MUMBAI: A crime thriller has always been sold like hotcakes. And it stands true to television as well. The genre has been a potboiler for the general entertainment space for a long time now.
While serials like Byomkesh Bakshi (1993), Karamchand (1980s) and Tehkikat (1994) on Doordarshan laid the ground for fictional crime shows, a more advanced form appeared in the reproduction of real life crime incidents in shows like India's Most Wanted (Zee TV, 1999) and Crime Patrol (Sony, 2003).
Along with a plethora of fictional crime series, a dramatised real life crime depiction has also gained traction over the years; CID’s run on Sony for 17 years justifies the popularity of the genre.
Following the trend set by the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs), youth channels too took the same route. Channel V got Gumraah to focus on youth-based crime incidents in 2012.
The only channel which hadn’t dabbled in the genre was Colors. Realising the importance, after six years of existence, it is finally launching a finite reality series christened Code Red with a tagline ‘Andhere me Umeed Ki Ek Nayi Kiran’.
The first promo hit the television screens on 13 December and showed popular actress Sakshi Tanwar advising people to raise voice rather than suffer in silence.
The show will focus on social issues like suicide and crime against women and children. Sources close to the development say, “The motto of the show is to spread awareness and bring to forefront the crime against women and children in the society.”
Though the channel tags it as not a crime series, sources say that it will give a broader outlook that would deal with crime and its different components. “It is going to be a very different show than what viewers have seen on television till now. It is a reality show where every episode is going to give out a message of not giving up and to fight back,” says a source from the channel.
The show is a joint venture of Fremantle India, Optimystix and Shlok Entertainment, a production house helmed by three eminent people - directors of Crime Patrol, Subramanian S Iyer and Neeraj Naik along with prominent actor and anchor Anup Soni.
Launched as a daily format, it will air for six days a week. The three production houses will helm two episodes each every week.
Penned for a limited number of episodes, it is set to launch in January 2015.
