First of all I thank MS for giving me whatever category I ask for. This time it took them 4 days but they finally added the category.
Year 2005 has been full of happenings. Be it the bribing case in Parliament, Ganguly-Chappell episode, Mumbai Rains, Volkar committee, Sachin Tendulkar’s 35th test 100, this year has been full of news. Entertainment industry also witnessed some of the things or events which it is not going to forget for a long time.
I have requested this topic on mouthpad so that I can put up these 5 happennings in the small screen entertainment industry in India for the readers.
So here are my famous 5 (Mr. Enid Blyton please forgive me)
1. Kaun Banega Crorepati – II
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Channel – Star Plus
From the world famous Who wants to be a millionaire to our own Desi Kaun Banega Crorepati, this television show has captured the audiences in all age groups in all corners of Indian market. When this show was first aired in the year 1999, it was an instant success. The success can be because of the uniqueness this show possessed. It was the first show of its kind in India and contained a huge sum as prize money. After completing around 200 odd episodes, they decided the show to be taken off the air. So KBC was out of broadcasting after giving 1 crore to one person (Harshwardhan Nawate. Just see the power of this serial, you still remember the name of the winner). In the year 2005, somewhere in the month of May, everyone was talking about the return of the Boss. This time the prize money was doubled, the questions were more systematic and Amitabh Bachchan was a superstar (Last time his movies were flopping). He even sung a song for this show. The show returned and was an instant success repeating the same story once again.
Jisne inse seekha yaaron kabhi bhi na jhukna
Hot seat par milega bhaiyya ummeed se dugna
2. The Great Indian Laughter Challenge/Champions
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Channel – Star One
Making a person laugh is much more difficult than making him cry. After so many irritating years of crying for Saas, Bahu and all that kind of soap operas, we finally got a chance to laugh. Indian television industry has seen a lot of good comedy serials in the past but nothing worth mentioning in the past few years except for “Office Office” on Sab T. V. This television show came as a whiff of fresh air in the suffocated and choked room of Saas Bahu kind of serials. The show started up as a competition and later transformed into a show. Thanks to this show a lot of common people with immense talent are known in households. A new concept always wins and this serial is no exception.
3. SaReGaMaPa Challenge 2005
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Channel – ZEE T.V.
When every other television channel is moving towards reality shows, why not the oldest of them all (except for our very own DD1). The challenge started in early half of this year and is still continuing. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa was already ranking number one in viewers listing but this new series made them numero uno among the serials of Zee T.V. This all is because of the quality of talent this show has. Himesh Reshammiya has already made Vineet sing 3 songs for his forthcoming movies, Ismail Darbar has already promised Shaarib a song in his forthcoming – Pyar Kiya to Nibhaana, and Aadesh Shrivastava promising a song to Himani for his forthcoming Sufi album, this T. V. show has made the producers and the channel happy. Thanks to the innumerable number of SMSs, mobile phone operators are queuing in front of the house of producers of these kind of reality TV shows.
4. FAME Gurukul
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Channel – Sony T. V.
After the immense success of Indian Idol (I will not include it because it was launched last year), Sony T. V. came up with another reality TV show called as FAME Gurukul. Thanks to the excellent acting by the gurujis especially Ila Arun, this show was successful. This show dealt with performances and not merely singing. The results were as expected – With Qazi Touqeer emerging as the winner among males, it can now be said that you do not need to be a good singer to win a singing competition. The income for the serial was not over yet. An album was launched featuring the winners in it. The album is a blunder but I should refrain myself from moving into the musical aspects as I have already written a lot of reviews on music.
5. Nach Baliye
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Channel – Star One
Success formula for 2005 – Reality shows. So another show was up with a huge amount of publicity backing it up. The concept was new in the sense it had real life TV/Movies stars in it otherwise we already had dancing competitions on T.V. The program caught interests of the beautiful ladies of this country known as India which is my country of course and was an instant hit. Later when the male bandwagon joined the viewers community of the show, its popularity topped the charts. For two continuous weeks it was no.1 in viewers rating defeating the giants specified above. Its success was also because of the emotional touch given to it by the participants. A lot of crying, tears, sorrow, hugging, cuddling was backed up by soft music which won the hearts of audiences. The competition was a short competition and Supriya and Sachin Pilgaonkar emerged as the winner jodi. Varun was named the best male dancer and Sai the best among the second sex.
One thing is clear that year 2K5 was the year of reality shows. These shows ensured that the audience comes back to the same channel after browsing all the other channels during the break. Also they made sure that the mobile operators also gain their share out of the competitions. With nearly every show asking the public to vote through SMS and one SMS costing you anything from Rs. 3 to Rs. 6, they really earn a lot.
In the coming year I expect some more reality shows will hit the screen and the currently existing ones will have to face a stiff competition. Hoping for the best…..
Please do not forget to give your valuable comments/suggestions for the betterment of my writing.