India's take on the worldwide hit reality TV show Big Brother hit millions of screens this month, with its producers hoping the show will capitalise on the country's obsession with celebrities.

Titled Bigg Boss in India, the programme follows the international format and features 13 celebrity contestants closeted in a house near Mumbai for three months with no access to the outside world.

Each week, one of them will be voted out.

"The concept is same but we have toned down the sexuality aspect as the original show was explicit. We have basically 'Indianised' the show," Sandiip Sikcand, Creative Director of the show, said.

Even so, it is causing problems for some young Indian viewers who don't know where to look when their more conservative parents are in the room.

Student Vividha Kaul says Bigg Boss is like a gripping soap opera but not something she can watch with her family.

"There's a transvestite talking about earning money for his sex-change operation. So I do feel slightly uncomfortable watching it with my grandmother," says Kaul.

The winner will take home Rs 500,000 ($11,210) once he or she emerges victorious from the a life of constant scrutiny, courtesy of 28 cameras and 56 microphones.

Contestants include Indian models, television actors--and the gay transvestite. Except for its host, Arshad Warsi, no mainstream Bollywood actor is taking part.

Warsi, riding high after the success of his latest film Lage Raho Munnabhai, a hit Bollywood comedy about a gangster's tryst with Mahatma Gandhi, said he jumped at the chance to host the reality show.

"Indians don't have any pre-conceived notion of a show like this. We can call it a celebrity peep-show because Indians are curious about celebrities and want to know how they live," he said.

The show, which is broadcast five days a week after 9 pm, has generated its share of loyal viewers of the Sony channel.

"It's an opportunity to see celebrities without make-up. After all, who doesn't want to take a look inside someone else's house?" said Swaty Prakash, an editor at a publishing firm.