MasterChef India (Hindi TV series)

MasterChef is based on the Australian series MasterChef. The competition takes place in the MasterChef soundstage located in Mumbai, India which includes a large kitchen area with several cooking stations which is overlooked by a balcony, a well-stocked pantry, a freezer/fridge area and a fine-dining restaurant/seating dining area room used for certain challenges.

While the particular format of the season has slightly varied over the years, the following challenges have all been regularly featured:

• Skills Test: Cooks are challenged to perform a list of common cooking techniques or styles, or to replicate a particular cooking method of a dish (i.e. steaks done to an exact wellness). This type of test is also sometimes used as an Elimination Test.
• Mystery Box: Cooks are all given a box with the same ingredients and must use only those ingredients to create a dish within a fixed amount of time. The judges will select three dishes based on visual appearance and technique alone to taste, and from these three select one winner who usually gains an advantage of some type in the elimination test.
• Elimination Test: After the challenge is explained, judges evaluate all dishes based on taste and visual appeal. The judges nominate the worst dishes for elimination and criticize them before eliminating at least one contestant.
• Team Challenge: The cooks are split into teams by either team captains or the judges. They often occur in a restaurant takeover or pop-up restaurant taking the place of the staff of a particular restaurant. Diners taste both meals and vote for their favorite. The winning team advances, while the losing team will participate in the Pressure Test or face elimination based on the teams' performance.
• Pressure Test: Another form of the Elimination Test, in which losing team members compete against each other to make a standard dish within a very limited amount of time that requires a great degree of cooking finesse. Each dish is judged on taste, visual appeal and technique, and the losing chef is eliminated.

Once the competition is reduced to either the final two or three competitors, the finalists will compete against each other in a three-course cook-off. All courses of the meal are judged and an overall winner is crowned. The winner of seventh season won ₹ 25,00,000, a MasterChef trophy, and the title of MasterChef. Some seasons have also added other prizes such as a cookbook deal.

In 2010, Star India licensed the rights for producing MasterChef India in Hindi.[22]

From 2023, the show will air on Sony Entertainment Television.

Season 1 opened with an average ratings of 2.6 TVR.[23] The following week, it garnered 2.5 TVR.[24] Overall it ranged around over 2 and 3 TVR.[25] The finale garnered the highest viewership rating of 4.2 TVR.[26]

Season 2 premiered with 2.01 TVR and ended with 2.6 TVR.[27][28]

Season 3 opened with 2.2 TVR while the following weeks garnered a decent ratings between 2 and 2.3 TVR the finale became the most watched reality show of the week with 3.7 TVR.[27][28]

Season 6 garnered low ratings ranging 0.8 and 1.1 TRP.[29]

• Official website of MasterChef India Season 2 Archived 14 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine
• Official website of MasterChef India Season 3 Archived 3 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine