A clear shift is visible in the streaming and television segments of India’s entertainment industry. To deal with the challenges emanating from short audience attention span and availability of copious amounts of content, leading streaming platforms and channels are designing non-fiction shows around the public image of Bollywood celebrities instead of merely presenting them as show hosts.

Shows such as Crime Patrol (SonyLiv) (Ajay Devgn, serious, Singham-cop and Drishyam-family-man image), India Ke Top 1% (Star Plus) (Anil Kapoor, energetic and larger-than-life image), Lock Upp (Netflix) (Farah Khan, bold, irreverent, Riteish Deshmukh, funny, approachable image), and The Traitors (Amazon Prime) (Karan Johar, Bollywood insider, gossip, theatrical image) are synergistic collaboration between Bollywood celebrities and show-creators and not merely filling the space of a celebrity host.

These collaborations are helping streamers and channels build strong intellectual properties (IPs) of non-fiction shows around celebrities, channel heads, brand experts and industry veterans told ET.

These non-fiction programmes around a celebrity show a different side of their personality which is in sync with the shows’ content, said channel heads.

“Beyond immediate recognition and strong start, the idea behind these non-fiction shows is to use celebrities as a doorway to an experience that audiences never had with them,” said Harsh Sheth, business head, Sony Entertainment Television. “These shows give audiences a chance to know the person, her views and journeys behind a personality. It makes them more relatable.”

A JioStar spokesperson said a personality must serve a show’s format and the format must deliver to the audience. “When a show’s format and concept is in sync with a personality’s public image, it makes the proposition even stronger,” added the spokesperson. The spokesperson cited non-fiction shows such as Bigg Boss and Koffee With Karan.

Such collaborations are also favourable for advertisers. “For advertisers, a celebrity-led show can be a relatively cost-effective way to get a celebrity association,” said Shailesh Kapoor, founder and chief executive of Ormax Media. “A brand may not be able to afford a direct endorsement deal with someone like Amitabh Bachchan. But by sponsoring Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), it can still have him talk about the brand on the show. That makes the show easier to sell, especially when television faces uncertainty over ratings and viewing habits.”

Harsh Sheth of Sony cited Google Gemini’s recent association with the current season of KBC as an effective advertiser-show collaboration. “The mentions of Google Gemini on the KBC show resulted in spikes in search interest and app downloads,” he said.

According to brand experts, a show will sustain audience interest only when the public image of the celebrity matches the show’s content expectations.

“In television, where there is no clear TRP-based currency, bargaining power becomes important. A channel or platform with a strong property in the form of a big celebrity can demand a better deal,” said Sandeep Goyal, managing director at advertising company Rediffusion.

“But this advantage is short-lived. Today, word-of-mouth communication is very strong. By the second or third week, people know whether a celebrity-based show is working,” he added.

In the past, when celebrities such as Priyanka Chopra and Arjun Kapoor hosted the non-fiction show Khatron Ke Khiladi, the show’s ratings were not strong enough because audiences did not see them as a natural fit for the format. But when director Rohit Shetty began hosting the show, it grew bigger because his image matched its core idea of stunts and adventure, said Kapoor of Ormax Media.