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KBC again!
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Bringing back "Kaun Banega Crorepati" to starting a new channel, Star India COO Sameer Nair tells SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY that there is a lot for Indian viewers to feel good in coming months.
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With a new face... Sameer Nair, COO of Star India in New Delhi. Photo: R.V. Moorthy.
STAR INDIA Chief Operating Officer Sameer Nair is well understood when he sounds so enthused about it. Arguably the most popular game show on television, Kaun Banega Crorepati would be at long last be back on Star Plus. Amitabh Bachchan, the relished flavour of the show, has already confirmed shooting dates with the show's production company, Synergy Communications.
"By May next year, KBC should be ready for viewers," the COO states. Having signed a contract with the Delhi-based company run by quizmaster Siddharth Basu and Star India to can 390 episodes of KBC, Big B still had to shoot 85 more episodes when the show went off the air in December 2001. "The rest of the episodes would follow from early May. There won't be any basic changes in its style," Nair promises.
To make it much more interactive, an SMS facility would open for viewers to participate in the game. "Through SMS, one can answer the question being asked to the participant on the show. On giving the right answer, the viewer shall get 10 per cent of the participant's prize money," he says.
Star One
Parallel to his excitement about the return of this superbly successful game show based on the American television's highly popular "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", Nair also has other things to feel good about, the key one being the launch of Star One in October. "The channel is aimed at the upwardly mobile, younger lot, generally those living in a nuclear family in a city," he says. Though the aim is to offer fresh tele-soaps and keep it away from the usual joint family dramas, the comedy serial Khicdri on air on Star Plus till recently, would shift to it. " Khicdri would change focus from a joint family comic saga to an usual comedy serial on Star One," Nair narrates that the family would hit big money and would go on foreign trips wanting to buy monuments like Buckingham Palace and Eiffel Tower!
New serials
With its flagship channel Star Plus now receiving increasing competition from other entertainment channels, Nair is all set to introduce "at least a new serial each month for the next 12 months."
In New Delhi early this week to announce the launch of two new shows on the channel, Karma and K. Street Pali Hill, both Balaji Telefilms' production, the focus seems to shift now from women audience to men and youth. The slot chosen is 10 p.m. While Karma this Friday, K. Street Pali Hill will begin next month.
"In India, men have more options for entertainment. Unlike most women, they can go out in the night for instance. So understandably, less men end up watching entertainment channels in India. But we are trying to arrest their attention. Pali Hill is the beginning," Nair is trying out greener pastures.
"Being a player in the entertainment industry, we have serious reasons to think of entertaining people. But we have not taken up the pledge to show reality of life. We want to be good storytellers. I don't know why this confusion keeps arising," Nair maintains.
So we know now that the line between real and reel has been long drawn.
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