'Call Centre' series on BBC World

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
BBC World would telecast a seven-part series on call center's, which captures the daily routine of call centre employees through Karthik Ranganath and Shalini Kalra. The series titled 'Call Centre', features the behind-the-scene accounts of the growing Indian service industry. The series will be aired every Sunday on BBC World at 11 am with an additional appointment to view at 10 PM.

Looks like call centres are increasingly becoming the favourite backdrop for films and TV shows these days. Rohan Sippy is already planning a film based on Chetan Bhagat's One Night @ The Call Centre and a fiction show India Calling is set in a call centre is on Star One. Miditech, Nikhil and Niret Alvas' production company, has come out with Call Centre, a seven-part series for BBC World, starting from next Sunday at 11 am.

The show is an 'observational reality show' set in Customer 24x7, a Bangalore-based call centre. "An observational reality show as opposed to a constructed one like Indian Idol is more about fly-on-the-wall observations," says Niret, who with brother Nikhil are the show's executive producers and creative directors.

The show chronicles the lives of two people at a call centre Karthik Ranganath, a 22-yearold recruit trying to master a British accent in seven weeks and Shalini Kalra, a 27-year-old manager. The series follows their daily routine and high lights the challenges they face: emotional stress, adapting to foreign time zones, pressure from clients and tackling the crisis caused by hurricanes in the US.

"We follow their lives and interspersed with that, have interviews with experts like Kiran Karnik, Brinda Karat, who give their view on different issues each part throws up. For instance, how difficult it could be for a woman working at a call centre to get married," says Niret.

Ask him what was difficult about shooting the series and he says, "We have been at it for oneand-a-half years. We spoke to many BPOs, but nobody was willing to share their space with a TV crew. Then Customer 24x7 agreed and we were on." Niret claims the show is keeping in with the, "editorial guidelines set by the BBC and without too many riders or any sort of compromise on content."

Why a call centre? "Because it's a huge phenomenon. Whenever we would travel through Gurgaon we would see these Qualis packed with young people… that's when we thought why not combine a story of real people with a business aspect to it," says Niret.

The challenge, Niret says, lies in "telling a story without the luxury of fictionalising it. You want to tell it well and interestingly in 21-minute single episodes."