Channel surfing has never been such a test of decision-making skills. In an era of 90 channels and still counting, television viewing has become a more-than-multiple choice test. Even as TRPs of reigning shows decline and audiences splinter, Hindi entertainment channels, once desolate wastelands, are teeming with hyperactivity. With an increasingly demanding viewership of 215 million, they are also finding it difficult to remain connected.

The bandwidth is getting crowded. Where there was only Sony, Zee and Star Plus, now there are several new networks and newer shows. Star Plus, wanting to preempt viewer fatigue so as not to lose its younger audience, launched StarOne in late 2004. At the same time, Sahara Manoranjan also revamped itself and after a legal battle with Star, rechristened itself Sahara One. To counter Star's twin missiles, Sony went ahead and bought Sab TV for Rs 57 crore. Zee TV, complete with a new logo, is strengthening the early part of prime time while Times TV is also in the fray with Zoom, an entertainment channel that doesn't do fiction but has a large celebrity quotient that seems like it. Then there are news channels like CNBC and the new NDTV Profit with shows dedicated to makeovers, fitness and food. Not surprisingly, viewership has grown by 60 per cent from 2001 to 2004, according to tam Peoplemeter System.

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CLONE WARS: INDIAN VERSIONS OF THE APPRENTICE While StarOne has bought the rights of The Apprentice and has Vijay Mallya as its "trump" card, Zee's version, Business Baazigars, will have chairman Subhash Chandra on its jury.

The strain on the reigning deities is showing. While Star Plus' Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is still the No. 1 show in the country, its ratings (TRPs of 10.5 for the week ending May 14 from a peak of 22.4 in March 2001) are lower than before. The ratings of its two other top shows, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii and Kasautii Zindagi Kay, are also constantly fluctuating. Even as stars swap shows and creative heads switch channels, there is an attack of the clones, with more than one desi photocopy of globally-regenerated reality formats (see boxes).

High on drama and higher on publicity budgets-Sony pumped in an estimated Rs 20 crore on promoting Indian Idol-reality TV has enough glitter to generate buzz that five-year-old soaps cannot. It explains why channels are scrambling to grab the rights to the biggest foreign formats. At the last MIPCOM, the world's largest audio-visual content market at Cannes, Sony signed on Endemol's Operacion Triunfo (the Indian version is called Fame Gurukul) and Fear Factor, while Star acquired the rights to Heartbeat, a high tension quiz show.

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DUO DUELS: CHANNEL V'S SUPER SINGER VS SONY'S IDOL The homegrown Super Singers added two more judges to counter Indian Idol, adapted from Fremantle's Pop Idols, but couldn't match the popularity of the Sony show.

As if wavering TRPs weren't bad enough, networks also have to contend with pumped-up star egos, with many big names walking out of shows or threatening to do so. TV stars, basking in the stardom of fanzines and relentless cross-promotion on news shows, are no longer the film industry's poor cousins. Take Ronit Roy, small screen's biggest male star currently, who essays the lead in Kyunki and Kasautii, both Balaji productions on Star Plus. When Roy signed on political thriller Sarrkkar, penned by Shobhaa De, no one had a problem with it. But when Zee, the broadcasting channel, decided to pit it against Kasautii at the same time slot, tempers rose. Balaji creative head Ekta Kapoor threatened to throw Roy out of Kasautii if he shot for Sarrkkar even though he pleaded innocence. While Roy is shooting for all three, Rajeev Khandelwal, who played Sujal, the lead in Star Plus' Kahiin To Hoga, has not been so lucky. He didn't like the way his character was shaping and after much mudslinging, was shown the revolving door.

It isn't easy for Kapoor. As India's largest software production house with 1,000 employees, Balaji has 14 shows on air on Hindi language channels alone. "That's 100 actors, of whom at least 40 are TV superstars, whereas other production houses handle only four or five big stars," says Kapoor.

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COPY CATS: SONY'S FAME GURUKUL VS ZEE'S SA RE GA MA PA Both are music-based talent hunts. Zee's show has contestants mentored by four music directors while Sony's gives a more personal peek into the lives of its participants.

With greenroom jealousies, pay packet envy, abrupt role reversals and rumours of replacements, the stars are forever on tenterhooks. Walk into any studio, and the conversation will centre on who makes how much. Smriti Irani, the presiding diva, reportedly earns over Rs 50,000 for every day of shooting while other top stars (leads in the Balaji shows) earn Rs 20,000-45,000 per shoot. If any star threatens to quit or can't cope with the stress of 48-hour shifts, substitutes are always round the corner-give or take a nose job.

Channels like Zee are happy to give established faces a platform and benefit from their popularity. Though Zee TV President Abhijit Saxena refuses to acknowledge it, most of Zee's new faces are stars who have already been lit up in neon by Star Plus. Gurdeep Kohli, who played Dr Juhi in Star's Sanjivani, is now in Zee's Sindoor while Khandelwal will be seen on the channel's Time Bomb. The hit pair of Star's Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand, Varun Badola and Sangeeta Ghosh, get together in Rabba Ishk Na Hove, another Aroona Irani production, on Zee.

Sony, having failed with soaps like Kahaani Terii Merii, has gone one better, creating its own stars to counter the saas-bahu onslaught, with Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, an adaptation of the successful foreign show Betty La Fea and Indian Idol. Star had apparently been mulling over the latter for over a year, when Tarun Katial quit to join Sony, where he is now business head. Sony immediately went after the rights of Pop Idol and it has not looked back since. Now it is about to launch Fame Gurukul while Channel V has kick-started Pepsi [V] TV Champions, where you can do anything on screen or nothing to grab attention. StarOne too managed to pull off India's first hunt for a fashion designer, Lakme Fashion House, getting Donatella Versace to choose the winner. So bullish is Fremantle (the company behind Pop Idol) on India that it has even set up shop here. FBC, the European company whose format was adapted for Lakme Fashion House, has also followed suit.

REVENGE OF THE SITCOMS Reality shows may corner all the buzz, but fiction is still king as a handful of stars go on the warpath against the ruling soap queen
RONIT ROY Rs 4.5 lakh/month* Plays Mihir Virani in Kyunki and Rishabh Bajaj in Kasautii. But his move to act in Sarrkkar, pitted against Kasautii, has caused problems with Balaji.	EIJAZ KHAN Rs 3.5 lakh/month A Balaji favourite, Khan was made to quit Kahiin To Hoga to replace Rakshak Sawhney who had walked out of his lead role in Kkavyanjali.	MOULI GANGULY Rs 3 lakh/month Quit Balaji's Kahiin Kissi Roz on Star Plus for Saakshi on Sony. Came back to Balaji's Kkusum. Quit again, is now on Zee's Sarrkkar.
NAUSHEEN ALI SARDAR Rs 3.5 lakh/month Moved from Kkusum on Sony to Star Plus' Kalchakra, which is a flop but is bound to Star till 2006.	RAJEEV KHANDELWAL Rs 3 lakh/month After the actor was dropped from Kahiin, Balaji told his replacement Gurpreet Singh to get a nose job for the role.	AAKASHDEEP SAIGAL Rs 3 lakh/month Played evil Ansh in Kyunki (Star Plus) and Trishul in Kkusum (Sony), both Balaji soaps, and will now be in Zee's Time Bomb.

But Kapoor feels reality does not dent soaps. "Reality is like a party. It peaks for an hour when everyone is there but most of the time people are coming in and going out," she says, adding, "The reality audience is not the same as the fiction viewer." Even as the debate continues, Kyunki, when it does its next generation leap, is organising a reality show-a talent hunt to find Tulsi's granddaughter.

The truth is that pressure is mounting, especially at a time when originality is at an all-time low. While industry estimates say a half-hour episode of Kyunki garners about Rs 75 lakh in ad revenue (Star Plus pays Balaji Rs 12-14 lakh per episode), Indian Idol doubled its rates when it became popular and made nearly Rs 40 lakh per half-hour episode.

EMPIRES STRIKE BACK The drama on screen is reflected off screen as creative programmers switch channels and production houses try to drive hard bargains. As Zee tries to stem the tide of exits, Star and Sony do some bodyshopping.

ZEE TV With Zee Telefilms' ceo Pradeep Guha at the helm, less job hopping and a series of new shows, Zee hopes to ride high. Zee stars Rohit Roy, Kulraj, Saigal, Ghosh with Saxena STAR PLUS Star's the leader, but faces competition from Sony. Strong ties with Balaji and a 26 per cent stake in it ensure it gets the first pick of new concepts and shows. Star COO Sameer Nair at Kyunki's 1,000th episode party SONY Sony is No. 2, but has seen a lot of churning within. Looking beyond Balaji and a hit in Idol has helped. Continues to absorb Star talent. Sony stars Abhijeet, Shama, Iqbal, Jassi with Katial

"Fragmentation is huge," admits Star's creative director, content and communication, Shailja Kejriwal. "We face competition everywhere, from other forms of entertainment, multiplexes, everything," Quite. The top three general entertainment channels are losing their share of the total market. In 2003, Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony together constituted 29.7 per cent of the total cable and satellite pie in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Today it is 26.25 per cent, according to tam. And though Star Plus is the leader in the segment, its market share dropped from 61.4 per cent in 2004 to 58.6 per cent till May this year.

The channels are currently on overdrive. While Star Plus is happy with its new non saas-bahu launch Miilee (not a Balaji product), it is working full time to launch part two of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) in August and fortify its weekends. Sony is high on the recent success of Kaisa Ye Pyar Hai. With eight new launches in the past 12 months, including Rihhaee, Dance Dance and Batliwalla House No. 43, Sony wants to be "distinctive yet mass", in Katial's words. StarOne is finessing the adaptation of The Apprentice and is in talks with liquor baron Vijay Mallya to play the role of Donald Trump. Zee is cloning the Keifer Sutherland show 24 as Time Bomb and has several romantic soaps on the anvil. Its other big launch is Business Baazigars, an Apprentice copy, which will provide an entrepreneur with full funding for the winning business proposition. Apparently, company's Chairman Subhash Chandra will head the jury.

Breaking through the final frontier of content clutter will be key. While Amitabh Bachchan in KBC 2 will be more than a phantom menace, earlier clones have failed. What channels will have to do is adapt international formats smartly-especially shows with a high sense of drama-and invest in homegrown programming. Only then can they hope to break Balaji's grip on audiences-and TRPs. May the force be with them.

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