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Now, it's his turn to answer

Siddhartha Basu is all set for his next game show, `Heart Beat'

MASTER QUIZZER Siddhartha Basu is ready with his new show Photo: K. Gopinath

In an age when novelty is the name of the game, Siddhartha Basu has not merely managed to survive 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 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 all set to return to television with yet another big game show, Heart beat - Dil Thhaam Ke Khelo from the first day of May. The 9.30 p.m. show will be aired on Star One, Monday through Thursday.

Innovative format

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'.

"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.

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."

Being a player since the Doordarshan days of this era, Basu says, "Every show on TV now is commercially driven. No matter how much creativity has gone into a show or how socially relevant it is, it has no value for a channel if it has no commercial worth. Everything now is market-driven because there is so much competition." And so, he says, he too now goes shopping abroad for formats because "the channels accept them easily as they have a success record already."

SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

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