The Hindu : New Delhi News : All set to sport a new role now

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Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
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New Delhi

All set to sport a new role now

Madhur Tankha

Rajat Kapoor to play host to a general knowledge quiz show on National Geographic Channel

Photo: K.G Santhosh

In a new role: Actor-director Rajat Kapoor.

NEW DELHI: Bollywood actor-director Rajat Kapoor will be seen in the role of a host in a general knowledge quiz on National Geographic Channel beginning this Saturday.

The ‘Bheja Fry’ actor, who came calling to the Capital this week for the launch of the Indian version of internationally acclaimed quiz show, says: “I was initially nervous when the offer from National Geographic Channel came my way. But when I learnt that it will be a quiz show in which questions from across the globe would be asked, I really got excited. While in ‘Bheja Fry’ and ‘Corporate’ I was pretending to be some other person, here I am playing myself. I am simply amazed by the knowledge of the contestants. Now I am able to pronounce the names of the countries correctly!”

In the new quiz show, contestants will have to answer questions on different countries. Each correct answer will move the contestant to the next destination. The person who clocks the maximum amount of miles in an episode will be the winner that week. Eighteen weekly winners will then compete in the subsequent rounds followed by two semi-finals and the grand finale to find the Indian Nat Geo Genius.

Sporting a beard, Rajat says he had grown the stubble for an upcoming film, ‘Raat Gayi To Bat Gayi’. “When I passed out of the film institute in 1988, I did not want to work for the small screen. I have never watched any soap opera in my entire life and I have no desire to act in serials. I only want to make a certain kind of cinema and not make out-and-out commercial films. I wrote the script for ‘Mithya’ in 1999 and it has been lying with me for the past nine years. Initially I wanted Naseeruddin Shah to play the lead role, but couldn’t generate resources for the film. Now Ranveer Sheorey will play the lead role, while Naseeruddin Shah plays another character.”

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