Everest (Indian TV series)

A group of students enrol in the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, in Uttarkashi, for undergoing training to climb Mount Everest. Anjali Singh Rawat (Shamata Anchan), who feels neglected by her father, wishes to win his love by fulfilling his dream of climbing Everest. Aakash Joshi (Rohan Gandotra) is a videographer, who is to make a documentary on Arjun Sabharwal's (Sahil Salathia) expedition to Everest. As the plot proceeds a relationship between Anjali and Aakash fruitions.

Eight mountaineers — Colonel Arun Abhyankar (Milind Gunaji), Arjun, Aakash, Chaand (Diganta Hazarika) and four sherpas — make their way to Mount Everest after climbing the base camp, while Anjali climbs the base camp alone. In the journey, one sherpa falls in a valley while the mountaineers encounter loose snow near Camp 2. The team is saved from death by Arun, though they encounter constant hurdles owing to lost ropes and oxygen tanks, and snow. The team tries to contact Nasir (Aditya Raj Kapoor) and others, trapped at Camp 4, but they find him near death when they reach the camp.

With favourable weather, Arun decides to resume climb while Aakash remains at Camp 4 for there is insufficient oxygen. The climbers are hit with a dangerous storm, and Arjun leaves for the south summit alone without informing anyone; he had wanted to climb Everest without oxygen. Arjun soon passes out and is buried in snow, though he is found later. He informs of his wish to not continue to mission sponsor, Ramesh Roongta (Rajat Kapoor), who fears damage to his reputation and is furious. At the base camp, Ramesh tells Major Sameer (Mohan Kapoor) of his promise to his shareholders of flying their corporation's flag at the Everest summit.

As Arjun does not wish to continue, Arun tells Tashi and Chaand to prepare to descend, as Ramesh had funded the expedition for Arjun; hence the team cannot continue without Ramesh's permission. Tara loses her life in the ensuing journey and Arun sustains internal injuries at Camp 3. Chaand is asked to lead Aakash and Anjali to the summit. At the Hillary Step, following strong winds, Chaand dies. Soon later, Anjali and Aakash successfully reach the summit.

Anjali waves the Indian flag on the top of the summit, which is live streamed by Aakash. After her success in climbing Mount Everest Anjali received the love and support she wanted from her father

In 2014, Afaqs described Everest as "high on investment", while Gaurav Banerjee, the general manager of STAR Plus, stated Everest to be "a television show at a scale bigger than any other show".[16] The cost of production per episode was ₹35 lakhs.[17] Gowariker had mentioned his interest of giving the television audience a cinematic experience through Everest.[18] It was also reported that Everest led to a delay in Gowariker's film Mohenjo Daro, as he had come up with both concepts at the same time.[19] Produced by Ashutosh Gowariker Productions Private Limited, Everest is Gowariker's television debut as a producer.[16] It was slated to telecast 100 episodes.[20][21][22]

The show has been directed by Glenn Baretto and Ankush Mohla, and edited by Dilip Deo.[16][23] The story along with the series screenplay is written by Mitali Mahajan and Gowariker, while the episodic screenplay is written by Bhavani Iyer.[16] Preeti Mamgain, Lalit Marathe, Manisha Korde, and Mridul have written the dialogues for Everest.[16][24] Other crew members included Amar Shetty as action director; Aparna Raina as art director; Alphonse Roy, Mahesh Aney and Piyush Shah as cinematographers; Preeti Sharma as costume designer; Vikram Gaikwad as make-up artist; and, Lochan Kanvinde as sound-designer.[16]

The music of Everest is composed by A. R. Rahman, for whom the telenovela is his television debut.[25] Rahman reportedly used tracks created by students from his music college for Everest.[23]

The promotional for Everest was released on 18 October 2014.[38] Indo-Asian News Service stated Everest being endorsed as "the most ambitious project on Indian television".[18] In an effort to ensure audience connection, the makers interpreted the title Everest to be metaphorical of every individual's personal struggle to overcome hurdles and accomplish something.[39] The trailers of the telenovela resonated with this idea,[40] which were released in the theatres along with the release of the Bollywood film, Happy New Year.[26]

STAR Plus also launched a campaign titled #WhatsYourEverest on radio, television, and social networking sites asking people about their "personal Everest", in collaboration with its presenting sponsor, Fair & Lovely, which launched an initiative to economically assist women.[41] The show was also sponsored by Godrej Ezee and Vinod Cookware.[42] Times of India promoted the show by asking celebrities about their "Everest".[43]

STAR Plus also collaborated with selective outlets of Costa Coffee in India to create a special zone called the "Everest zone" in their cafés, where the temperature was to be approximately 5 °C (41 °F), with waiters serving customers who will be given jackets for protection.[26] This initiative was started in Indian cities on 22 October 2014, and was to reportedly continue throughout working hours for a couple of weekends. Madhok said that this was done to ensure people get an experience of how it feels like to be at Everest.[38] Marketing and promotions was also done by booking two thousand spots and through YouTube, MSN, thirty television channels, and 3-D hoardings.[26][38] Media planners reported the ad-rate for Everest to be four times more than average regular rates that a television fiction show demands. They also reported that out of the total budget an estimated twenty per-cent was to be spent on marketing.[26]

The launch of the telenovela included crew members from departments such as the department of costume and the department of photography.[18] Nikhil Madhok, the senior vice president of marketing and programming at STAR Plus, said that the telenovela should "break the clutter".[26] Everest premiered on STAR Plus on 3 November 2014.[44][45]

The television viewer ratings (TVTs) for Everest's first week stood at 2,845 TVTs.[17] Following its premiere, Everest received negative criticism from Firstpost.[46] Everest ended its run on 1 March 2015,[47] after telecasting 102 episodes.[1] Indiantelevision.com, in 2015, noted that despite high production costs and advanced technology used, shows such as Everest, produced and created by filmmakers, would not make a mark on television until they "reflect the taste and preference of Indian viewers"; such shows would have to "re-orient themselves for television" as "the grammar of storytelling on television is different from films".[17]

In 2017, commenting on the show's run, Shamata Anchan of the cast stated that the show did not do well with regards to television ratings given it being "something new" and stated the same can be worked on by building audience acceptance.[48] The same year, Outlook Business had noted that shows such as Everest "have not exactly been runaway hits on the small screen".[49] Sameer Nair, then CEO of Balaji Telefilms, told Outlook Business that "movie makers have never been successful at making TV shows".[49]

• List of media related to Mount Everest

• Official Website on Hotstar
• Everest at IMDb