Bollywood is descending on the small screen. Television channels, in their quest to grab eyeballs are forking out big money to attract the top names of the Indian film industry. And it seems to be working, with Bollywood stars realising that they can earn big bucks from the idiot box, sometimes more than what they get from movies.
It all began when the magic of Amitabh Bachchan as host for Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) on Star Plus mesmerised audiences across the country. The programme continued with Shah Rukh Khan replacing Bachchan. But now more stars are making a beeline to appear as hosts on TV shows.
Salman Khan will hit the tube in June with the game show Dus Ka Dum on Sony Entertainment Television (SET). According to industry experts, Khan is charging Rs 80 lakh for 30 episodes or a cool Rs 24 crore from the programme.
That is much more than what he usually charges for a movie around Rs 6 crore to Rs 8 crore per film, and which will take him anywhere from four to six months to complete. The SET programme, on the other hand, gets over in fifteen weeks.
Star couples Ajay Devgan and Kajol are judging Rock and Roll Family on Zee TV and are believed to be charging Rs 20 lakh each for 26 one-hour episodes. That translates to the husband-wife duo earning over Rs 10 crore. Compare this to Devgan’s fees of around Rs 5 crore for playing the lead in a movie, while those of Kajol’s are much lower.
Urmila Matondkar is hosting Waar Parivaar, a musical show on SET and is charging Rs 15 lakh for each episode. The 51-episode show will help the actress who incidentally does not have too many Bollywood roles at the moment earn over Rs 7.5 crore. That’s not all.
The latest entrant is Akshay Kumar, who will host the Indian version of Fear Factor. Khatron Ke Khiladi, the action-format show, will air on Colors, a soon-to-be launched channel from Viacom 18. However, there are no industry estimates on how much the hero will be paid.
Of course, despite the not-too-attractive TV viewership ratings, Shah Rukh Khan is at the top of the heap, charging over Rs 36 crore for Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hain? The programme was conceived by Star Plus to take on the IPL cricket telecast. Of course, if its ratings are anything to go by, it has not made the big dent Star Plus was hoping for.
Broadcasters believe that celebrity hosts bring in a certain degree of freshness to the show. "A Bollywood actor always generates initial viewership ratings. However, in the long run, the content and the format will help sustain the show," said Tarun Mehra, business head, Zee TV.
But TV executives also agree that stars don’t come cheap. A non-celebrity host would typically ask a channel for around Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh per episode. "However, it is easy to monetise on the cost, since the presence of the celebrity adds value to the property," said Prem Kamath, V-P, marketing and communication, Star India.
At the end of it, it is all about viewership. Everyone is hoping that the Bachchan magic of KBC will rub off somehow. To be sure, when KBC was first launched in 2000 with Bachchan hosting the quiz show, Star Plus’ channel share rose from 2 per cent to 25 per cent in the 9-10 pm slot.
And in 2005, when KBC was relaunched, the show clocked the highest television viewership rating (TVR) at 13.8, according to TAM Media Research. Khan’s KBC also opened strong, with a rating of 12.3 in Hindi-speaking markets.
Likewise, Zee’s "Rock and Roll Family" witnessed a TVR of 4.22 on its debut day in the Hindi market, while Star Plus’ "Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?" had 4.61 TVR on day one - lower than the twenty-twenty IPL matches.
But the ratings of the shows with Bollywood stars are much higher than the TVRs delivered by soaps on the day of their launch (range of 1),
