SunTV procured the rights to produce regional versions of MasterChef India in Sun TV (Tamil), Gemini TV (Telugu) Surya TV (Malayalam) and Udaya TV (Kannada). MasterChef India has been steadily losing viewers over the past few years, with the latest season – Season 6 garnering an all time low TV ratings of 0.8 and 1.1 TRP. With this lack of interest, Dutch production and distribution company, Endemol Shine Group, decided to make regional variants for the vast Indian audience with popular actors set to host the show.
MasterChef Australia is one of the most viewed if not, then the most viewed reality cooking show around the globe. And India is no different – with MasterChef Australia being one of the most popular English-speaking shows in the country. And why shouldn’t it? Even though most Indians can understand the language, the language of “food” is universal. And thanks to Disney+ Hotstar, we get to watch the brilliant cooking show on the streaming platform.
Unlike other cooking shows, there is rarely any negative drama featured on the show, and alongside the diverse selection of amateur cooks and the impressive cooking, the show took off in India. So this shows that there is a proper market for MasterChef …only if it is done right. If the regional MasterChef shows can stick to the Australia format in some form or the other, they will definitely get better ratings and reviews than MasterChef India.
Prithviraj Sukumaran is expected to host MasterChef Malayalam, while Vijay Sethupathi, Venkatesh Daggubati and Kichcha Sudeep are expected to host MasterChef Tamil, Telugu and Kannada respectively. The registrations for the MasterChef Tamil and Telugu have come online, while MasterChef Malayalam is expected to start shooting sometime this month.
We do not know where the series will eventually stream, but with MasterChef Australia, MasterChef India and MasterChef Junior – all appearing on Disney+ Hotstar, it would be safe to assume that these regional shows should also be streaming on said OTT platform.
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