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On the early stages of Ring Ka King: This is something that's been in the works for quite some time. I initially spoke to Jeff Jarrett about this around a year ago. He initially presented this vague project, and a few months down the line we started working on it a little more in depth. Last December we shot the first 12 episodes of the season and it just snowballed from there. Everybody on Endemol and Colors TV has been phenomenal with the integration of wrestling into the Indian market. When you're in Mumbai and other major Indian cities right now, there are billboards and posters everywhere. You can't escape Ring Ka King over there.
On his role in Ring Ka King: When Jeff approached me about this project, and you can't blame him or anybody else, nobody really knew anything about the Indian culture. Being from an Indian family and speaking Hindi, I guess I was the frontrunner as far in directing the crew as far as the Indian culture and customs were concerned. Jeff put me on the creative team, that's kind of my behind the scenes work. It's definitely a different world than here in North America and we really needed someone who could connect both of those worlds together, and I guess that was me.
On the significance of the promotion in India: I am kind of shocked that WWE or anybody else hasn't capitalized on the Indian market. Nobody's had any live events there since WWE's last tour which was many years ago. There's never been an Indian promotion that's made for Indians by Indians. Wrestling has always been imported from the States with WWE TV and TNA TV. This is the first time that we've created something that's entirely for India. Road Dogg and I went over there in September and we actually had 2 days of auditions where 200 Indians showed up. We got a few people that were wrestling fans and wanted to do this but the majority of the people who showed up I don't think they had ever even watched wrestling. It was an open casting call. A lot of the casting agencies in Mumbai were involved and they sent a lot of talent our way. There is no wrestling scene in India other than the imported American television. Other than that there's no wrestling scene, there's no indies, no promotions, no local stuff so it's just basically a television show to them. But there's a form of amateur wrestling so a lot of those guys showed up to these auditions. Definitely athletes showed up. Like I said, about 200 Indian auditioned. We selected 50 initially and then we narrowed that down to the 15 Indians that you see on the show. Savio Vega and Nick Dinsmore spent about 2 to 3 months over there training them and getting them ready for Ring Ka King. It's really an amazing project from start to finish. It's just the fact that we're seeing the growth of these guys that were literally picked up off the street and now they are legitimate stars in India.
On the positive reception from the Indian audience: It was amazing. We didn't know what to expect going into this whole project. We had an idea of what we wanted during our conversations with Colors TV and Endemol, but we didn't know if they could deliver or if it was going to look like what we wanted it to look like. We were completely blown away; the audiences were amazing. When we taped 4 days over there last December, every day just got better and better. We couldn't have asked for anything more, it just fell right into our hands. Like I said, it's a completely virgin territory. This is the first time they're seeing this, so those reactions are completely genuine and it's probably the greatest feeling to be able to perform in front of an audience like that.
And the show itself is a fun wrestling show. It's different than what's out there right now. We're just trying to present it as an authentic wrestling show to a completely new market. We're getting viewers in India that are wrestling fans and people that are not wrestling fans because that type of programming is seen when people are flipping channels. People are watching. We got the ratings for the first show and it was amazing. Everybody at Colors, Endemol and TNA is happy. We're definitely hoping for a very prosperous road ahead of us.
On his heel character on the show: Coming out as a babyface would have been the easiest role to play, but this is sort of a challenge for me. I was skeptical of it at first because I didn't know if they would boo me or hate me. They would see me that I'm one of them, but everything has clicked. I have to do my promos in both English and Hindi so that's a challenge that I've never done before. It's definitely something that I'm feeling really comfortable with. Growing up in an Indian household, it's in your blood, so getting to actually wrestle in India in front of Indians is amazing. Heel or babyface, no matter what the character, I was definitely stoked to just be out there.
On who can take credit for the creation of the Mumbai Cats: [laughs] The Mumbai Cats are actually everybody's favourite. Wait till you see what they've got in store for you.
On his role in Ring Ka King: When Jeff approached me about this project, and you can't blame him or anybody else, nobody really knew anything about the Indian culture. Being from an Indian family and speaking Hindi, I guess I was the frontrunner as far in directing the crew as far as the Indian culture and customs were concerned. Jeff put me on the creative team, that's kind of my behind the scenes work. It's definitely a different world than here in North America and we really needed someone who could connect both of those worlds together, and I guess that was me.
On the significance of the promotion in India: I am kind of shocked that WWE or anybody else hasn't capitalized on the Indian market. Nobody's had any live events there since WWE's last tour which was many years ago. There's never been an Indian promotion that's made for Indians by Indians. Wrestling has always been imported from the States with WWE TV and TNA TV. This is the first time that we've created something that's entirely for India. Road Dogg and I went over there in September and we actually had 2 days of auditions where 200 Indians showed up. We got a few people that were wrestling fans and wanted to do this but the majority of the people who showed up I don't think they had ever even watched wrestling. It was an open casting call. A lot of the casting agencies in Mumbai were involved and they sent a lot of talent our way. There is no wrestling scene in India other than the imported American television. Other than that there's no wrestling scene, there's no indies, no promotions, no local stuff so it's just basically a television show to them. But there's a form of amateur wrestling so a lot of those guys showed up to these auditions. Definitely athletes showed up. Like I said, about 200 Indian auditioned. We selected 50 initially and then we narrowed that down to the 15 Indians that you see on the show. Savio Vega and Nick Dinsmore spent about 2 to 3 months over there training them and getting them ready for Ring Ka King. It's really an amazing project from start to finish. It's just the fact that we're seeing the growth of these guys that were literally picked up off the street and now they are legitimate stars in India.
On the positive reception from the Indian audience: It was amazing. We didn't know what to expect going into this whole project. We had an idea of what we wanted during our conversations with Colors TV and Endemol, but we didn't know if they could deliver or if it was going to look like what we wanted it to look like. We were completely blown away; the audiences were amazing. When we taped 4 days over there last December, every day just got better and better. We couldn't have asked for anything more, it just fell right into our hands. Like I said, it's a completely virgin territory. This is the first time they're seeing this, so those reactions are completely genuine and it's probably the greatest feeling to be able to perform in front of an audience like that.
And the show itself is a fun wrestling show. It's different than what's out there right now. We're just trying to present it as an authentic wrestling show to a completely new market. We're getting viewers in India that are wrestling fans and people that are not wrestling fans because that type of programming is seen when people are flipping channels. People are watching. We got the ratings for the first show and it was amazing. Everybody at Colors, Endemol and TNA is happy. We're definitely hoping for a very prosperous road ahead of us.
On his heel character on the show: Coming out as a babyface would have been the easiest role to play, but this is sort of a challenge for me. I was skeptical of it at first because I didn't know if they would boo me or hate me. They would see me that I'm one of them, but everything has clicked. I have to do my promos in both English and Hindi so that's a challenge that I've never done before. It's definitely something that I'm feeling really comfortable with. Growing up in an Indian household, it's in your blood, so getting to actually wrestle in India in front of Indians is amazing. Heel or babyface, no matter what the character, I was definitely stoked to just be out there.
On who can take credit for the creation of the Mumbai Cats: [laughs] The Mumbai Cats are actually everybody's favourite. Wait till you see what they've got in store for you.
Edited by nWoHulkster™, 06 February 2012 - 21:27.
