Unlock Kiya Jaye
__________________

Now its success can be credited to its sheer simplicity, yet the response has taken even Amitabh Bachchan’s greatest admirers by surprise. We examine the Kaun Banega Crorepati phenomenon

Cinema could no longer work wonders for him. Politics had long been left to the professionals. Business had fallen on bad-getting-worse days. The sobriquet-hating superstar appeared to have lost his touch as one desperate attempt after another bit the dust. Enter Kaun Banega Crorepati and all that seems history. Amitabh Bachchan is living up to his Big B status all over again and the small-screen show is well on its way to making television history.

Consider this: for the first time in 12 years since his trademark line in Shehanshah (‘‘Rishte mein toe hum tumhare baap lagte hain, naam hai Shehanshah’’) became a
refrain with the masses, audiences are mouthing his lines once again. ‘‘Lock kiya jaaye?’’, his lapped-up utterance in the show has gone on to become one of the most overused phrases today. Some schools across the country have made it compulsory for students to watch the show four nights a week. In the Capital, self-help books like GK Quiz for Kaun Banega Crorepati by H. S. Madan and Kaun Banega Crorepati Quiz Book by P. Kumar are out in the market and making a neat killing. KBC jokes are being circulated across the globe via e-mail. And the ad
industry has characteristically lost little time in cashing in on the craze. Hoardings for Amul Butter, Air India and Asian Paints use KBC as a reference point for promoting their products. Even a new menu at Kobe Sizzlers in Mumbai is designed around the KBC phenomenon. And Anita Kaul Basu, Executive Producer, KBC, promises: ‘‘Very soon, we might have Bachchan dolls blurting a ‘lock kiya jaye’ at the press of a button in the market.’’

Back to the show, Star TV claims that moment phone lines opened again, 8 lakh calls came in from Calcutta alone. The second day, a total of one crore phone calls rang in from across the country. Sameer Nair, Head of Programming, Star TV, says the channel is seriously considering the possibility of having a single national number that can be locally dialled from any part of India. During a power failure in some parts of Mumbai recently, there were at least half-a-dozen reported instances of people calling up their more fortunate friends for a running commentary on what was happening on the show while they perspired in the sweltering heat. Teenagers travelling in local trains have been overheard discussing Bachchan’s possible pay packet for the show, even surmising the advertising rates for that one hour slot on the channel.

‘‘I got three cases of anxiety and stress last week,’’ reveals social psychiatrist Sachin Patkar. The three, all women, were so excitedly egging a participant during one of the KBC shows on television that their palms started sweating heavily, resulting in heavy anxiety. Patkar eventually had to administer drugs and medication to restore them to normalcy. ‘‘At the end of a stressed-out day at work, watching KBC relieves the pressure off you,’’ says Patkar, and adds, ‘‘The easy questions on the show break the psychological barrier of education.’’

Interestingly, even politicians are not lagging behind in latching on to the KBC
phenomenon. At a BJP dharna held at the Andheri flyover in Mumbai recently, BJP
activists demanded that work on the flyover be resumed immediately and pledged their support for the same. But the City President of the BJP faction in Mumbai, Vinod Tawde, illustrated their cause in a KBC way by offering four options for his activists to choose from, even crediting the show as his inspiration for this speech. There is also some talk of cinema halls across the country rescheduling their show timings in order to once again popularise their last shows, which, incidentally, have been faring poorly since Crorepati happened, and kept viewers glued at home.

Opinion is divided, though, on how good the show is for Bachchan. Zee TV’s B. L.
Gautam, for instance, is full of praise for Bachchan’s anchoring skills, but believes that ‘‘after this, nobody’s going to want to watch him on screen’’. He explains: ‘‘Once a man has entered into your bedroom via the television, audiences are not going to pay money for tickets to watch him on a 70mm screen.’’ Filmmaker Prakash Mehra, however, differs: ‘‘He has a magnetic presence, and anything he does will be loyally lapped up.’’ Despite varied opinions on Bachchan’s future in Bollywood, and despite denials from Star TV, the television industry is rife with rumours that Bachchan has committed to doing one more show for the channel. This, one hears, is to be an interview-based talk show where he will chat with elusive celebrities and bigwigs.

Not surprising since television ratings of other shows on competitive channels in the same prime time slot have plummeted considerably. In the last week of July, and across nine major cities in India, the audience share that Star Plus enjoys between 6 pm and midnight was recorded a whopping 15.4 per cent, while its closest competitor, Sun TV, came in second place with 9.6 per cent, followed by Sony at 6.5 per cent and Zee at 6 per cent. Even a look at Star TV’s own performance in the coveted 9-10 pm slot from mid-June (when the show hadn’t still been launched) to the end of July (by when it had completed four weeks of being on air) is impressive.

Between June 18-24, and across nine cities of the country, Star TV’s audience share was recorded at 1.5 per cent as against 12.7 per cent of Zee TV and 8.2 per cent of Sony. It dipped down further to 1.1 per cent in the following week, but rose consi-derably to 28.5 per cent as against Zee’s 6.2 per cent and Sony’s 4.5 per cent in the first week of July when Kaun Banega Crorepati first hit TV.

A visit to the set in Film City, Mumbai, gives you an idea of its ever-increasing
popularity. At least a hundred hangers-on flock outside the air-conditioned shooting floor hoping to catch a glimpse of Bachchan. Even the audience who will sit in on the goings on are carefully selected. There are rumours doing the rounds that inappropriately dressed people hoping to comprise the audience panel will not be allowed on the set.

Inside, Nitin Desai’s set is glowing in the darkness. From a specially arranged Austrian chalet, the Big B emerges, and almost spontaneously, there’s an applause from everyone on the floor.

Fish-eyed participants are ready to do the disappearing act. But once the lights are on and the six cameras are rolling, they’re all ready to play Kaun Banega Crorepati.
Cameras roll closer, as do the lights turning focus on the fastest finger first. Oiled minds and hands get ready for the test, as the charismatic anchor introduces the first round. The audience awaits in anticipation as to who’ll most likely win the long-awaited crore. The first shot has been taken. Chairs are put in place and computers elevated to the right position. Bachchan and the fresh-from- general-knowledge books are seated at last.

The hot seat is cushioned on a glass flooring with a dome-shaped underground that spews out the orange, green and blue radiance in conjunction with every change in the music sequence. The sets seem an exact imitation of the original, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but Desai claims he constructed them within a span of 20 days and says he has designed a special hydraulic pump which the London show does not have.

Meanwhile, in the hot spot, Bachchan continues to badger the contestant with queries, some dreadfully simple, others not quite so. Occasional spurts of humour from Big B’s mouth eases the trauma and the stakes that are fast rising. His enigmatic voice fluctuates with every question. For a person who persistently resisted the offer of making a debut in television for seven months, he’s certainly doing a good job. The team of topnotch researchers have an arduous task at hand. A list of questions are fed into the computer and then, in accordance with the participant’s name and vocation, a series of 15 questions pop before Bachchan’s eyes. ‘‘That’s the dynamics of it all. At times the questions don’t fit into the player’s lexicon. The unpredictability of the show is what lures audiences,’’ claims Nair.

With the studio booked for the next year and KBC addicts claiming that the show has broken class barriers, it’s bound to be an interesting year. There are talks of a few charity episodes being organised.

Though nobody has yet won that elusive crore , nobody’s complaining. A bit less than a crore perhaps, but doled out along with a handshake from Mr Bachchan, it seems more than enough. Ask the millions across the country. They won’t even ask forthe now-customary four choices before answering that one.

Reported by Rajeev Masand, Leander
D’Souza, Elizabeth Kuruvilla, Prarthana
Gahilote and Santhosh Vijaykumar

Next