across once they become a movie star,” he explains.
That many shows of the same kind have come up in all these years that these older revived formats were not there, hardly matter to the makers. In fact, quite sportingly, Behl says that till the time all these shows are reinventing themselves and helping the untapped talent of the country to come to the fore, the competition doesn’t matter. “There’s always a scope to co-exist and do better,” he concludes.