Indian Deal for Emmy-Winning ALL3MEDIA Format

LONDON, June 25: ALL3MEDIA International’s hit format Cash Cab—which recently received a Daytime Emmy for outstanding game show for its Discovery Channel U.S. version—has been picked up for local adaptation by UTV in India.

The Indian edition, with 13 episodes ordered, will film in Mumbai, beginning in July, for broadcast on UTV’s Bindass channel. UTV’s Ajit Thakur said of the show: “It’s so much more than a quiz show with the city, iconic cabs and its people. Which is why it’s all the more exciting for India. Cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta have so much to offer—buzzing streets, all kinds of people, the characters like traffic cops and streetside hawkers, the monuments, and not to forget the great Indian taxi. UTV and Bindass are both very confident that Cash Cab will be a very successful show in India.”

The format recently clinched a deal in Japan, where Future Planet is in production on a version for Fuji TV. ALL3MEDIA notes that more than 2,500 episodes are being produced worldwide in more than 50 territories. Other recent deals include a renewal by XYZ in Australia and a pilot filming in Italy.

Nick Catliff, the joint managing director of the show’s original producer, Lion Television, noted: “The beauty of the Cash Cab format is that it cuts across national, cultural and language barrier—let’s face it, cab drivers everywhere like to talk. Some are funny and charming, some are just very opinionated, but everyone always thinks

that the cabbies in their own particularly country are ‘gobby’ geezers. Turn that character into a quiz show host, get him to ambush you when you least expect it and you have a format that we can all relate to—it has jeopardy, humor and just a little bit of cruelty.”

—By Mansha Daswani