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Menka Shivdasani

How many different ways can there be to say essentially the same thing? You can say `Lock kiya jaye?', but then, Amitabh Bachchan already has a monopoly on that. You can ask `Sure?' but then, Bachchan got that one too. You can say, 'Confident?', but gues s what ...

This proved to be such a problem that everyone, even Dattu, Anupam Kher's personal helper, got into the act. ``Saaheb, why don't you ask `Seal it?''' he suggested. Eventually, Kher and his scriptwriter opted for `Freeze it?' They also settled for ``50 p er cent confident?'' and ``100 per cent sure?''

Even Anupam Kher admitted a couple of days before the launch of Sawaal Dus Crore Ka: ``There are only so many ways you can say `Sure?' `Confident?' And I'm still struggling.''

It didn't help that Kher was given, in his words, about ``three hours'' to rehearse. ``Mr. Bachchan was fortunate to rehearse for three months,'' he said. ``Not that that is an excuse.''

One day, Kher was reading in the newspapers that Madhuri Dixit was going to be hosting the show (Ms. Dixit, very wisely as it turned out, declined.). The next day, sometime in the first week of October, his phone rang. It was Gajendra Singh (`Antakshari' ), director of Sawaal Dus Crore Ka. ``Would you like to host the show?'' he asked.

``I was surprised,'' said Kher, ``I had not thought about it.'' Shooting was to start in two weeks and this was going to be a major decision.

Not that Kher had anything to lose. After 290-odd films and with a sense of stagnation setting in, he was looking for something new. He was enjoying his other show on SABe TV hugely -- `Say Na Something to Anupam Uncle', which completed its silver jubile e episode just a few days before SDCK was launched -- but clearly, it was not enough.

He chose not to throw a star tantrum about the fact that he was not the first choice. ``We don't remember that before Marlon Brando did Godfather, five others were approached,'' he said.

He also knew the comparisons would be inevitable -- and he even had the grace to visit Amitabh Bachchan to seek his blessings. ``I respect Mr. Bachchan, he's a very dear friend of mine,'' he said. ``But I'm not going to let someone else's success dwarf m e. And when it comes to work, professionalism counts. If you do your job sincerely and properly, then there's place for everyone under the sun.''

As host of a show like this one, Kher had a lot to learn, and he's the first to admit it. Never mind the answers to the questions -- he's just reading them out, he says -- but he had to consider such things as diction, for instance. ``In the first episod e, I had to say the word `Paraguay','' Kher laughed, ``and I said `Paragua'. Derek O'Brien, the quizmaster behind the scenes, had a fit!'' Worse, these days when he reads a book -- any book -- strangers walk up to him and ask, ``Brushing up?'' (This happ ened to him on a flight to Hyderabad recently!)

Anupam Kher is a brave man. ``This is a very big platform,'' he says. ``It puts me in the big league immediately.'' It is also an awesome task. ``It makes me feel like I'm starting again from scratch. It's very important to clean your slate to start afre sh, to constantly go back to zero to come back to `100', or even `80'.''

Sawaal Dus Crore Ka is a game of zeroes, in every sense of the word. You know the concept by now -- it's been hyped up enough -- the fact that with every correct answer, a zero is added to the prize money until you reach Rs 10 crore. Zee is making a big deal about the ``power of zero''; that's what makes it an indigenous show, unlike some others we know of, it says. After all, zero was invented by Aryabhatta and is India's gift to mankind ...

The problem is, there are those who will say the show is a zero too. Certainly, at the live launch last Monday, it was roundly criticised for being a me-too. Perhaps, it was too soon to judge just after the first episode, and perhaps it will improve. As one of the team members said shortly afterwards, an indigenous show can keep improving, while a programme that is contracted to a foreign one will be forced to stick to the format. (Some might say, of course, that if you need to keep improving, it's bec ause you were not up to the mark to begin with...)

The sets are glitzy -- all chrome and glass and metal -- but why did one of the participants remain in darkness even as he was being introduced? The format is too complicated; Zee tried too hard to outdo KBC and make it seem different from the original. This show will be watched keenly, at least initially, as people make their comparisons. The Rs 10 crore dream will be a great temptation. But Anupam Kher -- have I said this already? -- is a brave man. Fortunately, he has the capacity to salvage the s how. Manisha Koirala, who is co-host, has just made one of the biggest mistakes of her life; she had better hurry up and do something more useful on the show than smile prettily.

Before I wind up, I must ask a stupid question yet again -- where are all these huge amounts of prize money coming from and how long is the industry going to be able to sustain such shows? Where Zee is concerned, the answer is simple. As somebody I as ked this to remarked: ``That's easy. Zee will just launch one channel less next year!''

The author can be contacted at menkashivdasani@hotmail.com

Pic.: Anupam Kher and Manisha Koirala on the sets of `Sawaal Dus Crore Ka'.