King Khan's hot seat

With Shah Rukh Khan stepping into the Big B's shoes starting this Monday, Kaun Banega Crorepati 3 has undergone a major revamp, writes.

You have to give it to Sameer Nair for bringing the two biggest icons of Bollywood to your TV sets. Kaun Banega Crorepati, a gameshow that began with Amitabh Bachchan, will continue its journey from January 22 with Shah Rukh Khan charming the guests on the hotseat. "Computerji...", "Lock kiya jaaye..." now make way for "Freeze kiya jaaye", "Shah Rukh, main aapko gale lagana chahta hoon (instead of "I want to quit"), "Kucha kucha pukka pukka ... Palat" (for "Flip the question"), with a dash of Shah Rukh style.

Nair, the CEO of Star Entertainment India, is practically working from Studio 7, Film-city in Mumbai, where SRK is shooting for KBC 3 since January 7. The pace of activities at Studio 7 is scorching (quite expected when SRK is at the helm), with Nair and Siddharth Basu leaving no stone unturned when it comes to shooting the episodes. The acres of print and hours of television coverage that the SRK-KBC combo has managed has buoyed Star officials' hopes about the show's acceptability among television audiences.

"When Amitabh Bachchan categorically refused to come back to KBC, presumably because his film career was on a boom again and he did not have the bulk dates, Sameer had only one name on his list "" Shah Rukh Khan," claims Paritosh Joshi, president (advertising sales and distribution), Star Entertainment. Media planners, however, point out that the

Big B had upped his remuneration (rumoured to be around Rs 51 crore), which Star could not afford. Talk on the streets also alleges that SRK has bagged the KBC 3 contract for a whopping Rs 65-70 crore for 52 episodes.

Joshi, who is now a regular visitor at Studio 7 (since his boss, Nair, is hooked up with KBC), was "quite surprised" to see the participants and the audience on the sets going ga-ga over the hero. "What was unexpected was that he had no airs of being a super celebrity, he was just one among the participants and not god." With the new-age Don becoming Star TV's favourite star, the channel went ahead and built him a five-star chalet, complete with bedroom, bathroom, lounge, reading area and kitchenette.

The economics of the show have certainly skyrocketed this time around. Having sold most of the advertising slots for around Rs 130 crore, the channel is still hoping to make a few extra crores on a 60-second slot that remains for the 52-episodes package. "As the show gains hype, we expect the one-minute block, available at $50,000 per 10 seconds, to get in more advertisers who want to be associated with the grand launch," says Joshi. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that the revenue per episode made by Star TV with KBC 3 is 10 per cent more than the last season. In effect, Star will be richer by nearly 45 per cent with every KBC 3 show!

And if there seems to be a hurry to go on air, the reason is "very simple. They had to do it before or after the cricket World Cup. There was a window of opportunity available now, so the channel went for it," says a media planner from Mumbai, who did not want to be named.

The million-dollar question is: will anyone be able to live up to Bachchan's reputation on the host's seat? "I don't think we need to compare the two. It's like James Bond. You can't compare Sean Connery with Daniel Craig," states Sagar Mahableshwarkar, group creative head at O&M. The agency, which conceptualised the KBC 3 advert, shot the entire film in seven days. "The directive from the channel was clear "" introduce Shah Rukh as KBC's host," he says.

A three-minute music video soon followed the advert. The video, which was SRK's brainchild, was quickly approved by Star TV and the production team, and the star himself proposed Ganesh Hegde's name.

Realising that SRK is a saleable celebrity in international markets, the channel is also hoping to release the show in "SRK-friendly markets (like the US and UK)". But Celador, the production house that owns the show's format, will call the final shots for international market rights. For Viren Popli, senior vice president (intercative services), Star India, 16 million calls for 20 episodes marks a good start. "This is a 15 per cent rise from the last time and we expect the call rate to increase once the show is launched," he hopes. Having sold the mobile rights to Bharti, all KBC mobile content like ringtones, caller tunes, mobisodes, video clips and extra tidbits of the show would be exclusive to AirTel subscribers.

The shoot for the very first episode of KBC 3 began with Prasenjit Sarkar, a rollover contestant from KBC 2. SRK welcomed the Bengali babu from Kolkata in his own inimitable Devdas style by referring to him as "babumoshai...". When Sarkar requested SRK to sing the Bengali song that was supposed to be a part of the movie Devdas but was never included, the Bollywood Badshah admitted to not remembering it entirely at the moment and instead recited another Bengali poem that he knew. Sarkar, an inspector of central excise, recalls, "I was one of the 10 participants for episode 61, but the show was taken off air midway. But I was assured by Star that I would be the first rollover contestant whenever KBC relaunches."

While Sarkar hoped and prayed for season three to start and meet his favourite star Amitabh Bachchan, his prayers were answered only in 2007. "My 11-year-old son is a die-hard fan of Mr Khan and when I met him on the sets of KBC 3, I too fell for his charms," he confesses, adding that King Khan is a host who manages to enthuse the entire set and participants with his "bubbling energy and a constant flow of pep talk".

Sarkar will be one among the 10 participants who will appear on January 22 on KBC 3. He and the others were given KBC souvenirs personally autographed by the Bollywood Badshah. "It made my son really happy," he gushes.

It seems as if SRK's humility on the sets of KBC 3 is sure to find him a growing set of fans.