"Ethnic formats are a rave these days"

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Nikhil Alva, chief executive officer, Miditech, isn’t quite sure how the transition from Mathematics to film making came about, expect that “one was always drawn to things creative.” He founded Miditech while still in college in 1991 to produce music for television programmes, films and ads. Over the years Alva, along with brother Niret, has helped build the firm into one of India’s finest independent production houses and an acknowledged leader of the reality TV genre. Here Alva talks to Radhika Sachdev of the FE about the way ahead.

Define “reality”. How much of it is reality and how much is manufactured for a particular effect?

It’s 100 reality. No portion is stage-managed. What is managed is the technique of casting the right sort of people, placing them in a particular context and from that point on, the characters simply take off.

Who are these “right sort of people”? Can you cite a few examples?

People who have clear points of view; are articulate, can hold their own in front of a TV camera and don’t get swayed under pressure. People like Javed Akhtar, Anu Malik and Farah Khan, to name just a few.

Are you saying that the research and pre-screening that goes into reality shows is deeper than in other formats?

You are absolutely right. The research here is much deeper. We take screen tests, there is a lot of discussion that takes place prior to casting and it goes much beyond a simple CV scan.

Miditech has worked with both Indians and foreign clients. Who do you enjoy the best comfort level with?

That’s a difficult one to answer because they come from diverse markets. With foreign clients the initial pitching is a long-drawn process but once the ice is broken, they virtually open a floodgate of projects. With BBC it took us three years. With National Geographic we pitched for nearly five years before the first breakthrough, and with Discovery it took us 10 years of talking before they thawed. But thereafter, there has been no looking back. One advantage of working with these clients is that they enable you to attract the best talent.

With Indians, it’s a different ballgame altogether. There is better market understanding. Even in India, the market has undergone a sea change in recent years in terms of budgeting, scale, focus, marketing muscle etc. In any case, it’s not about working with an international or a domestic client. What matters is your personal standing in a particular vertical. That’s what establishes your brand value.

How do you define “quality” in this particular genre?

Quality is a function of several things—good creatives, budget and, of course, time. With domestic productions, since everything is crunched, especially time, quality sometimes (not always) suffers. Eventually, everything is tied. If there are unplanned time and budget overruns, the creatives will also feel constrained to work in such a climate.

India has a strong story telling tradition. Some of our ethnic narratives are being borrowed and sold in other markets. Have you begun to employ these cultural motifs in your productions?

MAD, our music and art show on POGO, is a seven-season top live action show that Turner is going to localise for the South American market. This trend will begin to unfold on a bigger scale once the Indian TV market gets more closely linked to the global market.

Ethnic formats are a rave these days. In fact, many established global players are test launching their products on Indian audiences before rolling them out in other markets, one, because testing is cheaper in India, and two, because digital distribution has made it possible to focus content more narrowly to a specific kind of audience. It would be difficult to duplicate this kind of reverse engineering in other markets.

Where does India stand in the animation arena? Do we still exist as sweat shops or have we graduated to producing original content?

Sweat shops is a very strong word to use for the business that we operate in. It may be a reality in the IT and animation space, which is a lot of repetitive work but not in TV production, where there are creative inputs required at all levels of production.

Today, there is a channel for every genre, and the general entertainment space is going through great chaos. Do you agree?

There certainly is competition and space for more in a country of 1.2 billion, multiple languages, tastes and preferences. This is just a tip of the iceberg. However, over the years, there would be consolidation for sure. A lot of small players may tie up and be part of a bouquet focused on specific audiences, rather than trying to be all things to all people. As a result, there won’t be any spillovers. There would just be a lot less of general content.

Do you, like most documentary filmmakers, nurture ambitions of striking it big on the big screen?

We are in no tearing rush. We do line production for feature films, meaning delivering on a fixed budget within a fixed timeframe but carrying no financial risk. We have three-four such projects lined up for the coming year but beyond that, we are happy with what we currently have. Having said that, the big screen definitely has more glamour quotient to it, so eventually we would get into it too.

Reality shows (and within that talent hunts) and game shows are the mainstay of your business. How long will this model last?

Forever—there is a lot of talent out there. This format won’t fizzle out, although you may not have so many singing-dancing shows. In time, this format may change into something else, an observational documentary for instance or another kind of a reality show.

You have worked a lot in the kids’ genre. How is that segment growing?

I would guess, at the rate of 30-35% per. Disney is ahead of Turner at the moment, but that may change. This genre is important as a lot of funnelling happens here. It’s a good training and testing ground for future audiences; so no broadcaster worth his salt can afford to miss out the kids’ genre.

Producers of reality shows are often accused of voyeuristic intentions, raising complex ethical concerns. As a producer of docu-dramas, how do you resolve this ethical dilemma?

I would say the news channels are more controversial than the entertainment channels. Reality shows fall in a pure entertainment space, so where and how do you draw lines in a show where nothing is being orchestrated? Who will monitor what?

We do take informed consent; proxy consent from legal guardians in case of children but beyond that what can you do? The situation that you are referring to could be a problem in the West, where they have shows like “cheaters”, which, I admit, is very revolting.

But I hope such shows won’t appear on Indian TV. Far more worse in my opinion are the media trials on news channels, where someone is being judgemental about someone else without sufficient facts or evidence.

What’s going to be the direction for Miditech over the coming years?