Showing posts with label Kaun Banega Crorepati 9. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kaun Banega Crorepati 9. Show all posts
Money matters: Here’s what the Bollywood stars are charging for their TV stints
8:05 AM
Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; September 18, 2017)
The third quarter of the year will see several top Bollywood stars vying for your attention, not on the big screen, but on the small one. Salman Khan will be back to host the 11th season of Bigg Boss in October, Akshay Kumar is returning to TV after three years as the super judge of comedy show, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, Shah Rukh Khan is making a comeback to the small-screen with TED Talks India as its host, Shilpa Shetty Kundra continues to be the judge on Super Dancer 2, and an assortment of B-Town actors will be battling it out on Farah Khan’s show Lip Sing Battle.
Amitabh Bachchan with his deep baritone voice and inimitable hosting style is already drawing the viewers to his game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, which is back for its ninth season and has dethroned the Rohit Shetty hosted Khatron Ke Khiladi as the numero uno last week, while Sonakshi Sinha is judging a devotional music show Om Shanti Om.
These stars, however, come at a hefty price. They charge anything between Rs 1 crore to Rs 6 crore for one episode! And, yet, channels go all out to rope in the biggest stars for their non-fiction shows because their mere presence elevates the brand value of the show. And if the combination clicks, then there is no looking back. Salman has been hosting Bigg Boss for seven seasons now, Bachchan is the face of KBC since the beginning except for one season where Shah Rukh had taken over. And it goes without saying that with every season, the remuneration has increased. Here, we take a look at the money these stars are pocketing for lending their names to shows.
Salman Khan
Show: Bigg Boss 11
Paycheck: Rs 11 crores per day (two episodes)
The superstar has hosted seven consecutive seasons — he started with the fourth season of the controversial reality show that has so far aired a total of 10. The promos of the 11th season with Salman have already raised curiosity on what it will entail for its fans. Meanwhile, we hear, Dabangg Khan, who earned nine crores per day for two episodes in the last season will take home Rs 11 crores this time. He shoots only once a week, every Saturday in which the makers record two episodes. His irreverent style of hosting, wry sense of humour and banter with the contestants, even when he pulls them up in case of wrongdoing, have endeared him to the viewers. No wonder, the channel refuses to let him go, despite the huge remuneration. It’s a different thing that every year, there are murmurs of him not doing the show and another actor replacing him, but Salman remains the big boss!
Shah Rukh Khan
Show: TED Talks India: Nayi Soch
Paycheck: Rs 30 crores for 10 episodes
King Khan returns to television with the Indian version of the international format Ted Talks as the host. A source says that Shah Rukh was the first and last choice to host the show. Says a source, “The original makers of the show were clear that they wanted only SRK to host the show. Not only that, he is the only Indian film actor to have delivered a TED Talk when he flew to Vancouver early this year. His motivational speech was heartwarming, inspiring and peppered with a dash of humour. Who better than him to curate the show here?” Needless to say, the channel was ready to dole out whatever the superstar demanded. Also, it will be a niche show, informative and motivational unlike the other reality shows and will have limited episodes.
Amitabh Bachchan
Show: Kaun Banega Crorepati 9
Paycheck: Rs 2.75 to Rs 3 crore per episode
He was the first A-list actor to host a TV show, KBC, back in 2000. The show revolutionised television viewing, and Bachchan’s charisma and warm banter with the contestants made it a winner. Even in its ninth season, it’s Bachchan’s unbeatable energy and enthusiasm that continue to be the highlight of the show and it’s not surprising that Big B charges around Rs 3 crore for it. Earlier, the millenium star would get Rs 2 crore, but now that the show is back after three years, the fees have increased.
Akshay Kumar
Show: The Great Indian Laughter Challenge 5
Paycheck: Rs 1.65 crore per episode
The Khiladi returns to TV after three years with this comedy show and the busy actor will be shooting eight hours a day, once a week. Says a source, “The makers wanted a big name from Bollywood to judge the show and among the A-list actors he is the only one with several comedy films to his credit. So, he is apt for the show.” The superstar has so far hosted an action-adventure show, Khatron Ke Khiladi, a cookery show, MasterChef India and a dance adventure show Dare 2 Dance. On TV, this is his first stint with comedy, and the channel is counting on this entertainer for eyeballs.
Sonakshi Sinha
Show: Om Shanti Om
Paycheck: Rs 75 lakhs-Rs 1 crore
She made her TV debut as the judge of Indian Idol Junior. She was next seen on the panel of Nach Baliye 8 and now the actress is judging a bhajan reality show. Says a source, “It was when she was approached for Nach Baliye that the makers had spoken to her about this bhajan show. It was to be aired on the revamped Life OK channel and at that time only, she had agreed.” Considering her last few releases haven’t fared well at the box office, Sona has found the best way to be in the limelight as well as make money.
Ranveer Singh
Show: Om Shanti Om
Paycheck: Rs 2 crore for a day
No, he is not hosting or judging the show, he was only the sutradhar in the opening two episodes. This, however, was his first show and the makers had no issues with his huge remuneration as they were banking on him to pull in the audiences.
Shilpa Shetty Kundra
Show: Super Dancer 2
Paycheck: Rs 50 lakhs per episode
This Bollywood actress is a veteran when it comes to TV. From judging to hosting to being a contestant, Shilpa has done it all. She was on the panel of several shows including Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, Nach Baliye — she even hosted Bigg Boss 2, and later participated as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother. Shilpa, who judged Super Dancer last year, is back as part of the jury in the second season. The glam diva is sought-after on the small screen and makes the most of it.
A visit on Kaun Banega Crorepati sets which is back after a three-year hiatus
1:59 PM
It’s familiar and yet it’s different. Mirror visits the sets of KBC, which is back after a three-year hiatus
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 20, 2017)
Stepping into the sets of Kaun Banega Crorepati is — despite our familiarity with it — an extremely engaging experience. We spot the host of the show, Amitabh Bachchan, seated motionless in a corner while a production hand brushes lint off his bandhgala. He then raises his hand over his head to signal that his hair needs work. Within a few seconds, a stylist materialises out of nowhere and pats down a few stray strands. And then, it’s showtime.
This season, KBC received
1.98 crore registrations in just seven days, out of which 1,500 were
shortlisted for video auditions and for personal and written tests.
Sixty of these aspiring contestants will get a chance to be on the show.
To ensure that each contestant is “acclimatized” to the ‘hot seat’, every contestant is allowed to experience it during practice rounds prior to the shoot. “It is an extraordinary situation, with the lights and the music, and with Amitabh Bachchan sitting in front of you. They are even counseled after they win, spoken to, reminded of the game and asked to keep their heads and yet not lose their tongues,” says Siddhartha Basu, veteran quizmaster and the creative producer of the show.
The day’s contestant, a court clerk from Jharkhand, introduces himself to the host who enquires first about his work and later about his family. On learning that the man is accompanied by his wife, Bachchan is interested in knowing how the two met. The camera pans on the woman in question. “We had an arranged marriage,” she says, with a smile. Getting to know a contestant is the reality part of the show, even though Basu feels that this isn’t a reality show. “This is basically a knowledge game. But then it features real people — aam aadmi and aurat as contestants and that is what is special. For instance, people come on the show for different reasons. For a lot of people it is money, for some, it is validation and recognition — we have to be able to tell their stories. So, money may not matter to some but for one who has a loan of Rs 80,000, it’s a weight off their chest when it happens, and you feel that.”
The arena, which has witnessed lives taking dramatic turns over 17 years, is strategically designed to best capture the emotionally charged proceedings. While the original format has been retained, the gameplay will now be speedier (10 questions in an hour, as opposed to an hour-and-a-half). “In India, people seem to have preferred some kind of novelty in every season. So the ‘phone a friend’ is now a video call and another lifeline is the ‘jodidaar’ who can accompany a contestant on the ‘hot seat’,” says Basu.
KBC is a lot about lighting. When Bachchan makes his grand entry and introduces the contestants, the lights being beamed down are of a warm and homely hue. The DOP in charge, Sudhir Koushik, ensures that this “neutral and welcoming theme” is achieved with constant light. But, as the ‘fastest finger first’ — the first round of selection — begins, the LED panels on the walls and the floors transform into a fiery red, “as it is a colour one associates with danger and tension”. Shafts of light hit at the contestants whose “mind is being symbolically depicted through a matrix of numbers” projected on the LED pillars and wings. “Once a question is fired, along with the lights and the camera, we play a certain track to which the lights dance along. This builds a crescendo,” says Koushik of the nerve-racking piece that can reduce a thoroughly prepared contestant into a stammering wreck.
As the contestant from Jharkhand clears the first five questions in a breeze, but seems a bit iffy about the sixth, the lights suddenly fade out. “While a contestant is mulling over a question, there’s a lot of light play to indicate the thoughts running in their mind. For some questions, the answers are obvious, but when the contestant is not sure, to build drama, we go darker on the audience to get that isolation,” says Koushik.
The questions are carefully curated by a team of researchers, keeping in mind “the universality of the show, varying levels of awareness, education, occupation of the contestants”. “On Mastermind, it’s easier to set content, as you can assume a more standardised level of awareness and mastery of esoteric subjects. On KBC, each stack ideally needs to work as a sporting one for whoever is sitting on the hot seat, all the way up to the topmost question,” explains Basu, fully accepting that “level of difficulty” is subjective. The craft, explains Basu, is in the phrasing of the question so as to “be challenging in a non-bookish way”. “Then there’s the science — the process of checking, sourcing and vetting all information used, and going through editorial screening, with degrees of difficulty being assigned, before it gets fed into the contest database. After that, it’s over to the gameplay system given to us by the licensors, and crossing our fingers that contestants (and viewers) will be able to engage well with it,” explains Basu, adding that mythology questions get the highest response from home viewers. But this year, the one that received 51 lakh responses was, “At the International Court of Justice, India is contesting the death penalty given by Pakistan to which Indian national?”
As the buzzer goes off, marking the end of the episode, we ask Basu about the kind of contestants that surprise him the most. “Those who perform unpredictably, those who are spontaneous and play the game well, are inevitably the most interesting. There was a couple who eloped and wanted Amitabh Bachchan to appeal to their parents. Not all of what transpires is always known; sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.”
Stepping into the sets of Kaun Banega Crorepati is — despite our familiarity with it — an extremely engaging experience. We spot the host of the show, Amitabh Bachchan, seated motionless in a corner while a production hand brushes lint off his bandhgala. He then raises his hand over his head to signal that his hair needs work. Within a few seconds, a stylist materialises out of nowhere and pats down a few stray strands. And then, it’s showtime.
This season, KBC received
1.98 crore registrations in just seven days, out of which 1,500 were
shortlisted for video auditions and for personal and written tests.
Sixty of these aspiring contestants will get a chance to be on the show.To ensure that each contestant is “acclimatized” to the ‘hot seat’, every contestant is allowed to experience it during practice rounds prior to the shoot. “It is an extraordinary situation, with the lights and the music, and with Amitabh Bachchan sitting in front of you. They are even counseled after they win, spoken to, reminded of the game and asked to keep their heads and yet not lose their tongues,” says Siddhartha Basu, veteran quizmaster and the creative producer of the show.
The day’s contestant, a court clerk from Jharkhand, introduces himself to the host who enquires first about his work and later about his family. On learning that the man is accompanied by his wife, Bachchan is interested in knowing how the two met. The camera pans on the woman in question. “We had an arranged marriage,” she says, with a smile. Getting to know a contestant is the reality part of the show, even though Basu feels that this isn’t a reality show. “This is basically a knowledge game. But then it features real people — aam aadmi and aurat as contestants and that is what is special. For instance, people come on the show for different reasons. For a lot of people it is money, for some, it is validation and recognition — we have to be able to tell their stories. So, money may not matter to some but for one who has a loan of Rs 80,000, it’s a weight off their chest when it happens, and you feel that.”
The arena, which has witnessed lives taking dramatic turns over 17 years, is strategically designed to best capture the emotionally charged proceedings. While the original format has been retained, the gameplay will now be speedier (10 questions in an hour, as opposed to an hour-and-a-half). “In India, people seem to have preferred some kind of novelty in every season. So the ‘phone a friend’ is now a video call and another lifeline is the ‘jodidaar’ who can accompany a contestant on the ‘hot seat’,” says Basu.
KBC is a lot about lighting. When Bachchan makes his grand entry and introduces the contestants, the lights being beamed down are of a warm and homely hue. The DOP in charge, Sudhir Koushik, ensures that this “neutral and welcoming theme” is achieved with constant light. But, as the ‘fastest finger first’ — the first round of selection — begins, the LED panels on the walls and the floors transform into a fiery red, “as it is a colour one associates with danger and tension”. Shafts of light hit at the contestants whose “mind is being symbolically depicted through a matrix of numbers” projected on the LED pillars and wings. “Once a question is fired, along with the lights and the camera, we play a certain track to which the lights dance along. This builds a crescendo,” says Koushik of the nerve-racking piece that can reduce a thoroughly prepared contestant into a stammering wreck.
As the contestant from Jharkhand clears the first five questions in a breeze, but seems a bit iffy about the sixth, the lights suddenly fade out. “While a contestant is mulling over a question, there’s a lot of light play to indicate the thoughts running in their mind. For some questions, the answers are obvious, but when the contestant is not sure, to build drama, we go darker on the audience to get that isolation,” says Koushik.
The questions are carefully curated by a team of researchers, keeping in mind “the universality of the show, varying levels of awareness, education, occupation of the contestants”. “On Mastermind, it’s easier to set content, as you can assume a more standardised level of awareness and mastery of esoteric subjects. On KBC, each stack ideally needs to work as a sporting one for whoever is sitting on the hot seat, all the way up to the topmost question,” explains Basu, fully accepting that “level of difficulty” is subjective. The craft, explains Basu, is in the phrasing of the question so as to “be challenging in a non-bookish way”. “Then there’s the science — the process of checking, sourcing and vetting all information used, and going through editorial screening, with degrees of difficulty being assigned, before it gets fed into the contest database. After that, it’s over to the gameplay system given to us by the licensors, and crossing our fingers that contestants (and viewers) will be able to engage well with it,” explains Basu, adding that mythology questions get the highest response from home viewers. But this year, the one that received 51 lakh responses was, “At the International Court of Justice, India is contesting the death penalty given by Pakistan to which Indian national?”
As the buzzer goes off, marking the end of the episode, we ask Basu about the kind of contestants that surprise him the most. “Those who perform unpredictably, those who are spontaneous and play the game well, are inevitably the most interesting. There was a couple who eloped and wanted Amitabh Bachchan to appeal to their parents. Not all of what transpires is always known; sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.”
Nitesh Tiwari scripts the love story, Bareilly Ki Barfi, for wife Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
7:45 AM
Trailer of the upcoming romantic comedy, Bareilly Ki Barfi, unveils today
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 19, 2017)
Nitesh Tiwari, director of Aamir Khan’s wrestling drama Dangal, is excited about his wife Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s upcoming directorial, Junglee Pictures and BR Studios’ Bareilly Ki Barfi, whose trailer unveils today. He has co-written the romcom with Shreyas Jain and the proud husband can’t stop beaming. “I was sceptical only during Nil Battey Sannata (Ashwiny’s debut film) as I had not attended even a single day’s shoot and had no idea what Ashwiny was doing. But after seeing the film, I have stopped questioning her,” he admits, adding that the sweet love story, set in the small town of Uttar Pradesh, is inspired by personal experiences.
He goes on to reveal that both Shreyas and he come from small towns in Madhya Pradesh and their script borrows from the lives that they have lived. “There are characters modelled on people we have grown up with. This is the first time we have written something lighthearted and quirky and I’m eager to see the audience’s response,” he says. The film features Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon and Rajkummar Rao.
Nitesh has also scripted and directed the new ad campaign for the ninth season of Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati. “This is my first independent project for KBC. In the past, I worked on the show as part of an agency. This season’s theme is that one shouldn’t judge someone’s potential according to their financial status and appearance because they could surprise you in the future. The campaign reflects both the objective of the game show as well as how we think as a society,” he says, pointing out that KBC campaigns have always been socially relevant but they wanted to do something different this time around. “The emphasis was on playing down societal biases, KBC as a show has always been a great leveller not differentiating on the basis of gender, looks or bank balance. Knowledge is the only thing that matters and my co-writer Nikhil Mehrotra and I have delivered the message with humour because that’s what cuts across all age groups and social classes.”
Nitesh’s next directorial is reportedly Siddharth Roy Kapur and Ronnie Screwvala’s adaptation of the novel How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-founded a Million Dollar Company but he won’t be drawn into discussing this. “In Bollywood everything is on a slow burner till the time is right to serve the dish. As of now, the meal is still cooking. I usually keep multiple stories ready because you never know which subject works. This is one of the many subjects but a lot of things have to fall in place for a film to work,” he signs off.
Nitesh Tiwari, director of Aamir Khan’s wrestling drama Dangal, is excited about his wife Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s upcoming directorial, Junglee Pictures and BR Studios’ Bareilly Ki Barfi, whose trailer unveils today. He has co-written the romcom with Shreyas Jain and the proud husband can’t stop beaming. “I was sceptical only during Nil Battey Sannata (Ashwiny’s debut film) as I had not attended even a single day’s shoot and had no idea what Ashwiny was doing. But after seeing the film, I have stopped questioning her,” he admits, adding that the sweet love story, set in the small town of Uttar Pradesh, is inspired by personal experiences.
He goes on to reveal that both Shreyas and he come from small towns in Madhya Pradesh and their script borrows from the lives that they have lived. “There are characters modelled on people we have grown up with. This is the first time we have written something lighthearted and quirky and I’m eager to see the audience’s response,” he says. The film features Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon and Rajkummar Rao.
Nitesh has also scripted and directed the new ad campaign for the ninth season of Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati. “This is my first independent project for KBC. In the past, I worked on the show as part of an agency. This season’s theme is that one shouldn’t judge someone’s potential according to their financial status and appearance because they could surprise you in the future. The campaign reflects both the objective of the game show as well as how we think as a society,” he says, pointing out that KBC campaigns have always been socially relevant but they wanted to do something different this time around. “The emphasis was on playing down societal biases, KBC as a show has always been a great leveller not differentiating on the basis of gender, looks or bank balance. Knowledge is the only thing that matters and my co-writer Nikhil Mehrotra and I have delivered the message with humour because that’s what cuts across all age groups and social classes.”
Nitesh’s next directorial is reportedly Siddharth Roy Kapur and Ronnie Screwvala’s adaptation of the novel How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-founded a Million Dollar Company but he won’t be drawn into discussing this. “In Bollywood everything is on a slow burner till the time is right to serve the dish. As of now, the meal is still cooking. I usually keep multiple stories ready because you never know which subject works. This is one of the many subjects but a lot of things have to fall in place for a film to work,” he signs off.
Amitabh Bachchan announces that he'll return for the ninth season of Kaun Banega Crorepati
7:58 AM
Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; June 3, 2017)
Rubbishing reports of Madhuri Dixit-Nene and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan replacing him as host on the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, Amitabh Bachchan took to Twitter yesterday to announce that he will return for the ninth season. The veteran star has already done a look test, apart from shooting for a promotion, inviting participants for the show that enable one to become a millionaire overnight.
Sharing a snapshot of his look on the micro-blogging site, Bachchan wrote, “Ok ... so the pictures of KBC shoot got clearance, so there (sic).” He also took to his personal blog to write, “KBC has gracefully agreed to reappear and in doing so has coerced me into recording the registration questions for the contest to be on air by August-September this year.”
Bachchan, who began hosting the show in 2000, has helmed all its previous seasons, barring one in 2007, when Shah Rukh Khan took over the seat. With his outing failing to impress the masses, the channel approached Bachchan again.
The show last aired in 2014.
Kaun Banega Crorepati 9 to be launched on Amitabh Bachchan's birthday next month?
7:54 AM
Upala KBR (DNA; September 13, 2016)
The ninth edition of the game show Kaun Banega
Crorepati (KBC) will be hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, and will be launched
on his birthday next month.
Confirms a source, “KBC 9 will be launched at a grand media event on Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday, October 11. Post-KBC 8 in 2014, AB Sr got busy with his film projects, Shamitabh, Piku and Wazir and then, debuted in Sony Entertainment Television’s fictional drama, Yudh, leaving him no time to shoot for the show in 2015 and most of 2016.”
A massive hit with audiences, the show fronted by Bachchan broke several TRP records and won major awards, pushing the channel’s hand in bringing the show back this year. In fact, says a source, “While the concept and format will remain same as the earlier episodes, KBC 9 may undergo certain changes in the look and feel of the show. It will definitely be on a grander scale and the prize money will be much more than 2015’s Rs 7 crore.” However, when contacted, the show’s producer-director Siddhartha Basu says, “There is no truth to it at all.”
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