Got Talent to go live with SRK

Rav Singh of RFS entertainment, Shah Rukh Khan and Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors

By Priyanka Bhadani

Over the last few weeks, speculations about Bigg Boss’s host changing and Salman Khan’s tongue-in-cheek comment at a promotional event — that Shah Rukh Khan will make a really good host left many wondering if the channel, Colors, will approach Khan.
Interestingly, Khan was already on-board with Colors when this rumour was brewing. Raj Nayak, CEO of Colors had always wanted to collaborate with Khan, however not for Bigg Boss (since it already had Salman) but with a property that would justify the actor’s stature. Nayak got an opportunity to bring Khan on-board when almost two years ago, Rav Singh from RFS Entertainment that works closely with Simon Cowell’s team on the Got Talent shows in Britain, proposed an idea to bring talent from across the world on a single platform in India. Soon, Got Talent World Stage Live was born which would see the coming together of Simon Cowell, RFS Entertainment, FremantleMedia, Colors and Shah Rukh Khan.
A ticketed event, it will bring together 20 (10 Indian and 10 international) artistes from across the globe from countries like Britain, Australia, Spain, China, etc. who have already enthralled TV audiences with their performance on the Got Talent shows in their respective countries. One of the performers would be illusionist Darcy Oake, who even performed during the announcement ceremony recently. The live event on December 6 at the Andheri Sports Complex will be telecast on Colors later.
Nayak says it would become an annual affair. “We want to do it every year as we want to bring newer talents to the limelight,” he said.
And while the announcement was being made, Khan reminisced an incident from his childhood days when he had participated in a Ram Leela show in Delhi. “I had played the role of a monkey. While everyone else was saying, ‘Bolo Siyapati Ramchandra Ki…’, I just had to say, ‘Jai’. But that was a big thing for me to overcome stage fright,” recalled Khan as he said that it was after this experience that he took a step forward in acting and started getting various offers and that’s why when he got an opportunity to present talents from world over, he took it up.
Simon Cowell said in the release, “The Got Talent format has uncovered some incredible stars around the world and this is a great celebration of Indian and international artists.”
Industry experts think that this is a good move to spike up the Got Talent franchise in India. “While the Got Talent brand is already well established, it surely needs a hype to make it as enticing as Khatrron Ke Khiladi, Bigg Boss or any other show on Colors. A live event hosted by Khan will assure that,” says Karthik Lakshminarayan, CEO, Madison Media.
Adds Deepak Netram, President, Lodestar UM, “Shah Rukh brings a lot of appeal to a show clubbed with huge viewership. Considering that the show would be aired in December, 2014 when most of the other programmes on the channel will be coming to an end, it will spike up the channel’s viewership and ratings.”