Mumbai, Jan 6 (IANS) Bollywood filmmakers Karan Johar and Rohit Shetty are hunting for new superstars for the Hindi filmdom with their upcoming reality TV show "India's Next Superstars".
With the tagline 'No Khaandaan (no family), No Sifaarish (no recommendation)' -- the filmmakers are giving an opportunity to individuals only based on their talent and craft.
Karan, who has previously launched star children such as Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan says that he purposely chose "raw" talents for the Star Plus's show.
"We have actually auditioned people across India. In fact 24,600 contestants were at the first batch and 32,000 in the second and then in the final batch, we had 18,000 from the west wing so we near had a lakh... The sieving came down to 80 (,000). Rohit and I were put in a room and from that 80 we came down to 20 (,000). So, it was a proper process and now they are all raw. We purposely we went for the raw talents because we feel those are the one's who have talent intrinsically but haven't got the chance or platform," Karan told IANS in a group interview.
The filmmaker, who is all set to launch veteran actress Sridevi's daughter Janhvi Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor's brother Ishaan Khattar in "Dhadak", says that acting is one of the most important aspect of entertainment.
"There have been (entertainment reality) shows but it has not been on this scale. If a person wins hereAthey will get a prominent role in a Rohit Shetty film or a Karan Johar film or a collaboration of ours along with Fox Star. So we have really put our names on the line that it will happen," Karan said.
Rohit, who is also collaborating with Karan for the upcoming film "Simmba" starring Ranveer Singh, praised the filmmaker, saying working on the show with the "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" director was fun.
Talking about working with Karan on "India's Next Superstars", Rohit told IANS in a group interview: "Everyone know's how Karan is. He is the best host we have on television and it's fun with him. When you'd see the first episode we have actually made it into a comedy show... I was like that 'Kahin Ram Lakhan Mere Saath Na Banjaye' after watching all the episodes."
Karan added: "We had great fun. When you have a personal fondness, it immediately shows on screen."
The filmmakers will be judging 20 budding talents from which two -- male and female talents will be given an opportunity to work with the ace filmmakers. The show will air from January 13.