Travelxp HD hits the Food Highway with the new show

In a gradually cluttering market, travel / food channels have predominantly been telecasting from luxury restaurants and fine dines, to local and world street food, and from royal delights to ‘Indianised’ content desiring to satisfy their viewer’s taste buds. Though a relatively new member in the game; Travelxp HD promises to offer something different on its plate with its new show Food Highway.

Hitting the highways on 17th November; with the first season on an Indian note, the show ventures out to National Highway 4 which runs 1235 km from Mumbai to Chennai. From Vada Pav of Mumbai to Special Mutton Rann on Western Express Highway to Misal Pav of Pune to Kandi pedas of Satara to Tamda Pandra Rassa of Kolhapur to Kundaa of Belgaum to Ragi balls in Chitradurga to South Indian delicacies in Bengaluru to Grills in Chennai - the journey encompasses food, culture and essence of every place. The show will be hosted by a popular face of the channel and foodie – Rohan (of Foodicted and Strictly Street fame). The show will rove out not only to places in India but also across the globe showcasing confluence of cultures and exploring a culinary paradise

Adgully caught up with Prashant Chothani, CEO, travelxp HD to know more about the concept and the journey of the show.

Explaining about the rationale and the concept of the show, Chothani said, “Food is very integral part of our lives. We have already done shows like Foodicted and Strictly Street Food earlier, but this time we want the viewers to experience the excellent food that the highway food vendors have to offer. These vendors don’t really bother about fancy notions like marketing or promotional activities. Strange but true, slowly and steadily, our cities have ‘westernised food’ to offer, while the highways are high on authenticity and taste. Through Food Highway, we are taking a viewer through a journey that we experienced while on the highway, where not only place but also cultures and food habits change every 20 kms. The show will highlight this change”

Chothani also clarified our doubts about the show (the first look of it) having resemblance to another show and said, “ Our show Food Highway is essentially a journey based food show, where if in one episode we leave you in Pune, we begin the next episode from that city only. There is a continuation in the characteristics of the show, unlike other shows where they travel to places and end-up eating in cities. Our focus and interest is on travelling to locations, but not leaving our viewers hungry!”

Speaking about the influence of digitization on the travel channel, Chothani said, “Since ours is HD channel, which runs only digital set-top boxes and not analogue, the movement is a boon of sorts. But at the same time, I must say that HD content is not pushed as much as it is needed to. A lot of DTH operators are facilitating this issue with provision of HD boxes, but that we believe is not enough. Though we do receive a lot of traction on digital boxes, a lot of distributors have been asking us for SD content as well. Also, the need for creating premium and niche content is growing simultaneously.”

The channel boast of producing all content in-house with all creative’s done by Indian teams. Chothani stated that the channel, since its inception has been creating global content from India and not vice-versa! “It’s high time that the world realises and accounts India’s talent. In a scenario when other channels are producing niche content from global companies, it is a matter of pride for us to flaunt our in-house Indian team putting up international content”, he said.

Currently, the subscription – based channel runs ad-free. Chothani commenting on their approach to customised content said, “Though we are distributing internationally, we are still awaiting more traction of HD set-top boxes, following which something substantial can be thought of.”

Travelxp HD started its journey in 2011 as India's first high definition (HD) travel channel. The content is shot in native HD & in English with hosts from across the globe, thereby providing a truly International look and feel of the geographies covered.