It began small with a show called Namaste India which aired on Zee TV in the early 1990s. A 50-episode series, Namaste India gave viewers the first glimpse of some of India’s most exotic locales. Considered ‘common’ tourist hubs today, destinations like Rajasthan or Kerala could only exist in the imagination for much of middle class urban India back in the 90s. The novelty of a show like Namaste India then came from its sheer quality of transporting the blue of Jodhpur and the backwaters of Kerala to the living rooms of regular people in India’s cities.
Having kick-started a trend of sorts, Namaste India saw travelogues like Indian Holiday following close on its heels to cater to the growing demand for lifestyle programming from a rising Indian middle class. Airing on weekends, these shows had English-speaking Indian families huddled around their television sets for the entire duration of the broadcast. Towards the late 90s came shows like Musafir Hoon Yaaron and Yatra, both produced and hosted by model-actor, Deepti Bhatnagar. Both travelogues, though differentiated slightly by their content, enjoyed a long run on the Indian tube.
The turn of the millennium saw the Indian broadcast space crowded with programming of all genres. The entry of international players like Discovery’s ‘Travel and Living’ into the Indian arena, followed soon after by India-based networks such as NDTV Good Times, speak for the burgeoning demand for lifestyle programming on Indian television. Within this genre, producers claim to have recognized the need to intensify travel programming in particular owing to the demand from a large majority of Indian passport-holders wishing to consume travel for leisure or business.
However, as more and more players enter the travel programming genre, differentiation and specialization becomes the key to success. So, an international network like Discovery Travel and Living or TLC targets an upper middle class, elite audience with a greater proportion of global rather than Indian programming. International shows like Samantha Brown’sGreat Weekend and Globe Trekker occupy a vast proportion of TLC’s programming while shows more specific to the Indian palate such as Indian Rendezvous or Namaste Yoga are relatively fewer. An internationally established broadcast network, TLC’s constant dynamism to adapt to the Indian audience so evident in its plans to introduce a new array of ‘Indian’ programming, provides a hint to the fierceness of competition in the travel genre.
Meanwhile, in its own attempt at uniqueness, NDTV Good Times sets itself apart from TLC’s more global appeal by aiming to attract perhaps a younger, more ‘local’ audience by throwing in Hindi with English, focusing on Indian locales, lifestyle and trends in cooking, fashion or travel. India-centric shows on the network like The Big Fat Indian Wedding and Highway on My Plate blend travel with food programming and lifestyle, while concepts such as The Single Female Traveler and Royal Reservations focus strictly on travel and history. While travel remains the central theme of these programs, their concepts are altered on aspects like budget, nature of destinations and so on. For example, The Single Female Traveler features a host who travels to a destination on an extremely low-budget and relies on striking good deals in lodging and food to see her way through.
Other innovations are identifiable in shows such as NDTV Good Times’ I’m Too Sexy for My Shoes. Primarily a program dedicated to fashion, its 2011 season explores fashion in different parts of the world, thereby lending to itself a crucial ‘destination’ angle. This offers an insight into the direction travel programming in India is taking. As is evident from the varied innovations to create content which is informative, entertaining and yet different; risk and experimentation emerge as the name of the game.
Furthermore, considering new specialized Hindi-language travel channels like Explore and Travel XP are slated to enter the fray in the near future, Indian television can easily expect to see more surprises and variations in the travel genre. And considering the massive demand, it’s clear why no one’s complaining!
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—About our writer:
Niharika has worked as a news anchor and correspondent for a leading English-language Indian news channel and has recently completed her masters in International Communications from the University of Leeds UK.
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