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Quiz Time, folks

Siddhartha Basu returns with "Heart Beat"

ROCKING ON' Siddhartha Basu

In an age when novelty is the name of the game, Siddhartha Basu has not merely managed to survive it but excelled without doubt. Starting off on TV with the no-frills question-answer style quiz shows, he graduated to advanced versions of high-drama reality shows with the cable TV boom by producing programmes like the unbeaten Kaun Banega Crorepati. Though KBC had to fold up its second season run due to the show host, Amitabh Bachchan's ill health, Basu, basking in the glory of the programme, is now all set to return to television with yet another big game show, Heart Beat from the first day of May.

The 9.30 p.m. show, shopped from the house of Endemol, will be aired on Star One Monday through Thursday. Heart beat - Dil Thhaam Ke Khelo, as it is termed in full, hopefully would not wind up before time like KBC as Basu's show, perhaps by mere coincidence, will have no host to anchor it. And as he puts it, "It has just one voice and one player ruling the screen." Unlike KBC, the players here are celebrities in public life.

Explains Basu, "It is quite an interesting format. It has intrinsic drama. One has to think and perform. A contestant will play along with his heartbeat. He will be able to hear it beat aloud. Each player starts with 500 heartbeats and the challenge is to save maximum heartbeats to progress to the next question." In all, there will be 10 questions and each will have 10 answers but only five of them are correct. Unlimited money will be at stake starting with Rs.50,000, which can be accumulated by playing `the cash question'. Three phone lines, two outgoing and one incoming, will be available for the contestants besides a computerised tele-directory and yellow pages for ready reference.

Interesting sets

"What is interesting is the set of the show. It is a soundproof cabin with big glass windows all around and the player can hear only the questions being fired at him and his own replies. To shoot one person playing, we have used seven hidden cameras," says the head of Synergy Communications, his production house also known for rolling out reality shows like Mum Tum Aur Hum, Bluff Master and India's Child Genius. Not really looking at the show as a challenge after the grand success of KBC to attract as much sensation, Basu feels it has enough ammunition of its own to pull in the crowd. Though KBC 2 stands cancelled, talks are on, he states, to dish out its third season "perhaps after this June."

SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

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