Say it isn't so! ... now Desi Twilight!

I have been following Star One for a couple of weeks now as I think they are the only channel in India that is doing a good job of understanding their target audience and sticking to content for them. It is my belief that in the race to become the highest rated Hindi GEC (general entertainment channel), the broadcasting companies are making a major mistake of generalizing their enormous and diverse audience and losing out on opportunities to capitalize from proper segmentation. But - more on that later - in a more serious post. This one is about a promo I just saw ...

There is a very nicely done promo doing the rounds for a new show --- with a predictable tagline - 'dark luv story' (yes, they spelled it like that). The show description on the website reads "A contemporary, visual, and visceral Romeo and Juliet story of the ultimate forbidden love affair - between a non human and a mortal". I thought - good for 13-30 types looking for romantic, guilty pleasure -- suitably stern looking hero -- flighty looking heroine .. etc etc...

This promo was a little generic, but the new promo makes it look suspiciously like 'Twilight' !!!! I couldn't find a link to it yet -- but essentially our 'slightly' more buxom bella is walking around with her internal voice wondering why 'he' keeps following her but never talks to her. Our hero is meanwhile shown in various brooding poses that all look suspiciously the same..... enter car and bad cgi and hero saving buxom bella.... this might even end up being Ed-Wood-esque fun .. :)

[Finally found the new promo -- check it out and tell me if you think this is Twilight ]

Okay - so besides the fact that we have absolutely no mythology around the vampyre or concept of immortals walking amongst us (unless you count the saptarishis which have long since gone away from popular lore) -- it will be damn interesting to see how this show plays out on desi toob. I have to say - at least the pouf and the lipstick that poor Rob Patz has to put up with is missing here....

You can even rate if you think Vivian DSena will make a good vampire on his fan page:

http://fanclub.indya.com/FanClub.aspx?cid=281

But seriously will there be any sunlight issues -- or garlic -- or the cross ??? all of this is based on Christian lore -- or perhaps this is a jain vampire -- no garlic --- lol! OOOH! and will they introduce werewolves? I am very interested in how the creative team works with this. It will even be more interesting if this ends up doing better commercially than the real Twilight. The books and the series have a HUGE fan following in India, but unfortunately the films are always released with absolutely minimal marketing - really sad.

Just from a purely personal perspective though -- I wish they hadn't chosen twilight to showcase some super-natural fantasy content. There is so much fantastic regional lore to tap into in India. It would have been so cool if they had created the story around a region and built characters from the lore there -- I mean -- the Northeast, Kerala, Jharkhand, Bengal ..... so much opportunity and the potential of creative content might just get limited to teenage sighs for a desi vampire :). I cannot help but see the business potential being missed here -- imagine a teenage supernatural romance with characters built on regional Indian lore. As long as the writing is good and the show keeps the audience coming -- the potential for alternative revenue streams -- comics - weekly magazines - fan fiction - merchandising - content in regional languages .... so much opportunity... well! am going to wait and watch how this one goes.