TELEVISION: KBC
Freeze This Khan
Shahrukh and the Big B's title. After one round, KBC looks to have a new contender.
Namrata Joshi
Atul Loke
Even a king can at times find himself becoming the underdog. As King Khan did. When Shahrukh was anointed the new Kaun Banegi Crorepati host, he was written off even before he was in the hot seat and asking the first question. How dare he think he could fit into Big B's magnificent shoes? This week, when the show finally hit the airwaves, one thing became amply clear: love him or hate him, SRK has very sensibly decided to bring his own personal touch and style to the show rather than try to fit himself into Big B's mould. Armed with his characteristic cheeky sense of humour, he has made the race for Rs 2 crore a whole lot of goofy fun.
"A quizmaster has to connect, make knowledge interesting...I think SRK has become India's No. 1 quizmaster." Derek O'Brien, Quizmaster
Veteran quizmaster Derek O'Brien is impressed. "A quizmaster has to connect, he has to make knowledge interesting...and I think SRK has become India's number 1 quizmaster now. I am No. 2," he says. According to media commentator and author Amrita Shah, if Amitabh Bachchan gave the show "class and positioning", SRK brings to it an "endearing touch". "He's an inventive, resourceful guy.
And he's carrying off the persona very intelligently," she says. Adman Prahlad Kakkar can't decide who is better. "Mr Bachchan had gravitas and a certain deadpanness, SRK is youthful, driven by sheer energy and charisma," he says.
For filmmaker Nasreen Munni Kabir, who has made documentaries on both srk and Big B, it's not a question of either/or, but of whether SRK by himself works as a television show host. "Did people switch channels? I don't think so. We may have criticised him, but we didn't switch. He kept us involved, so he was great. Why compare him with Mr Bachchan?" she asks.
She likens it to comparing every Bond with Sean Connery, till the time Daniel Craig came along.
"Amitabh Bachchan gave the show class. Shahrukh brings to it an endearing touch." Amrita Shah, Media commentator
It certainly can't have been a cakewalk for SRK. Besides the looming shadow of Big B and the viewers' unshakeable reverence for him, he's had other hurdles to deal with. The format of the show, for instance. You have to work within a given set of parameters, say certain lines, wear certain kinds of formal suits. And those had all got identified with the pioneer, Big B. So how could SRK be "different"? How could he force a change without seeming to rock the boat? "I was afraid he might get too self-conscious but he has begun quite decently. He's not trying too hard, yet is using himself as a performer to please the crowd rather well," says Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands.
SRK has also introduced an informality to the show, which comes like a breath of fresh air. His formula, spelt out in the first episode itself, is simple: talk more, rock the youngsters and at times shock viewers with jokes. Essentially, he plays himself: the eternally pugnacious boy-next-door who happens to have become a star. To the viewers. he's the buddy you can banter with, rather than the patriarch you are expected to respect. If Big B reached out while maintaining a dignified distance, SRK will hug and envelop you, pull your leg and tease you. He'll call you Gugs if your name happens to be Guggilla. "He has a peer-to-peer conversation. It's a more equal interaction with the audience. Amitabh was like a father figure, always on the pedestal," says Desai. "srk is like an elder sibling," says Shah.
SRK's biggest weapon, no doubt, is his sense of humour, a delightfully self-deprecatory one at that. "He can make fun of himself," says Kakkar. He's smart, can think on his feet and has a terrific gift of the gab. Like when he says in the first episode that he'd wear any kind of "coat" for the show, even a petticoat. Or when one contestant talked about oversleeping, SRK was quick to ask: "Alone?" In one forthcoming episode he has a contestant declaring that she doesn't like him, that she doesn't want to be hugged by him.
"It's a forum in which my audience can speak their mind, can say anything, even about me," says SRK.
Essentially, he's trying to address the young, the "boys and girls", his core constituency. No wonder then that he did the hip-hop music video (directed by Ganesh Hegde) and chose it as the entry vehicle for the show. Serious quiz buffs though are still sceptical. They fear that SRK's boisterousness might push the show into inanity, that the questions might become the kind asked in the music video: is a cool chick hot or a hot chick cool?
But this begs the other question: was KBC ever about serious quizzing anyway? Even now, there are many slips, of course. SRK's pronunciation isn't word perfect. We did see him fiddling with the pen, the tie and that rather uncomfortable looking chair. At times it seems he is trying too hard to be warm, the hugging seems to go on and on, the regional accents get a little put-on and hammy. But he wants to use even this to his advantage. "I want to come across as human. If I make mistakes, I let them be," he says. The idea, for him, is to build up the show not as a TV event but like an intimate game of Trivial Pursuits that you'd be playing at home with your family.
For columnist Anil Dharker, it's all a question of the audience getting used to a certain format. "Mr Bachchan was dignified, measured and quieter. SRKis his usual exuberant, vivacious self. Will people take to the constant level of exuberance and constant talk?" he wonders. "Give it time," he adds.
Eventually, whether the show works or not will not have much of a bearing on SRK's fortunes—he always has the big screen. But for Star, it's the big gamble. The real fight is in the realm of TRPs, and the initial response has been good. According to a-Map (Audience Measurement and Analytics), 11.3 million people watched the show the first day and got Star an audience share of 24.4 per cent, and the ratings took a jump of 91.5 per cent. According to aMap, SRK kept the audience glued, ratings kept increasing after each break and the last section got the maximum ratings. Optimum Media Solutions, in association with Hansa Research, conducted a survey in Delhi and Mumbai to gather first impressions, which showed that 60 per cent of viewers had decided not to miss further episodes. Meanwhile, 51 per cent of those tuned in felt SRK was as good as Bachchan, 29 per cent felt he could not measure up to Big B while 19 per cent felt he was better. In a pre-show survey, only 27 per cent had expected him to be on par with Big B.
Now what needs to be seen in perspective is that the show had been going downhill even when Big B was hosting it last season. "It had peaked, plateaued and had run its life, the interest in it had started waning...it was being flogged like a dead horse. SRKhas given it a huge new lease of life," says Kakkar. But how long will he able to sustain it? SRKpromises to introduce new elements every 10-12 episodes. For now, everyone is waiting for next week when the official tam TRP on KBC become public. Till then, your guess is as good as mine. Who's the big daddy: Badshah or Shahenshah?
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070205&fname= Crorepati&sid=1
