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Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar's next directing project, My Name is Khan, won't be out until late next year, but that doesn't mean the film star hasn't been busy.
Affectionately nicknamed K-Jo by the Indian media, Johar produced Dostana, featuring Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham, which will be released later this year.
Then there are his many television commitments. Since his popular celebrity chat show Koffee with Karan finished after two seasons, Johar has been roped in as creative consultant and brand ambassador for NDTV Imagine, a Hindi entertainment channel launched in India in January.
Last week Johar was in Dubai to help launch the channel's broadcasts in the region. While tabloid! didn't exactly have coffee with Karan, the movie director did spare some time to share his thoughts on the Indian TV scene.
How do you define entertainment for a diverse population even within the Hindi language belt, which in itself is so varied and vast?
Hmm. Entertainment for TV or for film?
Let's say television, considering you're here for a TV channel.
You're right about the diversity factor and that's why if you take a look at the programming you'll note that the shows include emotion, music and dance. Emotions, music and dance are at the very ethos of every Indian home.
We're like that as a people. We're an emotional people and the music is present in every aspect of our daily life whether it's a prayer or a lullaby. Now, if you look at market research on Indian TV, it shows that the majority of viewers are women. So we've had to bear that in mind while conceptualising the content and also bear in mind the important 18-24 segment.
As a viewer, I noticed that the shows, although all in Hindi, had a strong Punjabi element. Surely there's more creativity to the Hindi language that has been the mainstay of Bollywood?
The Punjabification or the Choprasation [Yash Chopra is a famous Bollywood filmmaker] of Bollywood, I'm proud to say, is on the decline in films, but still remains in TV.
That's because our main viewers women really enjoy it. In India, the cinema experience is a family affair and as the men and kids have rejected the traditional formulas we're experiencing an amazing wave of new cinema. However, we're still waiting for some brave person to change the way TV is.
So you weren't that brave person.
I wish I could revolutionise Indian TV, but the market forces require a different formula. It seemed that television in India had more creative content when it was part of the state-run networks.
You're absolutely right. And you know why? Because the guys in TV, the directors all had a theatre background. TV in those days was an alternative to the indie or art-house filmmakers such as Govind Nihalani [one of India's most prolific film directors], who couldn't crack the commercial formula.
So women actually enjoy watching the villainous characters, the jump cuts and the loud clanging background scores?
[Laughs] They do. And it's interesting why they enjoy the loud banging and flashing sounds. Again this is the result of a survey, so you don't think I'm making this up. Apparently in India, women don't sit back and watch TV. They leave it on and continue with their work. So TV shows have to incorporate these loud sounds to capture their audience's attention.
One would have thought that TV would allow for a broader and better platform to experiment with scripts, plots and characters.
We can't stretch new endeavours too far because the ratings plummet and advertisers pull out. I'm not much of a TV watcher but I remember there was this one show called
Astitva on a Hindi channel, which I used to watch with my mum. It was a beautiful script, with well-thought out characters and it still didn't manage to hit the top of the
ratings.
How demanding or distracting has this foray into television been for you as a filmmaker?
The thing about me is that I have a restless mind. I have to constantly be at something. My next directorial release is only next year. So the television experience has been a bit of a distraction, true, but it's also been extremely interesting. I've met some fascinating people and who knows what might come out of it?
A Karan Johar movie on the Hindi TV industry?
[Laughs] I hope not. No way.
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