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Reality TV discovers religion at last
More articles on this topic: MediaThink of it as Pop Idol meets Songs of Praise – only set in an Indian ashram.
Aastha, the leading religious television network in India, is to introduce a reality TV show, based on the global Idol formula, in an attempt to reach out to a younger audience.
The show, tentatively named Religious Indian Idol, will be an interactive musical talent contest between teenagers from universities and religious colleges. Instead of pop tunes, they will perform devotional songs from the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain faiths.
The backdrop for the show will be a typical ashram scene – a group of religious students sitting under a tree by a river – rather than a TV studio manned by a celebrity anchor.
“The basic concept will be similar to Idol, but the entire look will be very traditional,” Kirit Mehta, the 52-year-old founder and chief executive of Aastha, told The Times. “There’s a huge amount of talent out there. We want to create awareness of the soothing effect that devotional songs can have on people.”
The show illustrates the growing appeal of reality television in the country, where Indian Idol, a version of Pop Idol, was screened for the first time in 2004 and is in its third series.
It also shows how religious leaders and activists are trying to use new media to appeal to young Indians, who are increasingly exposed to, and attracted by, Western culture.
India did not have dedicated religious TV channels until 2000. Now there are a dozen, accounting for about 1 per cent of all television content, according to Television Audience Measurement.
“It’s a genre that doesn’t have a mass audience. It has selective viewing, but it’s growing fast,” Siddhartha Mukherjee, a media analyst at TAM, said.
He said that Aastha’s new show was the latest in a string of spin-offs of American and British reality shows since the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? began in 2000.
One of the more original ones is the current Airtel Scholar Hunt, in which contestants vie for full scholarships to British universities.
“Every single genre now has some form of reality show, but I still think we’ve only been exposed to the tip of the iceberg,” Mr Mukherjee said.
Mr Mehta said that he hoped his new show would attract a younger audience to Aastha, which is broadcast via cable and satellite in India, the United States, Britain, Canada and several Asian countries.
He said that he expected to start auditioning in August and to begin broadcasting the first of 26 episodes in September. Contestants will be assessed by a panel of judges, including top devotional musicians, before facing a vote by the television audience.
Mr Mehta said that the show was less about competition than teaching young people to appreciate traditional religious music. “It may look like we’re losing our youth to the West,” he said, “but they’re coming back.” 55m votes were cast in the first series of Indian Idol.
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