PremiumNEW DELHI : Even as film and television shoots in India, particularly in Maharashtra, remain suspended, the latest season of stunt reality television series, Khatron Ke Khiladi, will commence in Cape Town. The show has been running on Colors since 2008 as Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi after making a start on Sony TV in 2006.
The show, based on American series Fear Factor, will see popular artistes such as singer composer Rahul Vaidya and TV actors Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya and Abhinav Shukla feature this year.
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Premium Premium The show has always been shot outside of India, in locations such as South Africa, Spain and Brazil.
Previous seasons of the show have consistently featured in the top five weekly rankings of general entertainment channel shows by television monitoring agency Broadcast Audience Research Council.
The Mumbai lockdown, meanwhile, is driving up the programming budgets of television producers and broadcasters of other Hindi general entertainment channels by 25% as they are having to schedule their shoots outside Maharashtra to locations in Gujarat, Goa, Telangana and West Bengal. Channels are trying to sustain viewership and advertising by taking extreme precautions to finish shoots, bring fresh episodes on air and avoid re-runs like last year as they grapple with the responsibility of the health of their cast and crew. Shows such as Barrister Babu (Colors) and Kyun Utthe Dil Chhod Aaye (Sony TV) are currently being shot in Surendranagar and other parts of Gujarat.
Television advertising had declined by 21.5% in 2020 with ad volumes falling by 32% during the peak of the lockdown alone, according to a recent Ficci-EY report.
Media experts said many broadcasters shoot storylines in advance and keep a bank of at least eight to nine episodes ready. However, other production houses have moved to shoot-friendly places to continue programming, though the strategy may not work for all shows and some time slots will have to see re-runs.
“It’s a very challenging time not just financially but also in terms of the fact that producers are staring at a huge moral responsibility in keeping their cast and crew safe at a time when they see entertainment content as a means to help the government in keeping viewers safe and engaged at home," J.D. Majethia of Hats Off Productions and chairman of the Indian Film and TV Producers Council said in an earlier interview to Mint.
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