Sourabh’s blog

The impact and success which KBC achieved needs no introduction. It was a show which changed everything for Small Screen and the Tv ratings for Star Plus, and to Amitabh Bachchan in particular. What KBC acheived was least expected by anyone. The Big B had some not so good experiences in films like Lal Badshah, and Sooryavansham. A new show on the Small screen featuring the Big B was the only hype the television show had that time. Since it was a unique, novel and never seen before type of a Quiz TV show in the prime-time, the success can be credited to everyone linked with KBC. But after KBC, people were always looking forward to the anticipated sequel for the same. Some months ago, it was confirmed and that opened doors for the KBC-2.

After about a couple of months of waiting in the dark to know more about the actual show and get an idea of what the new KBC is actually gonna be like, we saw the new promo cuts of KBC-2. From first look on those promo ads it was obvious that the image of Amitabh was different. It was a quite relaxed and informal Amitabh to say the least. The “Don’t loose hope is the moral of the story” and ‘”Ummed se Doogna” were catchy phrases tossed to make people Call the KBC lines and book at place on the Hot-seat with the Big B . After one promo ad, one by one others based on the same theme were aired with quite a good advertising strategy ( Links for the promo ad-videos can be found at the end of the blog post) But the underlying theme was the same in all. We always had the same optimistic Amitabh along with his new Rapper image. Don’t know how much that has to do with the Bunty and Bubly’s rap song featuring Blaze. But how wod KBC-2 actually compare to the original KBC is what we all were waiting for.

Obviously if it was the same old thing as the KBC, it wont be as popular and well-watched show as before and would soon go off un noticed. After all it had to retain the same Set, Computerji, Lifelines and how on earth would KBC 2 be KBC without the ‘lock kiya jaaye’, “Confident?” “Are you sure?”and the ‘ duvidha mein lifelive use kijiye’. What does KBC-2 have it in them which makes it different than before? The list is quite big surpisingly and I am sure there would be more surprises in store as the KBC rolls on and we see the newer episodes of the same. First of all, the Big B seems more cooler, informal and quite notorious than before. I know its difficult to pass judgements by just one show, but seeing the last nites show he isnt the same host as before. I found him to be a lil less helpful than before. The episode started just as if it had never taken a break, everything of the KBC was retained but there were some added features. Its what they say, ” Theres something, for everyone” this time. There is an additional lifeline ( called the FLIP where you can completely get the question to be replaced by a newer one, cool eh), the other 9 contestants and the audience can anwer all the questions which the contestant at the hot-seat is faced with for a separate prize of 2 lac. Theres a viewers question too which can be pariticipated by the viewers in between the show. And ofcourse, double the price money- 2 Crore.

The price money had never been what appealed to most , there had always been the Competitive shows from Sony and Zee which offered much bigger prize money but they flopped badly. So, sitting on the hot seat facing AB, is another thing which draws the contestants and the people participating in the game show. Now its almost 9 pm and not far away from the second KBC-2 episode. So I would have to end it here. Would keep it updated with the other things after a while.

I would be well off to give you links to the ad-videos, if you would like to see them on the internet. Indya.com is where you can get linked to the official KBC-2 Homepage.

The videos can be foundhere

To end this on a happy and an optimistic note, what would better be than “Don’t Loose hope is the moral of the story”. So if its advisable to call the KBC lines next time they are open…coz you never know.. you might just get lucky.. and have Amitabh Bachan just signing off the 2 Crore Rs. check with his own hands for you…hehee…

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 6th, 2005 at 9:02 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.