The New TV Star

Telephone-to-television connectivity is creating a fame factory where anyone can become an instant celebrity

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ICONS INC: (From left) Qazi, Ruprekha and Rex

When entertainment revolutions happen, very rarely are they accompanied by the clanging of cymbals, trumpeting of bugles, or even as Hindi films never tire of showing, thunder and lightning, amped to stereophonic levels. Real transformations, the kind that create new genres of programming, change employee fortunes and manufacture new stars, happen quietly enough, surprisingly so in a culture that excels in excess. Sometimes they celebrate the small-town underdog, at other times, they endorse our desire for instant magic makeovers.

Take the evening at a Mumbai mall last month. There was buffed up film star Shahid Kapur, all dandruff-free hair and bench-pressed muscle, waving to the crowds, the obligatory girl rushing towards him with an autograph book in hand desperate to attract his attention. And there was Qazi Touqeer, with his scrawny physique, neon-bright shirt, straggly hair and paper-cutter-sharp cheekbones, right behind him. The minute the girl saw Qazi, a 20-year-old Kashmiri Muslim known for being a bit of a layabout in his hometown Srinagar, Kapur was history. That little detour says a lot.

BIG BUCKS

KBC 2, STAR PLUS Rs 2 crore The prize is all in cash, but the tax has to be deducted. SUPER SALE, STAR ONE Rs 30 lakh Prizes range from a Swift to a Mercedes Benz. Exempt from tax. MTV ROADIES 3, MTV Rs 5 lakh Besides the cash, there is a bike, mobiles and iPods worth Rs 1.5 lakh. DIAL ONE AUR JEETO, SAHARA ONE Rs 13 lakh Rs 5 lakh in cash, plus prizes like a car, DVD player and a microwave. HOUZEE, ZEE TV Rs 10 lakh The old club game in a new avatar. You don't even leave home. FAME GURUKUL, SONY Rs 50 lakh Each of the two winners gets the money payable in instalments against a music contract. They also get Maruti Altos, Eros jewellery and iPods.

Qazi. Ruprekha. Rex. These first names have now become part of the fame lexicon. A lexicon which is growing every day, as television connects to the telecom boom and turns an emotionally volatile audience into a star. Whether it is by voting their victors, winning enormous amounts of money every week or even by being transformed into stars themselves through a new genre of reality TV shows, audiences have become first citizens of the entertainment democracy. It is a phenomenon that has caught broadcasters, telecom operators and content providers by surprise, not just because of sheer numbers (Indian Idol got 5.5 crore calls/SMSes, while Fame Gurukul's tally was five crore calls/SMSes), but also because of the revenue possibilities-this year alone, the total revenue from phone calls and SMSes is Rs 100 crore. The mood is upbeat, which explains why Airtel has reportedly paid a fee of Rs 41 crore to Star Plus for Kaun Banega Crorepati 2 (KBC 2) and still expects a profit. With a 60:40 SMS-landline ratio (each call costs Rs 2.40 and each SMS Rs 6), and nine crore calls/SMSes already in for 55 of the 85 episodes, you can see why Airtel is so confident.

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LINES ARE OPEN: Youngsters at a Delhi audition for Indian Idol 2

But more than that, reality TV has put the mass back into the mass medium. One day it is Barsha Baishali, a 21-year-old civil services aspirant from Rourkela, Orissa, who "finds the power" to propose to Amitabh Bachchan on KBC 2. Another day it is Sunil Pal, a 30-year-old struggler who spent two years working as a tea-shop errand boy, an now finds himself wearing a national comedy crown after being voted in Star One's The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. And yet again, it is Ravindra Upadhyay, a 29-year-old advocate from Jaipur who won Channel V's Super Singer contest last year, and now sits pretty on a contract with the channel, a music album, free stay in Mumbai for 18 months, plus a Ford Ikon and a manager. Whew.

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ZERO TO HERO: Channel V's Super Singer Ravindra Upadhyay

Telephone-to-TV connectivity is the new big thing. As ratings of serials plateau, brands look for novel ways to get airtime and channel heads scour international expos for programming formats (Sony bought the Idol format for just Rs 1 crore), talent hunts and game shows seem on the button. The options for the viewer are dazzling: from Rs 2 crore to be won on KBC 2 every day to Rs 30 lakh on Star One's Super Sale. Zee TV's Houzee, a game show hosted by Jaaved Jafferi, has 10 lakh people playing the game in 10 episodes, while on the forthcoming Deal Ya No Deal on Sony, 26 participants will battle with host R. Madhavan for a prize of Rs 1 crore. Sahara One's Dial One Aur Jeeto has handled eight crore calls across 133 episodes, making Rs 21 crore from interactivity, which is more than three times what it makes from ads.

Total Recall    From being faceless to famous is a dizzy    ride the youngsters are only too happy to    take

BARSHA BAISHALI The 21-year-old IAS aspirant from Orissa won Rs 25 lakh on KBC 2 and is now a recognisable face in her city. After a pacemaker for her grandmom, "the rest of the money will go into savings", says the chatterbox who wants to audition for Indian Idol 2. SUNIL PAL The 30-year-old former tea-shop boy, who won Star One's The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, was born in a small Maharashtra village. He came to Mumbai in 1995, and after years of struggle and poverty, is now a known face. SAGAR DOSHI The 21-year-old hr executive with an MNC in Mumbai registered online for Star One's Super Sale as he wanted to buy a car. He got the car, Maruti Swift, the biggest winner on the show. Next stop: Dial One Aur Jeeto "as they have cars there too".

Just as KBC made greed good, Indian Idol, like a fairy godmother, has made stardom accessible. Suddenly television is changing lives, not only because Tulsi survived cancer or Kashish is on her third husband. It is empowering people to vote-and to do so collectively, as a family. In a world where nowhere people cannot change much, whether it is disinvestment decisions or oil prices, it is making them participants. It is giving them a shot at the spotlight, one they usually see raining down on star scions and big-town boys and girls. Heck, it is even turning celebrities into ordinary mortals, huffing and puffing, grinding and bumping on the dance floor to win the approval of the audience in a mint-fresh Star One show called Nach Baliye.

Everybody wants to be loved. From KBC 2 winner Amit Karketta from Hyderabad, who won Rs 25 lakh on the show despite not sleeping for days on end, to Qazi, a flamboyant creature seemingly tailored for stardom. Just flash back to his first take. Dark glasses and cool attitude, he walked in for the Delhi audition, took one look at Usha Uthup on the judges panel, invented a girlfriend, created a break-up, piled on the emotion and dedicated a song to her. "When I looked up and saw Uthup wiping her eyes, I knew I was one step closer to Mumbai," he says.

Qazi, who came for the audition after borrowing money from his mother Ruksana, had been preparing for the moment since he saw Indian Idol. He knew that his voice alone wouldn't get him there, so he decided to package himself, playing on his strengths. It helped that reality shows have become virtual grooming schools. Adhuna Akhtar, who gave Aamir Khan his studly haircut in Dil Chahta Hai, styled his hair. Show stylists Karishma and Runali gave him "anti-fits" to make him look less thin.

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DANCE FEVER: Nach Baliye's super couple Sachin and Supriya

It worked. Today, as part of the Fame Jodi, Qazi has managed to get the highest ever votes for anyone on a show. In one episode, of the 66 lakh votes polled, Qazi got 44 lakh. In fact, so predictable was the voting pattern that when Qazi was in the danger zone-unofficially renamed "the Qazi zone" because he was there 10 of the 16 weeks that the show was on air-the other contestants knew he would be back with the audience support and so would change strategies to make themselves secure. "I cried in the very first week when I was in the danger zone," says Qazi, trying to reason his popularity, "and I just grabbed the mike and said that where there is a will there is a way and if I cry I will get better or at least I will wait for a better tomorrow."

Qazi is typical of a new India, assertive, aggressive and not willing to take "no" for an answer. Always a winner at baby shows, the Amar Singh College student seems born for the limelight. "Friends would address me as 'hero' or 'superstar'." As a 17-year-old, Qazi could often be seen walking around the Mughal Gardens in Srinagar, Sony Handycam in hand, asking his friend to record him, then watching himself, and redoing the shot. His parents, he says, always encouraged him, which is why he never felt as if he was living in a state ripped apart by terrorism. "It's not like what you think, but there is no scope there."

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