While TV shows created in India are liked by audiences in Asia and the world, little has been done to license them out. Pallavi Srivastava does a dekho on when that might happen
Amongst all kinds of reality shows that have bombarded your idiotbox in recent times (like Perfect Bride, Big Boss, Khatron Ka khiladi, Is Jungle se mujhe bachao, Sach ka saamna, Dus Ka Dum, Pati Patni or woh, et al), any guesses as to which one was the longest running? It’s Roadies on MTV, which is presently running in its seventh season. And what about the longest running musical show? That’s SaReGaMaPa which has salvaged some pride for Zee TV and is into its 15th year now (It was originally christened SaReGaMa). For the record, the longest running dance show is Boogie Woogie, which has been on Sony’s programme list for a decade now. And guess what? All of these shows are original Indian formats and not licensed versions of global hits a la Khatron Ke Khiladi (Fear Factor), Big Boss (Big Brother) and others of their ilk.
Interestingly, there are many successful original Indian shows like Aap ki Kachehri, Dance India Dance, Nach Baliye. Also, unlike most of the imported reality shows, these have had their ratings soaring one season after another. But this is precisely where we come at a crossroads. It’s a matter to seriously ponder over – while we have a huge list of ‘imported’ television shows, why is it that this current is only unidirectional? In other words, why aren’t Indian shows licensed out to global markets?
Surely, it is not for lack of preference amongst overseas content licencees that this limitation sits in place, as industry veterans like Indrajit Ray, Chief Creative Officer, UTV feels, “Indeed, there is immense scope for original Indian formats – both fiction and non-fiction – to travel abroad.” Especially in markets like South-East Asia, Latin America and many other third world countries, there are some big opportunities going unnoticed... Beat this: Brazil’s number one TV show “Caminho Das Indias” (India’s Way) is an Indian tale with Brazilian actors! It features an upper-caste girl who falls in love with a Dalit boy. The girl’s family disproves their relationship and tries to marry her off, while the boy strives hard to keep their love alive; India sells, and like nobody’s business! And this is not the only proof of it. Dubbed versions of many Indian shows are also quite popular in many global markets as Vanita Khandekar, a media consultant, agreeingly states, “Dubbed versions of a lot of Balaji shows are quite popular in markets like Singapore and Malaysia. Definitely, there is scope for Indian shows, be it in terms of formats or dubbed versions...”
So despite the strong potential, why is it that the export of Indian TV shows is not in vogue yet? Rajesh Sawhney, President, Reliance Big Entertainment presents his logic, “Indian production houses are not allowed to become stronger. They don’t own the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) of the formats. IPRs are with the broadcasters, who are worried more about their India operations!” The interesting fact here is that earlier, the production houses owned the IPRs in India. Take for example Shanti, which was amongst the biggest TV blockbusters in India. The IPR is with UTV Production house. However, an optimistic Ray of UTV opines, “Somehow in the Indian context, the trend of broadcasters owning TV rights became popular. But things are changing now.” In fact, UTV Television is developing two new shows, the IPR of which they will own, as Ray adds, “We have initiated the process, and I am sure others too will think along similar lines.” Apart from these, there are other hiccups like lack of structured documentation of the formats.
Another reason for this one way trade is that licensing TV formats is not looked up as a serious source of revenues, either by broadcasters or production houses as Ashish Gowalkar, Head Non-fiction, Zee TV admits, “Licensing television formats is not our core business.” However, given a chance to license his content, he will think about going ahead as he states, “If a content aggregator comes to us and says that they will market and sell our formats globally, we would like to do that.” Thus, there is a need to explore this opportunity seriously, as Ashish Patil, GM MTV India & Senior Vice President – Creative & Content, puts it, “Someone needs to pick the successful formats and market them aggressively.” Content aggregators like Bull Dog Media are slated to play a crucial role in this process. Bull Dog Media partnered with Mark Burnett Productions (the format holder of ‘Are you smarter than the fifth grader’) and licensed it out to Star Plus. Currently Bull Dog focuses only on bringing global formats to India, but Akash Sharma, founder and MD of the company, says that as the business grows, they will obviously be looking at marketing Indian formats in global markets.
Questions and doubts aside, looking at the direction in which the winds of change are blowing, it is only but time before licensing TV formats & content is looked upon as a serious revenue stream as Vivek Bahl, Creative Head, Star Plus thumps, “The same is already happening between regional & Hindi GECs… and I definitely see potential in some of the content moving out of the country.” UTV’s Ray feels, reality shows will have the maximum chance of playing the lead role in this change, but surely, fiction formats (especially family drama shows) too will follow. Guess one may soon find Indian TV formats seeking green global pasteurs, and if Ray is to be believed, the moment is only 12 to 16 months away. Fingers crossed we are, Mr. Ray!
Pallavi Srivastava
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