Impressive images

On a rare occasion he may look you in the eye. Most of the time the vice president and creative director of MTV looks over your head as you address your queries to him. "My job here is to make people laugh and to build loyalty to MTV,” declares Cyrus Oshidar, his sights still set on... Unable to contain your curiosity, you turn around and find your competitor — a television unit relaying MTV programs.

He may not be one of the greatest fans of the kind of music offered on MTV, his personal favorites being jazz, blues, African, old Indian cinema songs, "but this is the kind of music that people seem to want and this is what they get,” he shrugs his shoulders point­ing to one of the current Bollywood songs being repeat­edly played on the channel for their target group in the 18-35 age bracket. "MTV is one of the most success­ful music channels and the number one youth music channel having won 60 odd international awards,” he announces. Among the 50 plus MTV channels across the globe, MTV India is the fourth most successful channel, he adds.

Having nurtured MTV India since the onus of creat­ing and crafting local programs was shouldered by the channel five years ago Oshidar prides himself on con­tributing to its attention-drawing icons like Gaseous Clay, the flatulent boxer, Poga, the human Rubic cube and the venomous MTV hating old lift man that give the brand its distinctive image. Oshidar does in the process offend the sensibilities of middle-aged women, he relates nonchalantly. "Why do people watch MTV? Because they think it’s ‘cool.’ And my job here is to make it stay ‘cool,’” the 38-year-old entertainer ex­plains simplistically. "I get to do everything I dreamt of as a kid and get paid for it!” Several such punch lines delivered in the course of our interview on February 1, 2002 force one to pause and ascertain whether they are meant for publication or to provide special effects. That he is unmindful of his own image he keeps reiterating, but he is rather protective of the MTV’s star status.

Walking into the MTV office at the Filmcenter in Bombay’s Tardeo area, one encounters an easygoing, upbeat, boisterous staff. And this was supposed to be their busy period! In the first three months of a year they are preoccupied with planning their schedule and presentation for the months to follow after which the going is smooth, mentions Oshidar. The informal at­mosphere apparently brings out the best in the staff working under managing director Alex Kuruvilla.

In the coming months their team faces the addi­tional challenge of working on different programs for the newly introduced channel Nickelodeon whose target group is children aged nine-12 years characterized by their short attention spans and fads. The goal set for them by their parent company Viacom, reportedly the second largest media conglomerate globally, is to make "Nick (as the new channel is dubbed) as popular as MTV.” Oshidar is happy that there is not an iota of violence on this channel and through game shows, live shows and other gizmos topics like environment will become meaningful to the preteens.

"Hindi movies is what drives everything in this country,” sadly observes Oshidar referring to the routine formula movies "stuck in vicious circles of stupidity.” He does though see "a flicker of hope with movies such as Dil Chahta Hai and Lagaan.” He reserves his comments on Kaho Na Pyar Hai for the simple reason that his daughters Shayaan (seven) and Sahirah (four) enjoyed it and delight in con­stantly comparing their father’s real life physique and antics to the screen image of the hero of the film Hrithik Roshan! Yet he acknowledges that "despite all its lunacy,” he gets his "inspiration from this country and its people for writing my silly promo­tions.” Having lived in England for 15 years with his parents Dinyar and Dolly as also his brother Shiraz, he found it "dry and devoid of emotion. In contrast, here we’ve got every variety. You can’t for a minute be bored.” While Shiraz opted to stay on in London, working for the Royal Society of Chartered Surveyors, Cyrus did not see a future there.

Delhi born Cyrus’ early schooling was at different places as his father, an international banker with Grindlays Bank was constantly on the move. For his secondary education, Cyrus was sent to Ooty’s Lawrence School, Lovedale after which he went to Dulwich College in London to study international trade and development, of which "I am glad to say I understood little then and I continue to know nothing even today,” Cyrus is una­bashed. After a stint at the London School of Economics he worked for a while at BCCI but quit the job to pursue an advertising career in Bombay and be closer to his childhood sweetheart Simeen Poonegar. For nine years he was in the advertising field, training with Saatchi and Saatchi and later working with O & M, before he moved on to MTV. While his father has never been able to appreciate or value the nature of his son’s job at MTV, Cyrus says artist wife Simeen "is happy for me. She thinks it’s a great release for me; for all the garbage from my head to come out!” Signs of restlessness have started surfacing though and Cyrus says he "wants a break to come back with a fresh per­spective.”

Among the assignments he is presently preoccupied with is the programming he is doing for Doordarshan and All India Radio at the behest of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) World Service Trust to create awareness on AIDS. Barely three-four percent of the disease is transmitted through blood and infected syringes, as compared to 89 percent which is transmitted through sexual intercourse, and yet the government has "ridiculous rules” about not showing a naked condom on TV, points out Oshidar. Considering this work to be his "national duty” Oshidar obviously feels strongly about it and refers to "the steadfast narrow-minded­ness which is destroying populations like in Africa leaving behind only grandparents and children.” When the "support generation, the one which is working and economically viable collapses,” he fears what will become of the nation.

A similar rigidity among the Zoroastrians, he believes will "drag the community down. Instead of developing and promoting each other, we find problems. As a small community we need to join forces.” He is disillusioned with the Bombay Parsi Punchayet knowing that his paying guest, from whom he hopes to recover his premises, has a housing application pending with the Punchayet for the last nearly five decades. "We need to be with it in a global India; not be buried in mountains of bureaucracy,” he adds.

Having read his views on the community in Sooni Taraporevala’s Parsis — The Zoroastrians of India — A Photographic Journey wherein he is featured in the "Generation Next” sec­tion, we tried telling him that we won’t waste his time with similar questions. A disappointed Oshidar tried to fake offence at such an approach so we allowed him his say: "The community needs one big enema. It is one thing to propagate your religious customs and way of life but it can never be done so as to (belittle) others. I’m very happy to be a Parsi. I think we are incredible as a community but this does not mean that we are better than any other community. How can you be? I would never propagate that to my daughters. They would be free to marry whomsoever they choose.” The reluctance to accept children of intercommunity mar­riages makes him question: "Do you want the race or the religion? Make up your mind!”

The obsession with dakhmenashini, vultures and the proposed aviary which he is convinced can never be viable has now prompted him to see the humor in the situation. He is wondering whether he should try his hand at one of his ingenious promotions on this sub­ject. Along the lines of "Mr Vulture, meet Ms Vulture...Now may we have some baby vultures?” Special­izing in voice-