After conducting a research on over 11,000 youngsters in 40 cities, MTV came up with the concept of its forthcoming vampire show Fanaah. The makers say it is an attempt to break the monotony of the current youth genre on Indian television. By D Kaushik
It took Johnny Depps and Robert Pattinsons of the world to transform the blood-sucking devil into a sexy, mysterious, alpha male who was sure to win hearts and turn heads. The fascination for brooding, bionic, tragic heroes only grew over time. So while Hollywood, which has been forever besotted with the vampire tales, continues to come up with new concepts in the vampire genre, here are our desi content makers adapting the genre for the Indian audience. One such recent attempt is MTV’s Fanaah. The show which will go on air from July 21 is being promoted as the show about the complexities of a love story featuring supernatural entities such as vampires and werewolves. It was speculated that the show will be the Indian adaptation of The Vampire Diaries, supernatural drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. But while the lead actors of the show, Karan Kundra and Rithvik Dhanjani, were here recently to promote the series they rubbished the speculations. Karan said, “There’s a lot of contemplation happening over the concept of the show. The show is not the copy of The Vampire Diaries and keeping in mind the budgets of Indian television, it is very difficult to come up with the copy of The Vampire Diaries in India. Moreover, all those in India who have been downloading The Vampire Diaries from the Internet and following the series will not be interested in the Indian adaptation. So it was important to come up with the Indian story with vampires and werewolves for small towns and cities.”
The concept of the series took shape when MTV concluded the 11,000 youth research across 40 cities earlier this year. Sumeli Chatterjee, head-marketing and insights, MTV India, informed, “love stories have always been popular with youngsters. The MTV research additionally suggested that the youth is captivated by fantasy love tales and the supernatural world. They are in love with the idea of eternal romance. Building on these findings, we decided to come up with MTV Fanaah which shall prove to break the monotony of the current youth genre on Indian television. And in order to make the show more relatable, you will notice that the characters in the show are not black or white. They are not good or bad but good and bad thus making it more interesting and real for the viewers.”
Rithwik, who plays a werewolf in the show, said that this show is an attempt to introduce thriller in a new format. “The reason why most youngsters today prefer to not watch Indian TV shows is that they cannot relate to them. Most of our TV shows have similar storylines and some of them might start with a fresh concept but once they start garnering TRPs, the storylines are extended for years. So we have to offer the youth something that is thrilling. Seasons concept is finally making its way in our TV industry and even this show is divided into seasons. Vampire as a genre is enchanting and has always worked with the youth. The show is shot in such a way that even those who have been watching Hollywood vampire films and Western series will be interested in it. Shows like Fanaah will start a new trend on the small screen and I hope through such shows we will be able to get back the attention of our teenage audience. We are trying to achieve a niche market for the youth,” said the actor.