Shot in the Dark

It’s not as drastic as getting a boob job or swapping your spouse on prime time. But the five-minute spots now airing on MTV every day at 3.45 pm are perhaps the closest we’ve ever come to a form of entertainment that is booming the world over.

‘‘Things were pretty weird,’’ recalls participant Suresh Kyatham, 23, of the sex scene from the Ashish Chowdhary-starrer Girlfriend the actor asked him to enact. ‘‘Sometimes I performed only because a celebrity was making me do it,’’ he adds. Every day, the candidates recall, they rehearsed outrageous, OTT dialogues, helped along by three MTV employees (one female and two males) who also posed as students to lighten the atmosphere. ‘‘I had to act like I was doing potty,’’ recalls an embarrassed Pramod Ramoo, of a session with Oberoi. ‘‘But he kept saying an actor should be able to enact any kind of scene.’’ When Ramoo’s boss didn’t grant him leave, the 30-year-old, who has worked as an extra in several films, quit his job to join the workshop.

The students were told that a ‘sponsor’ scouting for fresh talent would bear all expenses. The channel also roped in Bollywood celebs to be part of the show. While Oberoi, Mandira Bedi, Chowdhary, Ritesh Deshmukh, Koppikar, Adnan Sami, Farhan Akhtar, Gulshan Grover and Dino Morea asked participants to enact things like ‘filmi’ rape, TV actors Tanaaz Currim and Shehzad Khan posed as the academy’s in-house profs. ‘‘I used to make them stand on chairs and commit suicide at the count of three,’’ says Currim.

‘‘We were told that a camera would record partial visuals for some documentary. But we were unaware of the nine hidden cameras and a two-way mirror,’’ says Abhitash Singh, 20, a student at Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College, who, like the others, signed the contract on the first day without paying too much attention to the fine print.

Though the channel insists the contestants knew about all the cameras, most are probably wishing they knew about the mirror. Since the rehearsal room doubled as their dressing room, there are bound to be images of people undressed down to their briefs. ‘‘The channel has promised us no vulgar scenes will be shown from the dressing room,’’ says a worried Singh.

MTV is all assurance. ‘‘The over-the-top scenes have been removed. Besides, this is the format channels abroad base reality shows on,’’ says Cyrus Oshidar, a VP and GM at MTV Networks India.

Some participants have been shown glimpses of the first few episodes. ‘‘We were told the rest will be similar to the ones they showed us, as they were busy editing it,’’ says Kyatham, who’s hoping MTV doesn’t air stuff he’ll regret later.

But Tamana Shaikh, 19, a student of National College, Bandra, has no regrets. ‘‘I enjoyed the class and, thanks to the show, I am a star now.’’ She also hopes directors will approach her after watching her perform. ‘‘I am getting exposure, so I don’t mind it. In fact, I am ready to do anything for a role in Bollywood.”

Meanwhile, Shaikh, like all the other participants, will receive Rs 10,000, a free Motorola cellphone and a qualification for the second round of the MTV-Ektaa Kapoor venture Kitni Mast Hai Zindagi.

And, hopefully, some acting skills. A guilty Currim had nightmares for the first few days thinking about how the students would react when they knew ‘‘it was a scam”.

‘‘But I ensured that while the channel got its footage, the students were also taught some acting basics.’’