Why stars don't make 'great' television

If the truth be told, Mr Big B was anointed the host of the show because he was intelligent, credible and articulate in two languages, and not because he was a superstar.

He was not one at the time. His career had taken a downturn. His nearest and dearest had given up on him. Kids below the age of 20 didn't recognise him. It was Sameer Nair of programming at Star who came up with the bright idea of AB for KBC. For the right reasons.

What followed was a burst of stardust on television in shoddy desi versions of game shows for big, bigger, biggest prize money. Suddenly cinemawalas found easy money in the race to the idiot box office.

One after another, a film star was seduced with contracts so bloated they would not fit into a suitcase. The TV industry suffered huge losses. Programmers were deprived of original thought.

Flop after flop ensued. The audience just didn't care.

It's the substance of the show that matters, not the star. A case in point was the shaadi show with the stunning Madhuri Dixit. In 2001, when Sony bosses stopped scratching their heads after sinking a million dollars into the show and asked me to step in to "help", my answer was clear. I couldn't. Why? Because the format was fundamentally flawed as was the choice of host. It was as obvious as ketchup to me. Why would any male aspirant seeking a wife through a gonad-reliant TV format want to marry some random chick "desperately seeking husband"? Madhuri was single at the time. They would have rather married her.

I am surfing through the entertainment channels today.

I see mega movie stars surfing too. Here today, there tomorrow. India's Got Talent merges with Koffee with Karan even though the formats are poles apart. The face is the same. The over-budgeted Indian Idol merges in format with the homegrown Saregama on Zee. The Zee one is a better media proposition. And see how it created Sonu Nigam. Bigg Boss, the allegedly successful international format has shifted loyalties purely because the show couldn't deliver enough for what it cost. (But it has delivered us a Sunny Leone.)

A celebrity face needs to be unique to a format or its identity gets confused. And the audience gets even more confused. Just like when a constituency in Karnataka heard the eloquent Sushma Swaraj campaign for the BJP and ended up voting for Sonia Gandhi because a woman was the "face" of the party. Please do not expect the audience to recall everything you know. They didn't write the script. And they don't really care. Star or no star.

Television has always created stars. Not the other way around.

Even the great Mr B could not get the fiction series Yudh on Sony to work. Why they ever launched such a turkey goes beyond all programming rationale. Had someone forgotten the debacle of Sahib Biwi aur Gulam on Sahara, starring the gorgeous Ms Tandon? Even she could not cut through the ratings clutter in a fiction series. She would be better off as India's pretty "Oprah". Famous, with something to say.

Mrs Funnybones would not have become a household name in the English newsprint hemisphere if she wasn't a good read. It's not because she's a Bollywood face or because her husband is a movie star. Being a "filmy" is no guarantee for media success, especially on an entertainment show. (I am waiting to cast Ranbir as a news anchor. I am certain he will be a runaway hit.)

If Aamir created impact with Satyamev Jayate it's because the format was indigenous to India and its content dealt with real Indian problems. Aamir is a credible face who becomes visible when it matters. The show didn't break the ratings records, but the brand equity and clever marketing was enough for media planners to slurp it up at a premium. (They lurk around the corner perpetually, remember?)

We need to give new talent opportunity and rethink our need for celebrity everywhere. It might give rise to original thought.

Cut to politics to rest my case. So many "Made by Television" superstars. Mr Bhardwaj. Mrs Irani. And dare I say now, Mr Modi.

Mr Gandhi hasn't quite made the cut. He needs to be rescued by Ekta.