Disney's Star India Network Sets Season 2 of 'TED Talks India' Hosted by Shah Rukh Khan
The show will air on the network's channels, including Star Plus, Nat Geo and Star World, in addition to its digital platform Hotstar.
Disney-owned Star India network has ordered the second season of TED Talks India, building on the first season that will again be hosted by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The second season, titled Ted Talks India: Nayi Baat (or New Conversations), will feature 26 speakers from various fields who will share ideas on how to tackle major issues confronting India such as health care, environmental awareness and sexual abuse, among others. The debut Hindi-language season marked the first time non-profit TED collaborated with any broadcast network in the world to air its talks in a language other than English. The second season will be filmed simultaneously in English and Hindi and also dubbed in Tamil, Telugu and Bengali.
TED head Chris Anderson tells The Hollywood Reporter that the selection of 26 "change-makers is about going deeper and finding ideas that matter and that can make a difference in India." He also expands that the "investment to do the show in more languages is very exciting for us. I don't think many other mass market TV producers in the world have had that vision." "The second season will be bigger because we have added more distribution channels to the mix," adds Star India president, Hindi entertainment, Gaurav Banerjee, pointing that the show will air on the networks' flagship Hindi channel StarPlus, Nat Geo and English channel Star World in addition to streaming on digital platform Hotstar. The show will begin airing on Nov. 2. "After the first season, we have seen a material increase in the Indian audience just wanting to know more about TED," Anderson says, adding, "Its just remarkable to see the hunger for knowledge in this country." Khan's star power is seen as a major advantage in making the show gain a wider audience as Banerjee points that "he helps communicate complex ideas in an easy way. Also, he speaks Hindi and English incredibly well so that enables a massive connect with viewers." Some of the speakers who will be featured on the show include senior NASA scientist Sharmila Bhattacharya, Global Gene Corp. chairman and CEO Sumit Jamuar, young innovator Gitanjali Rao who has invented a low-cost test to detect lead contamination in water, child sexual abuse survivor Trisha Shetty and non-profit Naandi Foundation CEO Manoj Kumar who, along with a tribal community in South India, developed the award-winning Araku Coffee brand.
