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Ad-vancing their second careers

Years ago, when Tendulkar first picked up the bat and decided to play professional cricket he never imagined it would also mean appearing in TV commercials. Neither did Sehwag, Ganguly, Dravid, Yuvraj or Zaheer. These days the Indian cricket team sells almost everything from Visa cards to colas and from mobile handsets to cars.

A new survey by global market research company Synovate shows that Indian TV viewers prefer cricketers to models for product endorsements. Over 30 per cent of the respondents fancied cricketers and the player who was most popular was Tendulkar.

Thus, while the real models wring their hands in despair, the Tendulkars, Kaifs and Sehwags are commanding huge ad fees and laughing all the way to the bank.

A remark by a top ad agency boss showcases the plight of the model. "Today, most major ad campaigns are being grabbed by cricket stars. So anyone aspiring to be a model should start playing cricket seriously!"

From crease to grease

Unlike Tendulkar and other cricketers who have taken to modelling, Salil Ankola has gone a step further. A couple of years after he hesitantly tip toed into the arclights, the cricketer-turned-star is a superstar of the small screen.

Now he is busy with his new role in Shhh...Koi Hai, the weekly series of thrills and special effects on Star Plus, Ankola is now sharing the small screen with Vikraal and Gabraal doing stunts that are immensely popular among kids.

Acting for him happened by chance. It was a leg injury that put him on a forced rest from cricket. Sitting at home was boring and he thought of trying his hand at acting. With Nana Patekar as a close friend, Ankola needed no better person to encourage him.

He got lucky right from the word go when he replaced Sharad Kapoor in Zee TV’s Chahat Aur Nafrat and followed it with a pivotal role in Kora Kagaz and UTV’s Jaal. He played the lead role in Woh Sach Hai and did four episodes of Saturday Suspense and lastly was seen as a daredevil cop in Josh, an Indian lookalike of Matrix. It now remains to be seen if he can capitalise on his lucky breaks and surge ahead — a thing he wasn’t able to do in cricket.

Sense of deja vu

Only producer Manish Goswami can tell what made him go for the cliched storyline of Aandhi on 64 Panne on Zee TV, every Sunday at 8 p.m. And that, after a fairly competent serial like Kittie Party on the same channel.

Aandhi, as the name suggests is yet another sandstorm of a relationship based on a tired theme of mistaken identities. It’s the story of young Chandni who gets mixed up with someone else’s identity.

Chandni is in love with a boy whom her father disapproves. She leaves home and then the story takes the expected turns. A friend of hers who’s a young widow dies unexpectedly leaving her child in Chandni’s custody.

What follows is no secret. The widow’s in-laws who hadn’t seen their daughter-in-law earlier mistake Chandni for her. And the rest, as they say, is deja vu.

Though the story may be trite but the channel seems upbeat and is banking upon the big star cast that includes Faizal Khan making his TV debut, Simone Singh, Ayub Khan playing a baddy and Kiran Kumar. But with such a storyline will these big names be able to attract the eyeballs? That, as the cliche goes, remains to be seen.

Lampooning Bollywood

If laughter is the best medicine then the wizards of wacky jokes, Saajid Ali and master of mimicry Suresh Menon will keep you in great health. The two take you on a laugh marathon in Sab Kuch Ho Sakataa Hai, Wednesdays and Thursdays 8 pm on SAB TV.

The stand-up comedians have got together after the World Cup when they teamed for a burlesque on Mandira Bedi’s Extraaa Innings. In this new series Ali and Menon start where they left off in their earlier laugh riot Kehne Main Kya Haarz Hai. They once again take digs at Bollywood, making fun of stars and tearing apart new films. The show is a welcome change from other limp comedies on the channel like Dhaba Junction and Sahib Biwi Ke Gulaam and has brought a smile on the faces of Adhikari Brothers, who are now saying that on TV Sab Kuch Ho Saktaa Hai.

Season of hits

Keeping the coming winter months in mind, HBO is offering a package that would warm you up. The channel is airing the big hits of the past few years. Viewers can watch a new movie, everyday Monday to Thursday at 9 a.m, in the Blockbuster Marathon. In addition, they can see the Best Of HBO 2003 every Friday night.

Weekends are treats with Saturday Night Blockbuster featuring hits like teen comedy American Pie-2, Jim Carey’s The Grinch and Tom Cruise’s mind-twisting psychological thriller, Vanilla Sky.

This is followed by Superstar Sundays featuring hits like Interview With The Vampire, where Brad Pitt stars as an 18th century nobleman bitten by a Dracula. Bruce Willis is a husband going through hard times in The Story of Us. Then there are movies like The Mummy Returns, Lara Croft: The Tomb Raider, Romeo Must Die, Spy Game and more.

With such interesting fare on offer movie buffs would be hard put to think of a better way of spending their December evenings.

Exploring the universe

With the last part of Explorations being aired on Sunday, December 7 at 5.40 p.m, BBC World has concluded one of its most scientifically creative series.

Don’t miss the final episode of the series, Communication on December 7, which tells the story of human communication — from drums to digital revolution.

—Mukesh Khosla

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