TV's fashion make-over

General entertainment channels are turning to fashion designers to spruce up their look.

High fashion is usually found in rarefied circles. But in recent times, it has decided to climb down a few notches "" stooping to conquer, as it were, the hearts and minds of middle-class India.

General entertainment channels, with their plethora of talent reality shows like Indian Idol, Nach Baliye 3 and Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007, are trying to set themselves apart and become more aspirational by dressing their anchors and sometimes even the contestants in designer wear.

This was thus far a privilege that either the very rich or more glamourous Bollywood stars enjoyed.

It's something that both the channels and fashion designers involved seem to regard as a win-win situation. So far, Manish Malhotra, Kavita Bhartia and Narendra Kumar have had their clothes worn on talent shows.

Says Bhartia whose clothes have been worn by Mini Mathur, the anchor on Indian Idol, and now by Tina on Nach Baliye 3, "Doing television is good for us. Indian Idol was widely watched and I feel it's important to reach out to a larger audience. India is changing and with the coming of the new middle class, this kind of visibility is good."

If it is about greater visibility for the fashion designers, for the TV channels catering to a mass audience, the logic behind the use of high-end fashion designers is similar to Bhartia's.

Says Ashish Kaul, executive vice president, Zee Network, "Though general entertainment channels cater to the masses, the entertainment business works on aspiration. The channel is a window to that fashionable world and on the TV screens you see your aspirations being met."

The aspirations of the viewing public aren't the only thing that this trend of using fashion designers is meeting.

In the last year or so, around the time that fashion designers started getting visibility on TV (earlier, too, fashion designers had done some work on TV but they were one-off rather than the more concerted way that they are now being seen on TV), the competition in the general entertainment space has become cut-throat.

Says Kaul, "Five years ago designer wear for anchors or characters in soap operas would have been an overhead, now it's factored in the cost of production. For reality shows, you want to harness every possible connect and you don't want your viewer seeking style satisfaction elsewhere."

Hindi films, at another moment in time, had also turned to fashion to glam up the stars. Manish Malhotra did successful make-overs for Urmila Matondkar in Rangeela, which resurrected her film career, and Karisma Kapoor in Raja Hindustani.

From then on, the floodgates for fashion designers in Hindi cinema opened up and today everyone from Tarun Tahiliani to Raghuvendra Rathore, Aki Narula and Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla have done clothes for Hindi films.

For Narendra Kumar, who is doing Aditya Narain's look in Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007 on Zee, and has also done Anu Kapoor's look for Antakshari-The Great Challenge, the reason why fashion is working for general entertainment channels is that designers bring a more modern look to TV.

The other reason, says Kumar, for being on the channels, is: "TV reaches out to a huge audience. There is a greater awareness of my label. We get lots of mail asking us to replicate the look that they see on TV. The medium of television is just getting bigger and bigger."

Though only a few fashion designers are doing general entertainment shows right now, how do others from the fashion community react to this?

Says Tarun Tahiliani, "A lot of fashion designers are getting into pret, so maybe they are looking to expand their reach. Television is not such a powerful tool, it's too fleeting I feel, but then I could be wrong."

Sumeet Nair of the Fashion Design Council of India is more non-committal, "To be on these shows is an individual business decision. This can be one marketing tool for a designer."

While Bollywood has been the favoured destination for fashion designers till now, that seems to be changing. The idiot box is finally getting a high fashion make-over.

Whether it is for the better or worse, remains to be seen though. For now, everyone seems to view this arrangement as being the right fit.