When a travel show promises to adopt a different path to discover India and that too through the eyes of a young heart, one believes it would take the viewers on a refreshing voyage. “It Happens Only in India”, a new travel show to be aired this month end on FOX History & Entertainment channel, promises to be on this line. The show anchor is popular radio jockey Malishka.
Known for its mysterious beliefs, India comprises culturally rich cities. This series plans totake you on a journey to 13 such cities across India, discovering en route the oldest, unique and often bizarre places and people that live there. Malishka says the show will allow viewers to critically analyse places they have been to before but whose practices they were unaware of.
“The audience will be able to relate to the show as they will see these places through a modern perception,” she says.
Most of the shooting for the show has been completed and the host says she had a great time doing it. “It was a dream come true for me. When I told my friends I am going to host this travel show they were all jealous of me,” she says. Every youngster, she believes, dreams of exploring his or her country.
While exploring the cities of northern India she got an opportunity to meet the Bhil tribe of Jaisalmer and Udaipur. “I met various tribes in a gathering; a few of them fought alongside Maharana Pratap. For them organising such gatherings is a regular thing,” she says.
Malishka will explore in her show the city of Delhi too. Talking about what is in the Delhi part, she talks of shooting in the Feroz Shah Kotla ruins. “In the ruins of Feroz Shah Kotla, people gather and pray to the djinns in the hope that their wishes will come true. It is a beautiful place but as you go down you will find it all bat-infested,” she says, adding that a lot of regular visitors believe these bats are there to bless them. “People enter the place with coins in their hands and try to stick them to the wall. If they stick to the wall the wish will come true,” she says. The faith and hope in these beliefs is extremely deep rooted. While shooting there, Malishka met an old woman who is a regular visitor to the place for the last 40 years but none of her wishes have ever come true. “But her faith in the djinns is alive.”
Malishka, who has always been a mere voice to listeners, will now come in front of the camera with this show. She says, “Working for the radio gives you an opportunity to be yourself. However, television is something I always wanted to do. It's a very creative medium and this show has given me full freedom to be myself. The show is not even scripted.”
