Keshet International’s (KI) talent format Rising Star has been re-commissioned for a second and third series by Colors TV, Viacom18’s flagship entertainment brand in India. Following the success of series one, which attracted an average audience share of 30% and three million voters across the series, Optimystix Entertainment will produce another two 24 x 90 series for the leading Hindi-language channel which will be launched in January 2018.

Series one of the local version launched in a prime-time slot on Colors TV in February this year and marked the country’s first ever real time voting show, attracting approximately three million voters across the series. The hotly anticipated series finale culminated in a tense and nail-biting conclusion, in which two singers were separated by only 0.2% of the audience vote. The finale also saw acclaimed actor and producer Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire) appear as guest judge.

Rising Star, the fastest-selling talent show on record, has achieved success for broadcasters worldwide in terms of audience share and digital engagement. In the Asian region, two seasons of the format have aired successfully in Indonesia (where it won the Panasonic Gobel Award for Best Program Talent Show & Reality Show in 2015) and in China (CCTV-3) its finale was the leading programme of the night across the country. A Cambodian version (Town TV) is in the pipeline. Created and produced by Tedy Productions and Keshet Broadcasting, upwards of 160 million votes have been cast for Rising Star series worldwide to date.

The deal adds to Keshet International’s increasing presence India following the company’s recent sale of unscripted reality dating format Girlfri3nds to Discovery’s TLC in India, and Star India’s adaptation of Keshet’s International format Prisoners of War, which follows two soldiers as they attempt to re-adjust to their lives after returning home from captivity for 17 years.