When Arvind Aradhya sent a text message to enter India's newest reality television show he was not dreaming of fame or fortune: all the 18-year-old craved was to be well educated. Last night his wish was granted when he was crowned the first champion of the most unusual concept to be seen on Indian TV: Scholar Hunt, Destination UK.
Forget Pop Idol or Fame Academy. In India teenagers queued in the streets for the chance to study at one of five British universities: Warwick, Leeds, Cardiff, Sheffield or Middlesex. Television executives were so confident that the format would prove a success that they scheduled it for prime time: 7pm on Saturday. The programme is best described as The Apprentice meets The Weakest Link with a little of America's sleeper hit Spellbound thrown in.
Eight weeks of demanding exams, tough interviews, a Mastermind-style quiz show, timed questions inside a glass chamber and a final showdown culminated in a £45,000 scholarship to study engineering at Warwick University for Aradhya, who comes from a middle-class family in Bangalore. For the rest, it ended in tears. After all, in a country obsessed with education, this is a prize coveted by millions of school pupils.
In episodes yet to be seen in India, other finalists will battle for places on courses in biomedical sciences, computing, management and journalism.
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