Climb every mountain, they said. But what can be better than the tallest of 'em all, the 8,848-metre Mount Everest? And what if you and I get a shot at the peak that yielded to Tenzing and Hillary in May 1953? In the 50th year of the Everest conquest, the Indian Army has tied up with the National Geographic Channel to allow five average Indians to be part of their team for the commemorative expedition along with the Royal Nepalese Army.
The NGC contest 'Everest Se Takkar' will go on air from Republic Day, inviting entries from anybody above 18. Fifty people from Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai and Bangalore will be screened again to produce the final 20 after a series of rigorous physical, medical and psychometric tests. The finalists will all undergo three weeks' training and tests at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering to yield the five men of steel who get to accompany the army team of 29. These heroes will be helped by a six-member NGC production crew and support team, which is already undergoing training at the Dokrian Barak Glacier in the Garhwal Himalayas.
Maj Chandrashekhar Manda, deputy leader of the army team, is obviously having fun while working for the army. "How many people," he says, "are aware that the army has an adventure wing and a mountaineering wing? I hope the youth of India will be inspired by the awesome spirit of adventure that mountaineering projects." The joint army team will also climb the fourth-highest peak, Lhotse (8,518 m), he said, hoping that the five heroes should be able to make it to the base camp, which is about two-thirds of the journey.
For NGC, it's the biggest creative experiment so far. Costing Rs 11 crore, it's the first local programming move in a country that's its third largest market. NGC will shoot the entire selection and training procedure and the actual climb that will be flagged off on March 3. The resulting reality TV series will go on air in April. The Everest programme also includes a global tentpole already shot, "Surviving Everest", which recreates the first climb with Tenzing and Hillary's sons, accompanied by NG explorer Brent Bishop's son. Zubin Gandevia, MD, expects a 50 per cent jump in advertising revenues and 40 per cent lift-off in viewership. By the time the expedition returns to Delhi in June, the NGC and army will in all likelihood have pulled off a coup.