Mystery Hunters India will unearth answers to hidden and unexplained mysteries of India: Myleeta Aga Williams of BBC Worldwide Productions

After the stupendous success of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5, BBC Worldwide is now taking a detour and is all set to bring on air a show which will satiate children’s urge to explore and solve mysteries in its show Mystery Hunters India on Discovery Kids channel. Tellychakkar.com met up with Myleeta Aga Williams, Managing Director and Creative Head at BBC Worldwide Productions with regards to the same. What is Mystery Hunters India all about? This investigative show will unearth the answers to the hidden and unexplained mysteries from all over India, e.g. Archaeological wonders (Iron Pillar Kuldhara), cursed towns (Palakad), intense forests (Sanjay Gandhi National Park) and much more. Armed with video cameras and instincts, our hosts Apoorva Arora and Himanshu Sharma gather facts; meet the experts and present explanations to common myths and unexplained phenomenon. How did the show come about? This concept was originally co-developed by me along with a Canadian production house when I was working with Discovery in the US as an executive producer. Hence, when Discovery Kids launched in India, it made sense to pitch this to them as the concept not only appealed to their vision (of reaching to real and thinking kids), but they also had access to the format. We heard the entire process took six months to complete? (pauses) It was quite a complicated shoot as it involved a lot distant shooting as our places of interests obviously were not big cities but the interiors. Also, since most of these places are sites of historical, religious and archeological importance, we had to take due diligence that cultural sensibilities (covering our head) or preservation norms were followed. Also before we could go on floors, we did extensive research, had brain storming sessions with experts and we have always made sure to present both sides of any argument. The biggest USP of this show is that it helps you discover your country. You will come across many beautiful places which you would have never seen before on TV. What was the biggest take home from the show? We wanted to cover many more temples then what we have done in the current season of 13 episodes, as temples have very limited places where we can shoot. So, there is not enough footage available to tell the entire story. If we do the next season, we will try to cover them. The biggest challenge in such a format is not the lack of places, but the production challenges and the need to be on the right side of cultural mores. Why did you choose Apoorva (daughter of Paresh Rawal in Oh My God!) and Himanshu as hosts? We wanted kids who were more naturally inquisitive, for this is not acting and more along journalistic lines. And the best moment came when they asked impromptu questions. Though they are given lines, but a personal touch always helps. That makes it more believable for the audiences. Are you happy with the daily schedule of Mystery Hunters India? A daily format makes more sense as you remember the previous episode when the curiosity factor was high. This also works for kids as they have only fixed TV watching hours. After tasting success with a money guzzler in Jhalak, you have moved to a more niche format? We are happy to do all kinds of formats. Each has its own unique sets of challenges and rewards. And we feel that the kid genre is one where we have lots of expertise. We believe kids are smart and they need to be given respect. From a programming perspective, we need to create content which is a right balance between learning and entertainment. Coming to big shows, they consume lots of resources and are few and far between. Hence you need to have a flexible balance between both. Apart from kids stuff, we are looking at more innovations in song and dance routines. Our foray in fiction is in progress. Though we have done small shows, nothing big till now. Is the song and dance genre facing saturation? Although there is a lot of song and dance around, it is here to stay for it is entertaining weekend television audience. After a tough week, people don’t want to work too hard and just relax. How do you see the TV scene in the coming year? Since digitization will take around six to nine months to stabilize, broadcasters will prefer to stick to the tried and tested formula for the moment. After that, they might be willing to experiment with different kinds of show orders and scheduling. We hope that short seasonal formats will come into picture and we have lots of interesting properties in our library which we can bring here. Having said that, the biggest challenge here is the financial model, limited series shows and non-fiction that are much more expensive to mount. Hence, the economic scale obviously supports long-running shows.