New season of ‘24’ to see the light of day

When television thriller 24 returns to Indian screens this month, there will be lots of sunlight.

The second season of the Indian remake of the U.S. series will launch into its real-time narrative during the day, ensuring that Indian audiences aren’t put off by the darkness on screen.



“When you start a season at night, people say it’s looking dark. It is not dark, it’s night,” says series director Abhinay Deo. “The Indian television viewing audience is not used to this. Even when they see nights, it’s very bright (on screen).”

Based on the award-winning series featuring Kiefer Sutherland in the lead, the Indian version stars Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor as Jai Singh Rathore, with each of the 24 episodes chronicling an hour in the life of the counter-terrorism agent.

PHOTO: REUTERS

There’s no escaping episodes set at night, but they will come up only in the second month. Deo says this will give audiences “the chance to get used to” the format.

Indian television is populated with garish and melodramatic daily soaps about evil mothers-in-law and women who suffer at their hands. 24, produced by Kapoor, first aired in 2013 and attempted to break through the clutter. While it met with some success, the ratings didn’t quite go through the roof.

For the second season, the show’s makers have tried to learn the grammar of Indian television to get more people to watch the show.

“One of the things we have learnt is that the Indian audience is used to linear programming,” said Raj Nayak, CEO of Colors TV, part of the Viacom 18 group.

“In 24, we had four parallel tracks happening; four windows popping up,” said Nayak. “That is something the Indian audience is not used to.”



This time around, the narrative will be more linear and will focus on one character arc, a departure from the U.S. series.

While the first season of 24 in India was about a conspiracy to assassinate a young politician, the second has at its core a virus that is likely to wipe out half of India’s population.

Shows like 24 seek to bridge the divide between traditional audiences and a new generation of Indians hungry for quality television content.

More and more Indians are turning to their mobile phones and tablets as an alternative to television. With the entry of Netflix and the impending launch of Amazon Prime, Indians have more access to shows from the West.

PHOTO: REUTERS

“Digital is going to change the landscape of Indian TV. The industry needs to start prepping for it,” said Deo. “We are now waking up to it, but we are already late.”

But shows of international quality don’t come cheap. Nayak said 24 was produced at the cost of a “good-budget Hindi film.”

“If a normal fiction show is x, this is 20x,” he said. “We are hoping that the people who watched it the first time around will continue to watch and that those who hadn’t will start watching now.”

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.