Wannabe Indian idols throw down some weird dance moves, and a few even create musical notes that are new to the planet.
In short, the new “Indian Idol” is exactly the same as its British and American antecedents “Pop Idol” and “American Idol.”
Yes, the “Idol” franchise has landed in India, where in less than a month it has become a huge ratings success for Sony Entertainment Television’s Hindi-language service, ranking as the country’s seventh-highest-rated series.
The casting call attracted hundreds of thousands of hopefuls from every corner of the country to showcase their talents before the judges (Farah Khan, Anu Malik & Sonu Nigam).
And when an estimated half-million viewers called in to vote on last week’s “Indian Idol,” the phone services reportedly came close to meltdown.
Perhaps the first thing one notices in watching this latest “Idol” incarnation is that though caustic Simon Cowell is credited as the format’s creator, the Hindi version features none of the barbs and cutting comments about contestants that Cowell has made a feature of the franchise.
“That goes to the need for sensitivity to local cultures when creating local productions of formats,” says Andy Kaplan, Sony Entertainment Television’s senior executive vp international networks.
“We realized early on that this was an element of the show that would not play well in this country. We have three judges who are honest and direct but never as nasty as the Simon character. They don’t go after people on a personal level, which works in the U.S. and in the U.K. But we felt that would not work in this territory, where people are by nature very polite.”
Soon after launching a channel service in Germany 12 years ago, Sony Entertainment Television realized it could not take American cookie-cutter content and put it in another country.
“But as soon as we were aware of and adaptive to local issues and culture we became more successful,” Kaplan says.
And the secret of “Indian Idol’s” success?
“Indian viewers respond to aspirational programming, and ’Idol’ at its very core is about aspiration,” he says. “That, along with production value, is probably one of the principal reasons that it has adapted so successfully to India.”