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Menka Shivdasani

It's not easy to figure out what catches and retains audience interest. But in this unpredictable world of entertainment, a few have done well.

Brajesh Hirjee anchoring RAAAH — India's first adventure reality game show.

When Nikhil and Niret Alva first began to make a mark in a quickly expanding television world, it was with the environment show Living on the Edge. That was in the early and mid-1990s and much has changed since then. Dozens of television software companies and channels have folded up, gasping for funds, while saas-bahu soaps, rather than infotainment, have caught everyone's fancy.

Through all the chopping and churning that the industry faced, however, the Alvas grew from strength to strength, producing programmes such as The Great Escape, a travel show on Star Plus, Against All Odds, a series on the urban Indian woman, which won an Asian Television Award Special Commendation, and Wheels on BBC World.

At this point, their company, Miditech, has more than 8,000 hours of programming in its library; "Any monument that you can think of in South Asia, we will have shot it extensively," says Nikhil Alva, who is chief executive officer. They have also made a 52-minute natural history film, Lions of Gir, shot over a period of two years.

"The first 10 years we were in the growth phase," said Nikhil, when we met in Mumbai recently. "Now it's time for consolidation and expansion. We want to be recognised as a production house that can deliver international quality, a company that can grow from being Indian to being international."

They are well on their way there. Miditech has won several awards, including the Panda award in Bristol for Living on the Edge, popularly known as the Green Oscar. The organisation has grown to 100 people in New Delhi, Nikhil says, and more recently, has expanded to an office in Mumbai as well. ICICI Global Opportunities Fund now owns a 25 per cent stake in the company.

Miditech is also expanding the scope of its programming. The company has always been known for shows associated with the outdoors — environment, travel and motoring shows — but now it is venturing into other areas. They recently did Hospital for BBC World, described as India's first reality show; it was nominated as the most innovative programme of the year at the Asian Television Awards in December 2001. Commando, currently showing on BBC World, is also theirs. Plus, there is fiction and film-based programming, with Kahani Jurm Ki (Star Plus), a programme about the `starkness of crime', and Kuch Yaadein Kuch Baatein (Star Gold)

So what does it take to survive in these difficult times? How do you hold the viewer's interest and can you really tell what will work? "Formats like reality shows could be in this year and out the next," says Nikhil. "Fiction will always survive because story-telling has come to us through time. Though if everyone knew what was going to work, everyone would be making hit shows. You have to trust your gut instinct and if you feel something works, you push the envelope a bit further. And innovative ideas need to be encouraged, new concepts have to be tried." Quality, of course, is crucial; "you are as good as your last show and you are too small to make any mistakes".

Through all the challenges that they faced along the way, the Alvas never forgot the original reason they got into the business — quite simply, they enjoy what they are doing. They ensure that they are personally involved in Miditech shows; Nikhil is directing RAAAH and Niret, who is well known as the presenter of Wheels, has directed Hospital and Commando. "We got into this so we could make the programmes ourselves," Nikhil says.

Their work can certainly get the adrenaline going, of course. When Nikhil and his crew went to explore the Karwar-Western Ghat region for the second round of RAAAH, they found a king cobra 18 feet long and five-and-a-half ft upright. "The participants don't know about it yet," Nikhil said gleefully, as he got set to begin the shoot!

Watch out for...

And as we wait to see how the teams fared with the King Cobra and other traumas, here are a couple of other things you could watch out for:

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