IN CONVERSATION
Shekhar's day out
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Shekhar Gupta's "Walk The Talk" succeeds because it stands convention on its head, says MUKUND PADMANABHAN.
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...with Sushil Kumar Shinde, Maharashtra Chief Minister.
TELEVISION talk shows, even those that affect an air of breezy informality, are invariably masterminded, down to the smallest detail. Predetermined camera angles, controlled lighting, carefully touched up faces, studiously selected clothes, reshoots, post-shoot editing... the fastidiousness of TV talk shows is exactly what you would expect in a medium which is also the message.
Since April last year, one talk show has attempted to stand convention on its head — and done very well for it. The distinctiveness of Shekhar Gupta's "Walk The Talk" on NDTV 24x7 does not emerge alone from its repudiation of the studio format.
True, the backdrop — against which Gupta chooses to walk his talk — is often impossible to ignore. To understate the point, you can hardly fail to notice that a swaddled George Fernandes is fielding questions in the icy wastes of Siachen ("We were at 17,600 ft above mean sea level," says Gupta.) Or for that matter that Jagmohan is diligently answering his questions within the stirring precincts of the Taj Mahal and that L.K. Advani is interviewed against the magisterial edifice of North Block.
"The effort here," says Gupta, "is to find a location that fits either the person or the subject we are addressing."
What really singles out "Walk The Talk" is its truly unfussy and laidback nature. One camera (that follows Gupta and his guest as they saunter around the "set" and that sometimes seems to struggle to keep up with them). Twenty-three minutes of conversation (relayed as it is). No editing. No reshoots.
"This means that the odd mix-up or glitch is inevitable," says Gupta.
The other distinctive characteristic of course is Gupta's manner itself. It is an approach that is best defined by what is absent.
No Armani suits, no saccharine smiles, no clever put-downers, no aggression or intimidation, no attempt to affect a suave manner or feign an accent. In short, nothing to detract attention from what ought to be the focus of any talk show: the guest. Asked about his signature attire — the crumpled pair of trousers, the rolled up shirt-sleeves, the pen stuck in his front pocket — Gupta jokes: "That's partly because I am lazy. And then I have a tough time thinking with my sleeves rolled down!"
V. Ganesan
When he was discussing the possibility of hosting such a show with NDTV's Prannoy Roy, Gupta says he had suggested: "Let's do it as I am." He says he was clear from the beginning that he did not want a "tu tu mein mein" format.
"It was never the intention to insult the guests. The idea is to make them drop their defences, draw them out."
And so have more than one of them. Amitabh Bachchan was nudged into speaking about his frosty ties with the Gandhi family, the Kanchi Sankaracharya's disclosures about his attempt to reach a negotiated settlement on the Ayodhya issue sent ripples through the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and, recently, Harkishan Surjeet's revelations about how Mulayam Singh Yadav lost the Prime Ministerial race to I.K. Gujral have provoked some considerable interest as well as some controversy.
As the Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Express, you would expect Gupta to be at his best when tackling subjects related to politics and diplomacy and so he is.
But "Walk The Talk" has opted for an eclectic guest list (some might think too ecletic) that includes an assortment of people connected to business, sports and cinema.
Gupta reacts to the suggestion that he may have spread himself too thin by saying that he wanted "this kind of variety". "I think it was natural for me to leverage my 26 years in journalism, which has been spent dealing with diverse areas," he adds.
He also points out that the film stars on his show are not portrayed as celebrities but dealt with in a thematic way. For instance, Shahrukh Khan was quizzed as a Muslim role model and Madhuri Dixit provided the opportunity to explore the sentiment of NRIs.
"Walk The Talk" has also interviewed such people as E. Sreedharan, the father of Delhi's Metro, two young MiG fighter pilots and a couple of Mumbai policemen. "While we do not chase the story of the week, we are not a celebrity chat show," stresses Gupta.
If asked to name one high point in the show, which one would it be? Gupta ducks the question by answering it literally: "At 17,600 feet, I guess it must be the one with George Fernandes."
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