Dr. Annie Gray

We had a top 40 program and of the top 10, basically like seven would be Indian or Iranian or Turkish songs.

So yeah, from there, Afghan Stars seemed like a simple format to try to find new talent on the ground in Afghanistan that can do music and we sort of try to nurture it.

Starting a show like this in a country where the media had been severely restricted wasn't easy.

On purpose, we didn't pick up anyone with TV experience because the people who had media and TV experience generally worked for the national television and they were still living in the 80s in terms of how they approached things.

So we're dealing with young kids, probably in the early 20s, with little understanding of broader media and just smart kids willing to do things and try things out.

through the school of hard knocks of production effectively.

I mean, again, none of these people had any idea of production and, you know, people were like bricklayers or taxi drivers that come in and they're like, oh, you're in charge of this show and we're going to run around and do stuff.

And yeah, so through that, we ended up having like pretty good producers that technically didn't have any training, but were able to pick up shows and managed to do some, you know,

leading show in a country with a lot of pressure from everyone and being able to get that up and running.

And I'd argue probably harder than it is in the West because you're dealing with multiple levels of difficulty, not just getting people there in studio on time, but is the power working and is it going to get shut down?

Afghan Star followed a similar format to other singing talent shows.

There were the auditions, with the usual mix of talented and not-so-talented people taking part.

Do-ya-da!

Don't nobody knows how she feels.

Three judges then decided who made it through to the public voting round of the contest.

People were then texting each week with who they wanted to win.

From the West, the assumption is that this thing is like American Idol type thing, but it was really not.

It was in some ways more towards Masterchef than it was American Idol, you know, where...

We're trying to push through positivity of music and unity of the country.

And also, whenever you take up formats, there's a lot of limitations on what you can do.