Aamir’s Satyamev Jayate is a revolution seeking eyeballs

Today is the morning Aamir Khan has promised a revolution of sorts on the Indian television — a new experiment that might change the way programmes are conceived and distributed over the airwaves, also perhaps, ushering in the era of content sharing over and above channel boundaries.

Aamir’s new show Satyamev Jayate hits the Indian screens in the morning slot and what is new is the fact that it will come on a variety of channels simultaneously, including Doordarshan and Star TV, and will be aired in as many as eight languages! Call it Aamir’s star power, or the leap of his creative imagination, but he has managed to convince Star CEO Uday Shankar to something that would have otherwise been considered harakiri — sharing content on rival channels.

Also, in his own imitable style, Aamir has stepped out of the rat race for primetime slot and opted for what years ago, when satellite TV was just coming in, used to be prime slot — Sunday mornings, Mahabharat time as we popularly know it. In interviews leading up to the launch of his new project, Aamir has unabashedly admitted to being this undying fan of Mahabharat and growing up on a Doordarshan staple diet of Chhayageet and even Krishi Darshan! His insistence on space sharing, however, would be more to do with his immense innovative abilities to publicise his projects differently, be it films or now his new TV show, and more to do with the reach of Doordarshan rather than his love for it.

Sceptics will always argue that Aamir’s bravado of shunning primetime might come with disastrous fallouts. Yes, television has moved eons from what it used to be in those singular days of Doordarshan when there was no whiff of competition, programming was solo-windowed and the viewing mores of the population entirely different. Aamir is a product of those days.

But what is also true is the fact that no one better than him has been the vehicle of change, and in going back to what he calls were the good old days of television, he may be actually attempting to churn a whole new wave — a back to future kind of wave.

The content of his show, he says, is people-oriented. Again that may be a pitfall, considering that TV has, meanwhile, gotten thoroughly immersed in the kitsch of saas-bahu and the reality TV saga. It has started loving controversy, it dotes on obscenity and doesn’t mind getting wrapped in abusive content. Anything that is not entirely masala is considered insipid. Satyame Jayate, on the other hand, sounds like a typically Doordarshan show, aiming to showcase common lives in a meaningful mode. That sounds very much like a niche show, something that does not work for television the same way as it would for the big screen.

What will, however, make or break Aamir’s show will be the packaging he wraps it in. The show will need something really amazing to stand down the odds it has generated for itself — odds being a thoroughly out-of-the box showing slot and content that may run the risk of being too preachy and too clean for modern television.

Having said this, it is also true that any change on any medium is mostly run down with the universal derision of sceptics. When, at the nadir of his financial problems, an almost bankrupt Amitabh Bachchan prepared to launch himself and Kaun Banega Crorepati, the entire nation smirked and said the show would fall flat, that nobody would give it a second look. “A quiz programme? Who has the time to answer stupid questions from a fallen star,” was the refrain. Even Amitabh Bachchan in the first few episodes looked and sounded very uncomfortable, very unlike the superstar he was and has always been. He was unsure of his image makeover as a small screen star and bogged down by bankruptcy, he dealt with a whole lot of nerves no one could settle for him. But then, as the parent of reality shows on Indian television, KBC soared to the heights of never-before success and Amitabh Bachchan retrieved life out of the jaws of sure shot professional death.

Aamir though is neither debt-ridden nor looking for a second innings as a saviour. He is, in fact, in the prime of Bollywood time, and is riding his stardom to engage himself in another kind of creativity, another kind of challenge he wants to win for himself.

If one were to forget his drastic innings with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, one would think thatSatyamev Jayate is actually his vehicle to ride into politics at a later date in top gear. In giving rural audiences the groovy thought that he cares more for them than the urban gentry may just be the political masterstroke that the star has hidden behind his show. After all, despite the rapid industrialisation and scorn for agriculture, still a bulk of India lives in its villages, some of whom do not even have the reach of electricity and drinking water facilities. By ensuring special viewings at the chaupals of such remote villages, Aamir has ensured that his reach to viewers is already maximised.

All that he needs to take care of, if he has not already done so, is to ensure that he draws the eyeballs and with it the sponsors and with them the perception that good content has its own lure, that if given a choice viewers will shun the bad food for saada saral khana khazana!

Source: Published in The Sunday Pioneer,  May 6, 2012