UTV, one of India’s leading media & entertainment companies since the early 1990s, launched Bindass TV in September 2007, followed by the launch of its integrated web portal bindass.com in July 2009. As described in the “About Us” section of the channel’s website, Bindass is “a celebration of being young in India.  Waxing eloquence on what it calls “Brand Bindass!,” the website goes on to claim that “Bindass is about being Fun, Frank, Fearless and valuing Freedom in all its forms.”

Bindass is, of course, not the first youth entertainment channel in India to make such exaggerated claims about its brand identity for the sake of self-promotion. MTV, Channel [V] and many other wannabe youth channels have inundated the satellite and cable lineup in Indian television for almost two decades now with upbeat messages about their ability to represent the virtues of youthfulness, freedom, rebellion and revolution.  What sets Bindass apart, according to its promoters, is that “it is India’s first 360 degree entertainment venture across television channels, mobile channels, web, gaming, merchandising, retail & nation wide ground events.”

Claiming that it is not just another TV channel, the website promotes Bindass as “a platform for like minded people to come together on tv, the web, mobile and at cafes.” Although its target audiences are in the commercially lucrative demographic category of youth (15-34 years), the channel also seeks to attract “the young at heart” proclaiming “Bindass is all about the attitude.”

The globalization of traditionally national television industries and cultures, along with the digital convergence of broadcasting, cable, satellites, cell phones and the internet, has transformed the televisual landscape dramatically in recent decades.  Much has been written about how audiences are experiencing an increasingly deterritorialized televisual culture by imagining the world as a stable landscape build around a dynamic set of disjunctive but overlapping global flows that Arjun Appadurai has theorized in terms of mediascapes, technoscapes, ethnoscapes, ideoscapes, and finanscapes. But little attention has been paid to the ways in which network executives around the world are working to re-territorialize the disjunctive flows of globalization, particularly since television flow is still a planned phenomenon as described by Raymond Williams.  Here I am referring to new programming and scheduling strategies like simulcasting, multicasting and webcasting being used by global networks to provide audiences with a seamless experience of  television not only in relation to commercial interruptions but in also in relation to the overlapping and disjunctive flows of globalization.

For instance, when a major American broadcasting network like ABC, NBC or CBS simulcasts English programming in Spanish it is a strategic attempt to re-territorialize the global flows of migrant and immigrant ethnoscapes and bilingual mediascapes into the planned flow of television in the United States.  Similarly, when major state-sponsored networks like CCTV in China or Doordarshan in India expand their services to reach diasporic audiences on satellite and cable channels around the world, it is a clear recognition of the growing influence of  transnational ethnoscapes and technoscapes in the globalization of their national cultures.  When a new media network like Bindass TV claims to provide a “360 degrees experience” by seamlessly migrating from cable television to a digitally-convergent platform of   TV+ cinema+ internet+ cellphones+ gaming+, it is yet another example of the reterritorializing strategies used by media networks to incorporate disjunctive global flows of youth culture into the planned flow of television culture.

Within literally a day of its debut, Sach ka Saamna (Facing the Truth), the Indian version of the reality show Moment of Truth, was already in the news. The show’s first participant Smita Mathai, an epitome of middle-class respectability, had failed the “sach ki agnipariksha” (“the ultimate test of truth”) when she denied that she entertained thoughts of extra-marital liaisons. According to the polygraph test, she was lying. As Mathai, with an incredulous look, vehemently protested, “Rubbish!” and insisted, “No, this is not true,” her husband seemed to be in shock – his “nice Indian wife,” who had put up with his alcoholism, had not only admitted on national television that she had wanted to kill him, but also that she would sleep with another man if he never found out. [Though the show is mostly in Hindi, questions are repeated in English and Mathai’s responses were mostly in English too.]

In the succeeding weeks, more shockers followed – a respected 60-something television actor admitted that he had an illegitimate child; a newly-married husband acknowledged that he would have an affair if his wife never found out; a young Muslim woman admitted that she had been intimate with other men after her engagement; yet another “nice Indian wife” confessed her extra-marital affair – for Indian television viewers, unaccustomed to Oprah-esque confessional talk shows, Sach ka Saamna represented a problematic novelty.

As parliamentarians debated over the cultural threat posed by the show and whether it violated the constitution, psychologists pondered over its “long term effects,” news channels discussed if reality TV “promoted voyeurism” in Indian society, and the High Court debated whether Indian culture was strong enough to withstand the onslaught, viewers gleefully tuned in to watch contestants face their moment of truth and squirm uncomfortably in their seats. For the News Corp.-owned Star Plus, Sach ka Saamna promised to bring back its glory days. After nine years as the numero uno in the Hindi GEC (General Entertainment Channel) segment, Star had lost its stronghold to the new entrant Viacom-owned Colors and old rival Zee TV. Moreover, with its slew of mother-in-law & daughter-in-law sagas, the channel had become branded as a ‘regressive’ network. Sach ka Saamna was Star’s attempt to reposition itself, particularly in response to the changing television audience demographic. As Star’s Executive Vice-President, Marketing and Communications, Anupam Vasudev remarked, “Today, the larger group of the Indian audience has got younger. Audiences have moved away from demanding regressive content to content that evokes an open belief system.”

However, in spite the high TRPs (Television Rating Points) and Star’s contention that the show was modeled on Gandhian principle of truth and honesty – Satyamev Jayate (Truth Alone Triumphs), Sach ka Saamna had to make an early exit only after two months of its debut. The government slapped a show-cause notice on the channel for “offending good taste and decency, (showing what is) not suitable for unrestricted public exhibition, and for obscenity in words.” Moreover, the show seemed to be attracting attention and headlines for all the wrong reasons – a woman committed suicide after watching the season finale and husbands became obsessed with replaying the truth-or-dare game with their wives, often with disastrous consequences. Though the channel honchos are hopeful about Sach ka Saamna‘s return, actor Rajeev Khandelwal, who had received favorable reviews as the host, has already distanced himself from the controversial show. However, knowing Indian television’s current penchant for format and reality shows, Sach ka Saamna, in spite of all the controversy, might just make a comeback.

Like it, or hate it, reality television seems to have the Indian television viewer hooked.