TV stars never had it so bad.
First, you saw them sweat, pant, cry and exult on Nach Baliye. Now Sony will show

them, shorn of makeup, biting their nails, cyring out in pain, howling in fear. Welcome to Fear Factor India, that debuts on Sony tonight.

"It was nerve wracking," admits Chetan Hansraj. The five days spent at the Endemol facility in Kuala Lumpur brought out the best, and the worst in the dashing actor, thus far confined to portraying his histrionic skills in Balaji soaps. "They took us blindfolded to the venue, drove us in circles till we didn't know where we were, and let us open our eyes only we were at the exact venue where we had to perform the stunt. And then, they wouldn't even let us go to the loo for half an hour before the stunt," he laughs.

"Man, they really put the pressure on us," concurs Amit Sareen, who was one of the six TV celebs who participated in the first 13 episode run of Fear Factor India. The fact that the editions of Malaysia and Indonesia were also being shot at the same time in September last year hardly helped, the Indian one was the only one doing its first season.

"I did my best to put people at ease," says host Mukul Dev, "sometimes, even egging people on to take on the risk they wanted to back out of. And then there were times like when I had to nearly shout at Mansi (Verma) to quit yelling....she really got hyper when the worms crawled over her!" he laughs.

In retrospect, the actors, roped in to provide the glam quotient to the reality show, feel it was a good idea to be 'exposed' in quite a different fashion than they usually do.

But why just TV stars? "Well, simply because television stars' availability is easier to ensure than that of Bollywood stars," acknowledges Endemol India MD Rajesh Kamat.

There's a jackpot of Rs 10,00,000 awaiting the winner after each episode, in which TV stars will be interspersed with ordinary citizens. There have been stringent medical check ups for all participants before they plunge from skyscrapers or agree to get buried with snakes, but nevertheless, are made to sign an indemnity bond, just as a formality!