Colors Infinity's 'The Stage' can redefine Indian TV for good

Travelling on the Delhi Metro one afternoon, I saw a woman in a colourful Rajasthani lehnga and ghoonghat, sporting a maang teeka, with chipped nail polish. She struck me as the quintessential village belle. Not the sort you usually see on the Metro. In her lap was a smartphone. Upon closer inspection, I saw she wore earphones. I couldn't help but pry. Nosey me. I thought I would find her on some Bollywood app listening to a chammak challo number. Wrong.

She was reading an email. In English.

What struck me then was what struck me when I saw the "coming soon" promotions of The Stage: Today the line between desi and global has finally blurred. Being Indian is no longer about being vernacular. Yes, we may dream in Hindi, but we want to speak "ingliss".

Times Now's The Newshour is now a bilingual debate show. The growth in audience share of the show comes, I suspect, from those who watch T&A and surf between Hindi and English news channels. Surprisingly, Arnab Goswami speaks decent Hindi, even though I am sure he will never-never ever-ever ever be able to use his Hindi vocabulary to chastise an errant guest on air. (So can Rajdeep Sardesai, although he is unlikely to ever chastise anyone. Barkha Dutt, Vikram Chandra and many other stars of the English media, are also bilingual on air. And proudly so.)

Is the Colors Infinity strategy then headed in the right direction?

The normally "all-Bollywood jury" in a competition format has an interesting new entrant. The suave Devraj Sanyal of Universal Music: the corporate boss who can do some mean rock music jamming. The "home-grown" talent hunt show seeks to find English music talent in an essentially non-English market. It doesn't matter that it's on an English channel. The Hindi family audience will find it. How very nice! Is this finally the end of the international format craze? And is this the beginning of real Indian TV?

Good on you, guys. You are thinking with your heart. And as your "glam" promo reads: "This isn't just the moment you have been waiting for. This IS the moment we've been waiting for". I just hope we see something original. If The Stage works, every entertainment network will jump onto it. (I am just dying to see Zee do a "Do Re Me Fa So La" next.)

Thanks gawd we don't have a Bollywood movie star in the jury. This looks like proper paisa vasool. A bilingual singer host. Ehsaan Noorani and Vishal Dadlani are the two "ani" men of Hindi music who bring credibility to the show as English speaking music directors. It's easy to know who the "good cop" on the jury is. Monica Dogra may need a quick Google search for some, but with those looks, that bod and her singing credentials, she's likely to trend on the show.

I see huge aspiration fuelling The Stage. I smell a Season Two. I foresee a welcome change for the viewer. At least the show doesn't look like a clone of Koffee with Karan. Oops, sorry. Karan Johar's the co-curator of the show with Alia Bhatt. What does that mean? I guess, we'll know soon. Okay, the risk of losing Bollywood star faces from the show was too much to take. All in good time.

The film Rock On gave us the hope of becoming like Farhan Akhtar, singing about our laundry bills but still raking it in at the box office. Rockstar in Mohit Chauhan's gorgeous voice made us all believe Indirock is here to stay.

Priyanka Chopra has done a Quantico on the boring old Bollywood-borrowed formula of Indian TV just in the nick of time. Now when we grow up, we all want to speak "Amreekan", be on ABC and put our undies on in the backseat of the car. No guts, no glory. And PC already has both.

Yes, we are ready for you, hanging around in anticipation in front of The Stage. Just don't let the BARC bother you. Your idea has bite. Your future viewer is totally tayyaar.