Aiming for a better India

A North Eastern girl on the hot-seat of Kaun Banega Crorepati with Amitabh Bachchan

By Priyanka Bhadani

Amitabh Bachchan would soon be back on the small screen quizzing the nation and helping them become rich with the season eight of Kaun Banega Crorepati. The actor, who has earlier brought to light the issues of women empowerment, rural development etc with the show, this time around, would be aiming to bring about a positive change to the way Indians think. With the tagline, “Yahan Sirf Paise Nahin…Dil Bhi Jeete Jaate Hain”, KBC 8 aims for a better India that’s united and full of progressive ideas.
Sony Entertainment Television recently announced three promotional campaigns around the show that will go on air in mid-August.
The first campaign that went on air two weeks ago tackles the issue of racial discrimination as it features a girl with typical North-Eastern looks, sitting on the hot-seat as Bachchan poses a question – ‘The city of Kohima is a part of which country?’ The girl opts for the audience poll, a lifeline in the show, and everyone votes for India. Bachchan says with a smile, “It’s India, everyone knows this answer!” Replies the girl, “Everyone knows it, but how many people believe it?”
The second campaign that went on air this week touches on the issue of Hindu-Muslim tensions. It shows a young Hindu boy taking blessings from his folks in a traditional hinterland setup before leaving to participate in KBC while his neighbours – a Muslim family – makes fun of him as the tension between the heads of the two families seems quite visible. However, once on the hot-seat stuck with a question, the Hindu guy opts to call his Muslim neighbour using the lifeline – ‘phone a friend’ – and asks, “Chacha, salaam walekum ka matlab?” The old man replies with tears in his eyes, “Allah tumhe salamat rakhe beta!” The campaign concludes by showing both the families coming together, burying their year-old differences.
The third is a light-hearted take on how love for films and Amitabh Bachchan can bring an entire village together. The campaign that will go on air closer to the telecast of the eighth season, is again set in the Indian hinterland. It shows a man setting up a stage with a mic as the crowd is gathering and building up around the stage. He keeps his phone near the mic just to get a tele-marketing call which he snubs. But soon he gets a call from Bachchan from KBC as his friend is sitting on the hot-seat and the entire crowd cheers. Surprised by the loud cheering, Bachchan says, “Humne toh aapke ghar par phone lagaya tha na?” to which the contestant replies, “Yeh bhi toh family hi hai sir!” The promo concludes with Bachchan delivering a popular dialogue from one of his film, as the entire village cheers for him. While the channel has announced the three campaigns for the time being, three more will follow in the course of time – one of which will feature the issue of HIV-AIDS and another will touch the issue of educated youngsters getting into politics.
The campaigns have been designed by Leo Burnett India, written by Vikram Pandey and directed by Nitesh Tiwari.
Tiwari, who has been known for his realistic film-making skills, says that there’s a need to address issues gripping the society in a lighter vein such as these. “TV as a medium is evolving and such ad campaigns will only add to its prestige,” he says adding that a lot of planning went into deciding the issues that the films would touch upon. “We have tried to convey a message without being overtly loud,” he says.
Nachiket Pantvaidya, Senior Executive Vice-President and Business Head of Sony Entertainment Television, says that the idea this time around is to breakaway from stereotypes and do something different. In that endeavour, there would be a few changes in the format as well like the introduction of a new community lifeline, the details of which have been withheld for the time-being.
“The idea is to bring out sensitive issues to the fore. We have always said that knowledge can get you money. However, now that we have started moving towards economic prosperity, we also need to make some social changes. And that’s what the new theme focusses on,” says Pantvaidya as he also adds that to spread the message across to the masses, the team this time would also travel to four smaller cities like Surat, Gwalior, etc and do live shows there.
With Amitabh Bachchan a part of this initiative, hopefully the campaigns and the show will be able to bring about a social reform.