Why do we watch sitcoms? For information? No. For education? Nope. For awareness? Certainly not. We become couch potatoes only for three reasons, testified by Vidya Balan, ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT AND ENTERTAINMENT. But of late certain TV shows are produced not for the purpose of entertaining the viewer but to defraud him. One such show is "Bollywood Dhamaal" aired everyday on E24 at 10 pm. Viewers are shown a picture of an actor from the Indian film industry and are asked to guess the name of the personality. This picture has some part of the face hidden or is a combination of two half faces. Zoom also has a similar show for the 11 pm daily slot. The picture is clear to the extent that even a seven-year-old kid can guess the name of the celebrity. Yesterday, while surfing through the entertainment channels, I decided to sit through this show for once. This time, they showed picture of Akshay Kumar with only his eyes hidden.
The show went on and on but no one in India could guess it to be Akshay. As many as 20 people from all over the country called and came up names such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Irfan Khan, Raghuvir Yadav etc. After the presenter gave a clue that the name of the actor begins with 'A', the answers that came were hilarious, starting with Aditya Pancholi, Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan, Arjun Rampal, Aditya Chopra, Asif Sheikh etc.
Apparently, the calls were made from the studios of the show by the people of their own production team. If you call the number flashing on the screen, you are charged Rs. 12 per minute. You will not be connected immediately to the anchor but will be put on a long hold. While on hold, you would be asked questions such as whether you like a particular song or a movie or would like to listen to Bollywood gossip. While you are negotiating there, the producers are making the moolah at the rate of Rs 12 per minute.
But indeed the role of the anchor is commendable. She has no script in hand and no teleprompter. Dressed in flashy outfits, she goes on weaving meaningless sentences around the one-liner "Come on, pick up the phone and guess the celebrity." But she manages to say the same sentence in a thousand different ways.
At times, she goes silent and starts moving fingers through her hair or her itsy bitsy dress. It is also a delight to see her scratching her arms or rubbing her hands together or tapping her forehead in between bouts of silence. But mind you, not everyone can do this.
The prize money is Rs. 50,000 at the time the show starts but suddenly in the middle of the show, the amount is raised to Rs. one lac and towards the end of the show, it is further increased as per the whims and fancies of the producers. Most interestingly, just two to five minutes before this circum wraps up, the prize money is reduced to a ridiculous Rs. 4000. Just when half a minute is left, a caller (perhaps the producer himself) invariably manages to "supply" the right name and gets the prize of Rs 4000.
If you see someone making a guess of Sridevi over the picture of Anil Kapoor, wouldnt that be entertainment. For sure, it would be. Tomfoolery is indeed fun!
But indeed the role of the anchor is commendable. She has no script in hand and no teleprompter. Dressed in flashy outfits, she goes on weaving meaningless sentences around the one-liner "Come on, pick up the phone and guess the celebrity." But she manages to say the same sentence in a thousand different ways.
At times, she goes silent and starts moving fingers through her hair or her itsy bitsy dress. It is also a delight to see her scratching her arms or rubbing her hands together or tapping her forehead in between bouts of silence. But mind you, not everyone can do this.
The prize money is Rs. 50,000 at the time the show starts but suddenly in the middle of the show, the amount is raised to Rs. one lac and towards the end of the show, it is further increased as per the whims and fancies of the producers. Most interestingly, just two to five minutes before this circum wraps up, the prize money is reduced to a ridiculous Rs. 4000. Just when half a minute is left, a caller (perhaps the producer himself) invariably manages to "supply" the right name and gets the prize of Rs 4000.
If you see someone making a guess of Sridevi over the picture of Anil Kapoor, wouldnt that be entertainment. For sure, it would be. Tomfoolery is indeed fun!
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