Will King Khan be Kid Khan?
Ruchika Talwar
Posted online: Monday , February 25, 2008 at 1056 hrs
PrintEmailTo EditorPost CommentsRate this articleAvg. Rating:8Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain? Sounds like the next from the Ekta Kapoor gang? Put your apprehensions to rest, this is more intelligent than what gushes endlessly from Balaji Telefilms.
Although the name starts with K and is a mile long, the show is a quiz contest to be telecast on Star Plus later this year. The Indian adaptation of Fox TV's hit quiz show Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader is currently a rave in 50 countries across the globe. Shah Rukh Khan, who struck gold on TV last year with Kaun Banega Crorepati, will host the show. Doesn't this make Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain intelligent in terms of content and actor host?
There have been quiz shows and there have been quiz shows. So how will this be different from Big B's or King Khan's version of, let's say, KBC for that matter?
"There is a lot of excitement in the waiting. The first is that this has the biggest prize money — Rs 5 crore — which has ever been offered on Indian television. Secondly, the contestants will be judged on the basis of their knowledge from a fifth class student's textbooks. Most of us feel more enlightened than fifth class students and dismiss what their books have to offer. If the contestant wants to quit the game at any stage, s/he will have to confess, main paanchvi pass se tez nahin hoon," says Siddharth Basu, India's best known quizmaster and head of Synergy Adlabs which is producing the show for Star.
Touted as India ka sabsey barha quiz show by Star Plus, Kya Aap… is, according to them also India ka sabsey exciting and ambitious TV show. At a level which is closer to home, this show also attempts at bringing the family together before the TV around dinner time, says Star India's COO Uday Shankar.
"Star has done that before with KBC and other shows. This is our next attempt," he says. "We chose him for this show because he relates with every member of a family more than any other actor of his generation. Frankly, selecting the anchor was the easiest part of the show. And, Shah Rukh was a good student in class five," Basu explains Star Plus' of choice for the show's anchor.
Perhaps there is more to it: when KBC3 began last year, weren't we told that the show would run for two seasons? On the contrary, it ended after one season only spanning 52 episodes. Is this new show, a Khan compensation for the time lost in the KBC contract? "KBC ended when it had to. People thought I've run away from TV," says Shah Rukh Khan matter-of-factly issuing a caveat: " like all things, Kya Aap… will also end. Then, don't think I've run away!" And the family man the King Khan is known to be, what does he say on this?
"I simply love children. I am doing this for my children and everyone else's children. Main jo bhi karta hoon, bachon kay liye karta hoon. Adults just like it because of that," he makes his point in a joke. "I saw the DVDs of the original Fox TV show with my kids and their friends. While we were at it, the kids were jumping with excitement and each one wished to go on the show. That is when I sensed the potential this show has," he adds. One the show, Khan will be accompanied by five children who are actually fifth class students. These children will be what lifelines were in KBC.
"They'll give hints to the contestants when they need help.
The sets of the show will be designed like a classroom," says Basu. And will King Khan look like, well, Kid Khan? "
Anita Kaul is working on my look. But I sense we'll keep it casual yet crisp because I will play the school teacher," Khan says. "You'll see me writing on the blackboard," he adds.
http://www.screenindia.com/news/Will...d-Khan/276885/
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