Vijay TV and Siddhartha Basu-fronted Big Synergy are gearing up to give you a chance that could change your life. To start with, you could get an opportunity to get into the hot seat opposite actor Suriya — in “Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi” (NVOK), the licensed Tamil edition of “Kaun Banega Crorepati”. It will be on air for four months from February. The shooting for the show commences in January.
The selection process to be on NVOK will be announced on Vijay TV on December 25. Phone lines will be open between December 25 and 30 to contest for the hot seat, and questions will be announced on Vijay TV, in The Hindu and on radio channels during the period.
“This is the first international format to hit the Tamil television screens, and Suriya is the USP of this show. We have planned 80 episodes, and will build a lot of other properties around the show on the channel post KBC,” says K. Sriram, general manager of Vijay TV.
“Non-fiction shows such as KBC bring in a sudden surge of viewers to the channel, but fiction is the habit for our regular viewers. We intend to build fresh viewers who come in to sample the Suriya programming,” he explains.
Suriya has signed up to shoot a few days every month from January to May.
“When we approached him, at first he was apprehensive about his TV debut. And then, he met Amitabh Bachchan on the sets of the Sony season. He saw the format and was convinced it would work. Suriya won't be a quizmaster, but a star who enables the common man to win,” informs Sriram.
The channel did a couple of mock shoots with Suriya. “After the mock shoots, he thinks it's best to react to the contestant naturally. Apart from reading out the questions, nothing else will be scripted,” he adds.
Like KBC, NVOK too will throw in a few specials with celebrities. “But not more than six or eight episodes,” he says.
Game show soon in Malayalam and Kannada
Siddhartha Basu shared his company Big Synergy's plans for the show in a telephonic interview. “We are producing the Tamil version, just like the Hindi version, the Bangla version with Sourav Ganguly and the Bhojpuri version with Shatrughan Sinha for Mahuaa. We are now rolling it out with Suriya in Tamil for Vijay TV, and will shortly announce the star hosts for Kannada and Malayalam as well. We have taken the licence for South India from the India licence-holders Sony's Two Way Traffic for the regional editions that will air on Vijay TV, Suvarna and Asianet,” says Basu.
“A significant part of the viewing public would prefer to watch it in their mother tongue. This is the first international format production in the regional space. It's a major jump in the scale of production,” he adds.
Will the questions be any different for the Southern editions?
“There are only two kinds of questions — easy is what you know the answer for and tough, what you don't. It won't be any different. The idea is to get through to the common man and be accessible and sporting,” Basu explains.
Any reason “NVOK” is not a literal translation of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” “There were a number of wannabes that did local versions before. So it was the broadcaster's preference.”
Basu does concede that chance does play a role in the selection process. “The only gateway to the show is the phone lines. There is randomisation in the first two stages of the show. The first stage is the registration questions, and winners are called back with further questions about themselves. They are then called for auditions. We do video interviews with an independent panel before the contestant gets a shot at the hot seat. The entire process is audited.”
