Nikhil J Alva
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Nikhil J Alva is a producer, serial entrepreneur, political strategist, author, & climate change crusader. Often referred to as the "Big Boss of Reality TV", Nikhil J Alva founded Miditech, a powerful television and film studio along with his brother Niret Alva, in the early 90's[1]. The two brothers were more familiarly known as the "Alva Brothers" and together they created a slew of hit shows, across genres, for broadcasters like Discovery, National Geographic, Star Plus, Star World, SONY, ZEE, BBC, MTV, Cartoon Network, Pogo, Playhouse Disney, Viacom18, Doordarshan, Channel News Asia and many others. Amongst the major series the Alva Brothers have produced are Indian Idol for Sony, Survivor for Star Plus[2], Fame Gurukul for SONY, Sesame Street (Galli Galli Sim Sim) for POGO & Doordarshan, The Great Escape for Star World, Living on the Edge for Doordarshan and Star Plus, Wheels for the BBC, Deal or No Deal for SONY, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here for SONY, Saara Aakash for Star Plus.
Nikhil J Alva is credited with creating the MTV Roadies format, that has been the channel's flagship show, for 2 decades now. This show was produced by him and Niret Alva, for the first 5 seasons, and in those early days it was a show that was meant to inspire the youth of India to give back to society. Amongst the incredible talent that the Alva Brothers caste on the show, who went on to become celebrities in their own right, were Ayushman Khurrana[3] and Rannvijay Singha.
Another hit show that broke all ratings records that was produced and directed by Nikhil J Alva, was Fame Gurukul, on SONY, on which the legendary singing sensation, Arijit Singh was discovered.[4]
Since the early 90's Nikhil and his brother Niret have produced thousands of hours of original content for broadcasters all over the world and have won over a hundred awards in India and internationally too, including a Panda Award, more familiarly known as the "Green Oscar" at Wildscreen in Bristol, in 1996, for their path break conservation series, Living on the Edge. [5]
Nikhil J Alva is married to Pria Somiah, an award-winning international documentary television producer and director[6]. His younger brother, Nivedith Alva, is a politician with the Indian National Congress in Karnataka and the recipient of the Chevening Gurukul Scholarship to Oxford in 2022. Nivedith is also a television producer who has collaborated with his siblings on a number of famous television projects.
ICICI Venture invested into Miditech in 2000, helping the Alva Brothers scale their studio, opening branches in Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Singapore. The company grew strongly, employing hundreds of creative professionals, many of whom have gone on to become industry leaders. Amongst these is Monika Shergill, the head of Netflix in India and Apurva Purohit, the head of Amazon in India. In fact, almost every major broadcaster and production company in India has professionals who have worked at Miditech at some point in their careers.
In 2007, Nikhil Alva and his brother Niret, set up a broadcasting joint venture with Time Warner/ Turner to launch a Hindi General Entertainment Network called REAL. [7]However, due to the financial crash in 2008, the funding for the project dried up and the channel shut down within a year of launch. The Alva Brothers and Time Warner/ Turner were involved in prolonged litigation as a result of the shutting down of the channel with the case moving from the High Court to the Supreme Court and finally SIAC arbitration in Singapore, before being amicably settled.
In 2017 news reports emerged of Nikhil J Alva master minding Rahul Gandhi's emergence as a social media star, particularly on Twitter, with millions of new followers. Nikhil Alva's influence on the Congress Party's 2019 General Election campaign was also reported widely in the press.[8] He was made a member of the Congress Party's Publicity Committee and he reportedly travelled with Rahul Gandhi to every election meeting, creating access points for the mainstream media to interview and get to know the main opposition candidate and the challenger to Prime Minister Modi. However, the Congress Party campaign, built around the idea of NYAY,[9] was blown away by the nationalist blitz that followed the Pulwama attack, sweeping the BJP and Prime Minister Modi back to power.
In the lead up to the general elections, a complaint was filed by a lady neighbor of Nikhil J Alva, alleging harassment. Nikhil J Alva claimed that it was a false and politically motivated complaint, designed to malign him. On reviewing the material on record, the High Court stayed all action in the case, in December 2018. [10]
In 2023, Nikhil J Alva signed a contract with HarperCollins to publish his first novel, "The Wailing of the Bamboo", a love story set against the backdrop of the Mizo Guerrilla war in the 60's, triggered by the famine brought about by the bamboo flowering, in which thousands of Mizo's died.
References
- ↑ Chowdhry, Seema (2008-08-08). "Nikhil J Alva | The big boss of reality TV". mint. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ "Survivor comes to India". The Times of India. 2012-01-05. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ "Ayushmann Khurrana looks back at his Roadies days". Hindustan Times. 2020-01-31. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ "Did You Know Arijit Singh Started Out As A Contestant On Fame Gurukul? Check Out How He Performed". ScoopWhoop. 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ "Nikhil and Niret Alva get Green Oscar for their Living on the Edge series". India Today. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ "We wanted to capture the change in the mindset: Pria Somaiah Alva". DNA India. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ "Turner International and Alva Brothers to jointly launch Hindi GEC - Exchange4media". Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ Anshuman, Kumar (2019-04-08). "Margaret Alva's son Nikhil behind Congress' just-launched 'ab hoga nyay' campaign". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ Anshuman, Kumar (2019-04-08). "Margaret Alva's son Nikhil behind Congress' just-launched 'ab hoga nyay' campaign". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ "witter.com/njalva/status/1074558136642662400". Twitter. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
External links
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