RAVINDER RAVI

Two Lives, One Song   PICTURE SPEAK SUDDEN IMPACT Ravi outside his Ludhiana home Television can change lives. For proof, consider Ravinder Ravi. Every Diwali, the 26-year-old from Ludhiana was booked to paint houses. This year too he is booked. Only, it is for music concerts. Ravi shot into limelight after he was hounded by the Indian Idol judges but consistently voted back by the audience. In less than a year, he is straddling two lives: that of a slum-dweller and a jet-set singer. One day he is among the rag-pickers at Ambedkar Nagar, a locality on the outskirts of Ludhiana that can be approached only through a dirt track. On another day, he is airborne for stage shows and stays at five-star hotels. Until the Indian Idol, Ravi didn't know what income tax was. As a daily-wage earner, he didn't need to. Now he is attired in designer clothes, his house is pucca, and he is gifting an Alto to his wife and three children this Diwali. Ravi remembers the day he got his first call from a music lovers' club at Mandi in Himachal Pradesh offering Rs 10,000 for a solo show. "I couldn't sleep as the offer was far beyond my dreams," he says. Today, he charges up to Rs 75,000 for a show and demands an air ticket and a stay in a five-star hotel. "I couldn't have earned in 20 years as a painter what I pocket in one show," he says. His three mobile phones jangle constantly, with promoters from Mumbai to Mandi haggling for dates. He has just been through a week of solo shows in Gwalior and Agra to promote his debut album, and has another one in Delhi soon. After 60 shows, 15 of them solo, in the past nine months, Ravi's career as a singer is on a roll. He rubs shoulders with Kumar Sanu and Sunidhi Chauhan, has recorded his first album with Hindi and Punjabi songs, and will be off to Norway for a video shoot in December. Before that he travels to Dubai for a week-long show-his first foreign trip-in November. Meanwhile, Asian Paints and Nerolac are wooing him to promote their brands. He will go where the price is right. -By Ramesh Vinayak

These are the bandbox fresh heroes of television, the public icons the Indian audience is creating. Mandira Bedi, host of Fame Gurukul-who also rediscovered fame by reaching out to an ignored demographic, cricket-loving women-says, "I can see the growth and change in all of them. It started pretty early, just two weeks after they entered the Gurukul. Now they know exactly what to say, how to handle the media, what the good camera angles are ..." It has transformed Ruprekha Banerjee, all of 21, a second-year BSc student of Vidyasagar College in Kolkata who could barely speak Hindi, into a 4 kg lighter (thanks to celebrity trainer Mickey Mehta), scrunchy haired, confident performer who is happy to play along with an invented romance with fellow contestant Rex D'Souza though she comes from a traditional family. It has also made over Rex, 23, who sang at locality shows at night and then went to work at a call centre, into a smooth operator. Like the Indian Idols, they have grown up before the people, literally encased in their fake home, a 12,000 sq ft, Rs 1 crore academy located in an abandoned mill in Mumbai's suburb, with 30 cameras and one-way mirrors.

PICTURE SPEAK

FIRST AMONG EQUALS: Indian Idol Sawant

With Rs 5,000 crore of advertising revenue on TV to be tapped into, everyone wants to dive into this relatively new form of programming. While Zee TV's India's Best Cinestars Ki Khoj started with 2.2 lakh smses for the initial episodes and grew to 5.85 lakh smses by the end of the final episode, Indian Idol had a total vote tally of 5.5 crore. The show began in October 2004 with a TRP of around 3 and peaked at 14.3 on March 5, 2005, for the grand finale. Fame Gurukul, on the other hand, debuted on July 27 this year with a TRP of under 2. Its highest till now is 4.9, but Sony is happy because this is the highest TRP it has had in the 8.30 p.m. time slot.

KBC 2

Small Town High   PICTURE SPEAK REACHING BEYOND Bachchan finds a deeper connect When KBC went on air in 2000, India had only 3.3 crore landlines, phone numbers were provided only for the four metros and Bangalore, and SMS was not an option. Now more than five crore landlines and six crore cell phones have taken India's teledensity to 11 crore. What's more, of the nine crore calls, 75 per cent are from non-metros. Bachchan likes it. "Thanks to the reach of telephony, there is a vast rural connect." Bachchan is more relaxed, answering questions on son Abhishek's whereabouts or posing for photos with contestants. It's not easy to get there. Though the question for level 1 is flashed on air and people have to just dial in the answer, the software is programmed to choose only 500 people, who then need to qualify in two more rounds before one gets selected for the Fastest Finger First.

KBC 1 10 cr calls in 305 shows EVEN THOUGH IN 2000 INDIA HAD ONLY 3.3 CR LANDLINES AND SMS WASN'T AN OPTION. 25 Rs crore WAS THE COMBINED SUM GIVEN OUT AS PRIZE MONEY IN 305 EPISODES. 1.75 Rs lakh/10 sec WAS THE RATE OF AN AD SLOT IN THE SHOW INITIALLY. THIS LATER ROSE TO Rs 2.5 LAKH. 27.9 TRP HIGHEST EVER RATING LIKELY IN HARSHVARDHAN EPISODE. KBC 2 9 cr calls in 55 shows THE TELEDENSITY BOOM, SMS AND MULTI-CITY LINES HAVE LED TO HUGE GROWTH. 6.6 Rs crore GIVEN IN 31 SHOWS, INCLUDING FASTEST FINGER FIRST AND HAR SEAT HOT SEAT. 3.5 Rs lakh/10 sec THE PRICE OF A 10-SECOND AD SLOT ON KBC 2 HAS SHOT UP DRAMATICALLY. 18.5 TRP OPENING EPISODE HAS HAD THE HIGHEST RATING SO FAR. * Ratings only for Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata

The irony is that a large number of votes does not necessarily translate into revenues because of the tyranny of TRPs. Most media planners rely on TAM Media Research, the most widely subscribed to TV audience measurement system. But it is present in 4,555 households covered by 4,800 peoplemeters in cities with populations in excess of one lakh. Which means TAM studies the viewing patterns of just 20,000 people. It is now increasing its number of peoplemeters to 10,300 in Class I towns.

PICTURE SPEAK

PURE TALENT, LOW PROMOTION: Zee TV's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005

Till then, media planners are trying to tap into audience participation by measuring votes or assessing the buzz. Few shows have the good fortune to have the buzz, TRPs and interactivity like KBC 2. Fame Gurukul has only two of the three (its high of 4.9 has come only towards the fag end), which may explain why its initial pitch of selling a 10-second slot at the same rate as Indian Idol (Rs 1.15 lakh per 10 seconds) fell flat. It had to reduce its rate to Rs 60,000 per 10 seconds. Zee TV's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge, which seems in the dead zone despite being the oldest talent hunt, is worse, selling a 10-second spot for only Rs 50,000.

COMING SOON ...

DEAL YA NO DEAL Contestants can win up to Rs 1 crore. People can enter by answering a question and can also play along by calling in. On Sony. FEAR FACTOR INDIA Finally, India gets its own version of the adventure reality show. The audience can call in (BSNL)or SMS for participation. On Sony. LAUGHTER CHALLENGE 2 The first one saw a mobile jokes spin-off. This is a bigger version with zonal finals and more audience participation. On Star One. MOBILE SINGER Talent hunts go truly interactive. Just dial a number to register and sing a Bappi Lahiri song. The 100 finalists will be flown to Mumbai. The winner will also star in his own disco video with Lahiri. On Channel V.

The young faces couldn't care less. Many of them are seeing cash, contracts and confidence pouring in faster than their swanky new cars can do a U-turn. If Abhijeet Sawant won a Rs 1 crore contract with Sony, the other top five contestants are on Rs 20 lakh contracts each from the channel, payable over two years. Even Ravinder Ravi, the house painter from Ludhiana who didn't get there, is a star (see box). Lives have switched. So have addresses. Sawant, 24, whose album has been successful by Indipop standards at five lakh copies, is planning to move from a 300 sq ft one-bedroom flat to a Rs 90 lakh 2,200 sq ft five-bedroom flat in posh Vile Parle. "A year ago, if we had to change the headlight on our mobike, we had to think 10 times," says the star, who now spends Rs 15,000 a month on his wardrobe. He has to work with Sony for 200 days in two years, but rest of the time he can and does charge Rs 3 lakh for a show. Consider the numbers if he does 10-15 shows a month.

And to think it's only been a year since the reality genre was airborne. As broadcasters battle serial fatigue and telecom companies try to prevent customer turnover in a fickle market by providing exclusive tie-ups, viewers, tapping into an innate voyeurism which is almost American in its extremism, are happy to comply. After all, har seat is a hot seat and whenever they dial, they jeeto.

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