This Santa wears high heels and sorts out love discords
Thursday, 29 December 2011
All it takes is a camera crew, a do-gooder celebrity, some obsessive planning and a glitzy television set to get your long-lost buddy back in your life. Just ask Swarna Mudgal and Priyanka Bhatnagari, contestants on the first episode of Superstar Santa, UTV Stars' latest show, that takes off from Live My Life, where fans can live the life of their favourite filmstars for a day.
Superstar Santa was conceptualised by Shifa Maitra, head of Programming, whose team is also behind the popular Emotional Atyachaar. The show seeks out sparring friends and family members and attempts to patch things up between them with help from celebrities.
"We realised that for our target viewer who is aged between 18 and 24, relationships are a major concern. They aren't too hassled by materialistic things. We approached some filmstars and they were quite kicked about the idea, " says Maitra.
The first episode, which was filmed earlier, will have I Hate Luv Storys actor Sonam Kapoor smoothen creases between two duelling roommates, Mudgal and Bhatnagari. In future shows, celebrities like Imran Khan and Chitrangda Singh will play agony aunts.
"We purposely chose young celebrities because they would be able to connect with the audience.We have a thorough screening process for contestants to make sure the cases are genuine and not just people who want to get on TV, " explains Maitra.
Celebrities then choose a case that they would be interested in solving and the channel arranges a face-to-face between the warring friends.
Twenty one year-old Mudgal was told about the show by a former employer at a production house. An aspiring actor, she was required to fill a form and make a video explaining her tale before she was called for an interview by the channel.
"They made a video about me and my story, they asked for photographs of my friends and then told me they would help. Many friends tried to patch us up but it didn't work, " narrates Mudgal.
Mudgal believes Kapoor was able to understand their plight because "she's a girl and she understood my problem".
