Afghan Tolo TV replicates dragons den

I believe there are two important factors contributing to the success of Mohsenis, the Australian group which owns Tolo TV and a couple of other stations. They have a secured pipe of funding from the Americans and foreigners in general, for instance the new program on Tolo TV is financed by the USAID. Secondly, they don’t have to have an idea. They know the west and they know what programs are popular in the west, they merely make an Afghan replica of the popular western program. The new program on tolo ‘fikr wa talash’ is based on the popular reality show ‘Dragon’s Den’ on BBC. it is a reality TV show series where contestants pitch their business ideas to a panel of tycoons in return for cash for their companies. As for Americans they see the show to encourage Afghans to start their own enterprises, stirring entrepreneurial spirits in a country that has been ravaged by three decades of war. The program is well financed by Americans and similar to other popular TV programs on Tolo are mentored by foreign experts. David Elliot is one of the development consultant hired by USAID to produce the program for Tolo TV. The first series ended in August with the final contestant winning $20,000 towards his plastic recycling business. I have a feeling that the afghan dragons den is going to be a success following Afghan star suite. Afghan Star is another popular program on tolo which is the imitation of X factor in Britain or American idol. Dragons den stirs competition among entrepreneurs and ambitious afghan individuals; the same thing as Afghan Star. Afghans who are entrepreneur and ambitious could struggle hard to appear on the TV and bring forth the best they could, this in turn benefits the program makers. The program also involves local businessmen; this group can bring resources and knowledge of afghan market which would make the program relevant to the audience and pitchers. Finally the program would succeed because neither tolo nor businessmen pay for it. Instead both receive money from Americans to do the program.

I very much like the work the Mohseni brothers do not because they value Afghanistan and their programs are reflecting Afghanistan; contrary because they don’t care about Afghanistan and all their ideas are foreign, yet they possess the skill to interpret and implement them in Afghanistan. This is a atypical expertise to possess, the international community unlike the Mohsenis failed to implement foreign ideas successfully in Afghanistan. Reality TV programs are dominating western media and Mohsenis have realised "Reality TV is very big all over the world, that's why we wanted to make something where we could both help people, get ideas and also provide entertainment," said Masood Sanjar, a production manager for Tolo TV to a western paper. This is not to say all Mohseni ideas have succeeded. Many program ideas similarly imported from the west failed because Afghan culture did not respond to it the same way as it did to the Afghan Star or other successful programs. The unsuccessful programs were not relevant to the Afghan life and aspirations. Mohsenis quite often face the problem of finding talented and the right people to materialise their ideas or rather the ideas they import. This is not a problem peculiar to Mohsenis or Tolo TV, its hard to find skilled and crafted individuals in Afghanistan. some of the failure stories of Tolo are ‘Parda Hai Raz’ a program about paranormals and supernatural creatures and magic, this is again based on the popularity of such programs in the west. ‘Yak Rouedad wa du Didgha’ is tolo hardtalk which didn’t turn into a bit hit. ‘Diwa’ is an imitation of Talking Movies, Siasat wa Mardum is an imitation of People on Aljazeera. These are off the top of my head but there are many more failures. However in a country like Afghanistan only a few success stories count because everything else is a failure. In the west you can’t afford to fail too often because then you go bankrupted; in Afghanistan you can fail many times to make a few successes and for people like Mohsenis and Tolo TV with a few success stories there is no bankruptcy, at least in the near future, because foreign money supports entrepreneurs who think Western and talk Western.

After hearing about the new program on Tolo I actually saw a couple of stories popping out in western media about the program, the stories were full of gleam and praise, then I wonder if there is ever anything negative about Tolo and Mohsenis in the eyes of foreigners and western media. I spent the morning searching the internet to find something negative about them but no joy. Mohsenis have set up a good TV station for the wrong reasons, but that is a totally different thing. They didn’t come to Afghanistan because they believe in freedom of expression and media but rather to run a business and make money. In some regards they have certainly been dodgy. Mohsenis have dubious relationships with certain power poles in Afghanistan and certainly mistreat their staff. But that is not a source of disconcert for westerners.