Antakshari replaces KAA

T he first edition of Star One's Antakshari –The Great Challenge comes to an end this Sunday. Starting June 4, the new series will be aired on Star Plus. Instead of being a weekend show, it will now be a daily, Monday to Thursday from 7 30 p m to 8 30 p m. Final moments Anchored by Annu Kapoor and Juhi Parmar, the series had teams from four zones- West, North, Central and East - battling it out for a weekly prize of Rs 1 lakh. In a nail-biting finale, the West zone ends up taking home the winning booty of Rs 5 lakh. The runners-up- Central zone- wins Rs 2.5 lakh. The celebrity guests for the final episode are Kumar Sanu, Jaspinder Narula, Meet Brothers, Vinod and Rathod Suresh Wadkar. Hostess speak Parmar says, "Till the last moment, we couldn't say for sure which team will win..it was such a close compe- tition." About her being a hostess for the first time, she says, "Antakshari is a very at-home, at -ease kind of a show. I was given complete freedom in hosting it the way I wanted. There was immediate connect with the viewers." Did Kapoor give her a tough time, as alleged in reports? "No. We had staged an April Fool gag which gave rise to these rumours. He, in fact, pampers me and lets me have my way every time. There's so much to learn from him. I always tease him that he has a potli full of anectodes and stories, with which he regales the viewers every week. He has taught me to hold the viewers attention." With Kumkum, in which she plays the lead protagonist, also being aired on Star Plus, Parmar says, "We'll just get a better reach of viewership now." Coming up Director Gajendrra Siingh says, "Earlier, viewers never remembered the participants. Now, the team members have been receiving many offers to participate in shows."The next series is for kids. The auditions will begin from June 3