Open street

TELEVISON

Sesame Street, the educational kids' show, has found its way to India at long last.

Generations of Indians, some would say, have had the misfortune of growing up without the sage advice of Big Bird, the repartees of Ernie n' Burt, and all the commotion put up by the rest of the mop-headed residents of Sesame Street.

No longer. Sesame Street, America's preeminent educational childrens' show, is on its way here "" a market worth some Rs 140 crore in advertising aimed specifically at kids.

Just that India's own version of that colourful show "" called Galli Galli Sim Sim (GGSS) "" is being shot in Noida, at Eagle Studio, with Miditech's CEO Niret Alva throwing open the gates to this new world of loveable fluff some four months ago.

The project in itself has been over a year in the making; GGSS is the result of a three-way partnership between Turner International, Sesame Workshop and Miditech.

With special Indian sets done by Samir Chanda now in place, the show is set to air on Cartoon Network and Pogo (Turner channels, both) by mid-2006.

"Sesame India will be the country's first children's series that teaches and inspires, using humour as the foundation," says a visibly excited Alva, "It will celebrate diversity and cut across the rural urban divide, and build bridges between regions, languages and cultures, emphasising what unites children across India."

But don't expect too much of the American original "" which, on air since 1969, was designed on extensive inputs from child psychologists and sociologists "" on your child's TV screen here.

At least not on the face of it. The street in itself has been designed to look suitably local, complete with a sweet shop, a motor garrage, row of big and small houses with a tree in the central verge, and even such details as stains around the water pipes. And the characters are all Indian too.

"We wanted Indian kids to identify with the street where they find it safe to play and explore their world around. GGSS will present a very happy world for the kids," says Dr Asha Singh, director, education and research, GGSS, who's been working on inputs for the show.

Sesame Workshop, the New York-based NGO that came up with the idea, is known for the academic foundation it gives all the entertainment under its charge.

The Indian format has four human characters and four muppets (Chamki, Aanchoo, Googly and Boombah), with music, live action and animation "" all put together to reflect the country's cultural diversity.

Martin Robinson, who has trained the Miditech crew to handle muppets, proclaims himself satisfied at having achieved international standards in muppetry.

"India has a strong cultural history in puppetry, and we've tried to adapt all the styles to present it on television," says Robinson, who's trained puppeteers for Sesame Street productions in Mexico, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Russia and Bangladesh. Ernie n' Burt's dialectics have global appeal.