A wacky way to youth's heart

His entry to the MTV world changed the very profile of the channel. He is none other than Cyrus Brocha who transformed a serious music channel into a lighter one. K.KANNAN has a long chat with him....

Quote:``There are times when we have not succeeded in doing what we wanted. We learn from experience.''

``Funny'', ``young'', ``bindas''... these are the words that come to one's mind when one thinks of MTV. The man behind this transformation of a serious music channel into a wacky entertainment channel is none other than Cyrus Brocha, who has recently been voted the coolest veejay of the youths.

``When I joined MTV in 1996, it was a very straight lace -- a serious corporate company playing music videos. Then it was realised that the way to the youth's heart is not to take oneself too seriously. The term `wackiness quotient' was coined to serve as a yardstick for programmes,'' says Cyrus, who can really be weird at times. ``When I joined them, the channel had a very serious image. I just made it lighter.''

A house-hold name for hosting the channel's most popular programme, ``Bakra'' in which he pulls a fast one on people, Cyrus asserts that ``fun'' and ``escapist entertainment'' is what MTV was all about. ``We do serious programmes off and on. After the September 11 incident in the United States, we have shot a programme in which we have interviewed celebrities and youngsters in Delhi as well as in Mumbai on what they think about terrorism,'' he says. ``More than 90 per cent of the youth whom we interviewed were pacifists''.

The programme which is slated for telecast later this month has also brought forth interesting reactions from the youth. ``There was this girl in Mumbai who told us that she woke up at 4 in the morning thinking that bombs had been dropped in the city,'' Cyrus says. ``It is interesting to note that none of the people whom we interviewed want war.''

While MTV does get serious at times -- Cyrus says he was in Hanover last year for an AIDS workshop -- it is fun and wackiness that has come to represent the MTV chaap. In most of his programmes, whether it is ``Loveline'' or ``Fully Faltu'' or the short shows that he does, Cyrus tries to be just that. ``There are times when we have not succeeded in doing what we wanted. Things go wrong when we shoot or there are variables over which we have no control. But we learn from experience,'' says the veejay, who admits that he has not been treated too kindly at places where his `Bakra'' image has failed him.

Having been a cheeky student at school, Cyrus traces his wackiness to this skill of his where he used to ask light questions in class during the course of a serious discussion while keeping a serious face all along. ``I used to talk a lot in school and learnt soon enough that there is a way to talk to teachers without meaning any disrespect to them,'' says Cyrus adding : ``we do not mean any disrespect to anybody in our programmes''.

As for the music videos that are played on MTV, Cyrus is candid enough in admitting that he does not know anything about music. ``My knowledge of international music is worse than that of Hindi music,'' he says, adding that recently MTV has started a new programme called ``Gaana Masti'' in which a song is picked up and parodied. ``Come on, many of our lyrics are very bad. There are enough people out there who want to laugh at the stupidity of many of the songs,'' he says.

While Cyrus is planning to continue to develop his skills along the line of wackiness, he is also aware of the fact that people do not want to watch long programmes. ``What they want to see is an extended form of advertisement, that is all,'' he points out. Asked about the things he would like to do in the future, he says he would ``like to travel in a plane without being scared''. And he asserts he is not making us a Bakra!

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Other States
Previous : Search on for SIMI leaders
Next     : Social Welfare Department pulled up on old age
           pension