| |
From The Editor In Chief
Sometimes
we are prophetic. In a cover story in July, we showcased Star TV's Kaun
Banega Crorepati (KBC) within a week of its launch, calling it "India's
biggest ever show" and saying it stood a good chance of capturing
the lucrative Hindi entertainment market. But even we could not imagine
the frenzy it would create among viewers and other TV channels three months
later. Star TV is raking in the moolah as advertisers queue up for slots.
Meanwhile, KBC has become a household name spawning jokes and even advertising
based on it.
 But
in a free marketplace, rich pickings always attract competitors. This
week's cover story deals with how the rest of the Hindi channel brigade
is re-inventing itself to hit back in the cut-throat market. First off
the starting block is Zee TV's Sawaal Dus Crore Ka with a prize-money
budget of Rs 20 crore. Others to follow are Sun TV's Koteeswaran (Rs
10 crore), Sabe TV's Jab Khelo Sab Khelo (Rs 8 crore) and Sony
TV's as yet untitled game show (Rs 30 crore). There is also much debate
on the battle of the hosts. How does a combination of Anupam Kher and
Manisha Koirala beat the Big B? Will Sony TV's host be Govinda? And so
on.
But what
the success of KBC has really done is to transform game shows into
flagship programmes of every channel. Today, the total prize booty of
all game shows on Indian TV adds up to Rs 80 crore a year. What makes
these programmes so alluring? One quick explanation is nothing sells like
raw greed. But there is another more plausible reason. The participants
of these shows are ordinary people, not some super IQ eggheads. The level
of the questions makes most viewers feel, "This could be me."
As Assistant Editor Ashok Malik, who wrote the story and used to quiz
in school and college says, "The most I've won is Rs 1,500. I'm jealous."
Malik, join the queue.
(Aroon
Purie)
Top
|
|
INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta voices the despair of a community that Jyoti Basu forcibly converted into a diaspora in his 23 years of zero-contribution rule. 