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Tag: Shah Rukh Khan

  • Shah Rukh Khan in a mystical avatar in ‘Atharva – The Origin’

    Shah Rukh Khan in a mystical avatar in ‘Atharva – The Origin’

    MUMBAI:  Bollywood’s reigning badshaah, Shah Rukh Khan will be following Rajinikanth’s footsteps with his title role in a graphic novel entitled, Atharva – The Origin.

     

    Khan, who is seen in a rather mystical avatar and will now achieve another milestone with the innovative concept of Atharva – The Origin. Redefining visual effects with films like Ra.One, Khan is one of the few actors who experiments a lot with technology and VFX.

     

    The trailer of Atharva – The Origin has been released by Virzu Studios and features a CG SRK with ripped muscles and ancient armours, standing on a patch of rocky mountains in what seems to be the prehistoric age.  Just like how Rajinikanth’s Kochadaiiyaan created buzz in the south, fans of King Khan are also excited to see SRK’s animated avatar.

     

    The story, which is an adaptation of Ramesh Tamilmani’s graphic novel by the same name, traces the journey of a prospective King. The project is headed by Vel Mohan and contains beautiful illustrations by Ramesh Acharya.

  • Broadcasters’ New Year gift to its viewers

    Broadcasters’ New Year gift to its viewers

    MUMBAI: If you haven’t decided on your New Year plan, don’t fret. Your all time source of entertainment, ‘the Idiot Box’ will be your medium of happiness. With so many stories in the television basket, broadcasters are gearing to encapsulate them all through a slew of special programmes for the New Year’s Eve.

    Star Plus brings in the New Year with its fifth edition of Big Star Entertainment Awards, a TV and Bollywood awards show on 31 December, 8 pm onwards till 12 midnight. It honours personalities from the field of entertainment across movies, music, television, sports, theatre and dance.

    Audiences will get to witness B’town celebs right from Salman-Jacqueline Fernandez to Sonakshi Sinha-Arjun Kapoor setting up the stage on-fire with their spectacular performances. The awards function will be hosted by personalities of different nationalities – Gutthi aka Sunil Grover from India and Pakistani actor Imran Abbas.

    Rival channel Colors has a special treat planned for its viewers. Got Talent World Stage Live, hosted by the charming Shah Rukh Khan and suave Manish Paul, will entertain viewers as they prepare for the final goodbye to 2014 and welcome 2015 with open arms.

    The ‘Got Talent’ franchise owned by Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment, takes entertainment a notch higher as the event brings together outstanding talent not only from India but also impactful global ones. The stage, designed by Omung Kumar, will look stunning as the performances compliment his work of art.

    The talent from across the world will captivate the audience with their special demonstrations involving magic, stunts, dance and acrobatics. Amongst superlative and bright Indian talent whose brilliant and inspiring performances will awe the audience will be of the Prince Dance Group, chhota packet bada dhamaka Akshat Singh, Hip hop sensations Suresh and Vernon Group, aerial performers – Mukesh and Tanya, painter extraordinaire Vilas Naik and many more.

    From the International talent circuit, troupes like Aerosphere will present an aerial Balloon Show, Crystal and Ring Dancer Hu Qi Zhi from China who will fascinate people with her skill, Russian Brothers and Kalutskih Danila and Kirill Brothers will showcase Acrobats and the Craz_E_Crew will perform some incredible stunts. The cherry on the cake, however, will be Magician Aldo Nicolini and Illusionist James Mores who will hypnotize the audience with shocking tricks which will further create an aura of excitement and intrigue.

    Also joining the celebration will be Bollywood bigwigs Priyanka Chopra, Varun Dhawan and Jacqueline Fernandes who will perform with much vigour to popular numbers while creating jaw-dropping and wondrous moments. The choreographer extraordinaire who will add zing to the evening is dancing legend Shiamak Davar. The event will be aired at 10 pm on Colors.
    Stringing together loads of fun and excitement for its viewers this New Year’s eve, Zee TV is planning a two-hour special telefilm – New Year Dhamaka on 31 January at 11 pm. It will star Riddhi Dogra, Raqesh Vashisth, Anurag Sharma, Ravi Dubey, Pooja Bose and various other actors who will be seen playing key roles.

    The two-hour film will take the audience through the world of glitz and glamour and the secrets that lie shielded between the buzz of parties and the dazzle of the flashbulbs. It is set against a glamorous backdrop of a calendar girl pageant.

    The channel has roped in Cadbury Oreo as its presenting sponsor and Vaseline Total moisture and Maggi as the powered-by sponsors.

    With most channels airing stage shows, Life OK has something different to offer. The channel is ready to bring in the New Year with a fun-filled joyous ride with Comedy Classes. It aims to make it a memorable one this year as Bharti Singh, Krushna Abhishek, Siddharth Sagar, Bruna Abdullah, Madhura Naik and all other Comedy Classes actors get set to entertain viewers with their own talent.  

    Actors will turn their ‘Achhe Din Institute’ into a News channel making it a unique concept on the show, as they talk about this year’s biggest news headlines.

    Bharti and Krushna will play the news anchors and take the audience through the big headlines related to Bollywood, politics, TV, sports and more playing on ‘The Year that was’. Television viewers will also get to see a dhamakaa performance by the girls of Comedy Classes.

    Last but not the least, Sony Entertainment Television (SET) will air the repeat telecast of Umang Police Awards from 11 pm to 2.00 am.

    Media analysts believe that television viewing is high on the New Year’s eve. Channels showcase special programmes which not only cater to the existing base but also helps to draw some additional numbers. “Events like these bring Bollywood closer to the television audiences and are also highly rated in the entertainment space,” says a media analyst.

     

  • ‘Happy New Year’ to go digital

    ‘Happy New Year’ to go digital

    MUMBAI: It is rightly said that digital is the only way forward. Filmmakers too have understood that in today’s time the exchange of information is much faster, thanks to digital platforms.

     

    And so, Red Chillies Entertainments (RCE) has decided to take its film, Happy New Year (HNY) to the audiences internationally in a unique manner. After making a mark with the worldwide theatrical release, HNY will now be available for the international fans to view it online.

     

    The Direct-To-Fan model of release of any content has been so far used for the music industry internationally. Breaking the record and to be the first one, it is the first commercial film worldwide to release on DTF model.

     

    “We at Red Chillies have always taken pride in establishing new trends and delighting our fans. Along these lines we bring the biggest entertainer – Happy New Year, directly to our fans through online streaming for the first time ever!” shared RCE CEO Venky Mysore.

     

    This is the first time, any film after the theatrical release, will now release on the digital platform. While the traditional distribution markets like India and China enjoy a wide release of a Hindi film, DTF will release in other countries, barring these two traditional ones, to reach the most unconventional distribution markets.

     

    The film will be available on Happy New Year’s website to be viewed by the fans worldwide. All you need is three very basic things for the viewing – basic internet connection, a device to watch it on and a credit card. At a minimum price the film can be viewed and the best part is that it can be watched on ones computer, phone or any other digital device as long as you have a very basic internet connection.

  • 5 best social media campaigns of 2014 from India: TeamPumpkin

    5 best social media campaigns of 2014 from India: TeamPumpkin

    You must have noticed #AlexFromTarget or #IceBucketChallenge being the runaway success of 2014 on social media, both originating in America.  India also has its share of viral trends as brands and non profits spent ever increasing portion of their resources on social media to gain eyeballs and engage with their customers.

    Every day people on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels are bombarded with new hashtags, contests and other campaigns to hook them up to brand and social causes. While some campaigns stand out as trending content or on other form of social media metric, many sink without a trace.

    Here we present Our Choice of 5 Top Social Media Campaigns of 2014. While these have top of the chart social media metrics to boast, we have limited ourselves to the uniqueness of campaign and engagement it brought with targeted audience.

     

    Nat Geo Cover Shot

    National Geographic India launched “My Nat Geo Covershot” on Facebook and amplified the contest on other platforms to gives fans a chance to use their photography skills and get featured on cover of National Geographic. Fans had to upload the photos with suitable caption and also had the chance to win travel packages. The campaign was followed up with daily updates, status and prompt winner announcements. In this period the FB page of National Geographic received millions of likes and generated buzz for the channel.

    The USP of the Campaign: Using strength of Facebook as photo showcase platform.

    Happy New Year Movie

    Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Happy New Year’ released its trailer on social media including Whatsapp. The fans on Twitter and Facebook also interacted with SRK, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah and Farah Khan including receiving digigraph posters from Film’s official twitter handle. The film hogged the trending topics for many days with hashtags #HNYTrailer, #HNY, #Indiawale #HNYTeamRocksHouston and other related pieces of campaigns. While the star cast was a guaranteed viral generator for the film but the execution team worked well to bring everything under one cohesive plan and generating a heightened buzz before the release. It was reported that the film grossed more than Rs 200 crore during its run.

    The USP of the Campaign: Execution of mega launch with coverage across channels and geographies.

    Pond’s Selfie Ready

    Folks at Hindustan Lever commissioned this campaign to go with latest craze – Selfie. The insight was spot on that while clicking selfies, people are most conscious of their skin. Campaign planners then executed this well by having a microsite as well as using twitter, instagram, youtube and facebook. They gave out skin care tips and kept the interest growing by having a selfie song. The campaign ran for more than a month and remained one of the best remembered social media initiative by a brand this year.

    The USP of the Campaign: Deep Brand Insight and using that to build a cohesive campaign.

    Rice Bucket Challenge

    Close on the heels of Ice Bucket Challenge, The ‘rice bucket challenge’ was the innovative idea of Hyderabad-based Manju Latha Kalanidhi who posted the challenge and asked friends to cook or buy one bucketful of rice and feed the poor in the locality. It was later known that she is a journalist and reports on rice market. “I personally think the [Ice Bucket Challenge] is ideal for the American demographic, but in India, we have loads of other causes to promote”, she elaborated to online news outlet NPR. A facebook page dedicated to the challenge gained nearly 50,000 fans within 10 days besides scores of people from all walks of life donated to the cause and joined the campaign. It was widely covered by print & TV news outlets generating unprecedented buzz for this user generated initiative.

    The USP of the Campaign: Simple message and social Good.

    Gillette #MyRoleModel

    This year father’s day belonged to P&G as it launched Gillette #MyRoleModel campaign targeting Men of 15-45 year age group. The campaign was well executed and had a 360 degree approach with Hashtag embedded TVC, Blogger outreach, Contests and giveaways. The highlight was innovativeness of the selfie campaign where Father-Son duo can put shaving foam and share the picture to win prizes. It was well supported with offline activities where cricketers interacted with fans and chatted about their father being the role models. What helped the brand is that the lead endorser of the campaign Rahul Dravid is himself a role model and a campaign like this around him was sure to generate buzz across channels.

    The USP of the Campaign: 360 degree approach.

    While now you have a list of top 5 social Media Campaigns of 2014, we can’t resist mentioning one of our in house campaigns that generated similar buzz and engagement for one of our Client.

    Tangerine’s #TangerineColorsOfLife

    Tangerine, the newest buzz in the Home Fashion Industry, decided to change its positioning to “Colors of Life” in March 2014. Across a 3 month period – April-June, tangerine organised various activities, right from videos regarding some celebs talking about “What Colors Mean to them” to a 12 week long contest asking people what Colors mean to them. The campaign received a huge buzz on social media with more than 22000 entries across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp and Phone. #TangerineColorOfLife hashtag also trended on Twitter for two continuous days. The campaign helped the brand in setting its new positioning correct in the minds of their target customers and also engaged the customers to a great level.

    The USP of the campaign: Simplicity and outreach through different channels of Social Media.

     

    (These are purely personal views of teampumpkin.com co-founder Swati Nathani and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • Twitter reveals the most influential tweets for #YearOnTwitter 2014

    Twitter reveals the most influential tweets for #YearOnTwitter 2014

    MUMBAI: The year 2014 has undoubtedly belonged to social media and the digital platform. Right from the Pope to Presidents and celebrities, everyone has made a substantial impact through social media. The digital medium products such as selfies, retweets, posts on the most influential books thread, video bytes, challenges like the Ice Bucket and several other me too challenges, announcing breakups and marriages, open letters, celebrity fall outs and unisons with publications etc.; have ensured that the narrative is always chronicled on social media.

     

    As the social soundtrack to life in India, Twitter has revealed the four most influential Tweeple in India for its #YearOnTwitter 2014 campaign, namely Amitabh Bachchan (12M), Shah Rukh Khan (10.4M), Priyanka Chopra (8.05M) and Sachin Tendulkar (4.85M). The portfolios of two of these biggies – Amitabh Bachchan (@srbachchan) and Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) are handled by Fluence, a celebrity digital network that has made news throughout the year with its disruptive activities and signings.

     

    Starting 16 December 2014 till 31 December, the top five tweets that created maximum impact from this set of Indian Tweeples will be showcased under the Perspectives section on 2014.twitter.com, along with other global movers and shakers such as Lady Gaga, Robert Downey Jr. and Neymar Jr. These influencers were chosen for their reach in the country and the news they made during the year on Twitter. Sachin’s picture of him posing with his mother holding his autobiography for the first time, him receiving the Bharat Ratna, Amitabh Bachchan’s thank you message for fans wishing him on his birthday and him sweeping the streets for Swach Bharat Abhiyaan were amongst the most talked about Tweets in the year.

     

    Speaking about their influential clients, Ashish Joshi, VP Digital & Business Head Fluence says, “I would like to congratulate Mr Bachchan and Sachin, two prolific personalities who the people love and who have the power to influence the country with their statements. While it is an honour for Fluence to be associated with personalities of this calibre this association comes with the responsibility of constantly innovating and coming up with ideas that are true to their personalities and are also loved by their fans.  We hope continue to succeed in our efforts while handling these incredibly charismatic and influential people and set new benchmarks for ourselves in the years to come.”

     

    Rishi Jaitly, Market Director for Twitter India and South East Asia added, “No doubt that 2014 was a breakthrough year for Indians using Twitter to connect to their world and heroes such as Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar with 12 million and nearly 5 million followers, respectively. We’re honored to feature them on our global #YearOnTwitter site which showcases the best of the world’s Twitter celebrities and how they connect with their followers in a more personal, authentic way. We look forward to enabling many more millions of Indians to stay engaged with their favourite idols through our platform for live, public conversations on their mobile devices.”

     

    Established in 2013 by CA Media, Fluence has created waves in the nascent sector by signing on some of the biggest names in the industry such as Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, Sonu Nigam, Lata Mangeskhar, etc.

     

  • Everybody is a winner at Sansui Colors Stardust Awards

    Everybody is a winner at Sansui Colors Stardust Awards

    MUMBAI: The year 2014 has proven to be a great year for the Indian Film industry. Last year, we saw several path-breaking performances by actors, musicians, producers and directors. As the first viewer’s choice awards of the year, the Sansui Colors Stardust awards ceremony celebrated the hard work and determination of the entire Indian film fraternity in 2014. The star-studded ceremony honoured several actors across genres like mainstream, action, drama, romance-comedy and even those filmmakers who have showcased newer facets of entertainment.

    The event saw several renowned names from the industry, entertaining the audiences with stunning performances and superlative talent.  Encompassing a Persian stage theme designed by Omung Kumar, the evening was hosted by Saif Ali Khan, Karan Johar, and Riteish Deshmukh who left the audience in splits with their rib-tickling humour. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Parineeti Chopra set the stage on fire with some sizzling performances.

    The red carpet was graced by the host of stars such as Amitabh Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Randeep Hooda, Tabu, Imtiaz Ali, Sooraj Barjatya, Huma Qureshi, Jacqueline Fernandes, Dia Mirza, Arjun Kapoor, Sonu Sood, Omung Kumar, Kunal Kohli, Pradeep Sarkar, Ramesh Sippy, Neha Dhupia, Asha Parekh and many more.

    The Sansui Colors Stardust award show is slated to air in January 2015 only on Colors.

    Here is the list of winners who walked away with top-honours:

     

  • Brand Kapil Sharma, a success on twitter too

    Brand Kapil Sharma, a success on twitter too

    MUMBAI: He has managed to charm Indian audiences with his sense of humour and timing. Brand Kapil Sharma though, is not just limited to television but the funnyman is a hit on micro blogging site twitter too. He features at the top of the most followed among TV celebrities on twitter with 17, 17,777 followers, followed by anchor Mandira Bedi with 4, 93,190. Fashionista Anusha Dandekar, is third in the list with 3, 28,262 followers. Television actor Ram Kapoor completes the list with 1,27,717.

    Indian channels too have been seeing increasing engagement on the micro blogging site, to woo fans and audiences. The channel Colors comes at the number one spot toppling other GEC’s like Zee TV and Star Plus which have come at the second and third spot respectively. Zoom, a Bollywood dedicated channel has beaten Sony for the fourth spot, which came in fifth.

    Former lead vocalist of the now disbanded electro rock band Pentagram and part of the duo Vishal-Shekhar, Vishal Dadlani tops the most mentioned musicians list. He’s known to be candid and openly voice his support and his opinions on current affairs and music. Although way more popular for his trendy lyrics and music production, Yo Yo Honey Singh, surprisingly comes in at number three. Female vocalist Shreya Goshal comes second while Academy award winner AR Rahman comes in fourth.

    The most spoken moment on the platform among entertainment vertical, was when Rajinikanth joined twitter, with over 2, 00,000 followers in the first 24 hours and now over 1.1 million in total.

    Popular on TV and also popular on twitter, Kapil Sharma has not just topped this list but is also one of the fastest growing TV personalities too. He is closely followed by Chef Vikas Khanna who is also popular for his charm and sharp looks. The other three most mentioned TV personalities are Karan Kundra, Karan Wahi and Kritika Sharma.

    In a news dominant nation, journalists make for influencers as well as change agents.  Harsha Bhogle known for his commentary as well as his opinion and contributory article in leading publications and magazines made it to the list. It is also intriguing to note that all mentioned are related to the TV medium than the print, Harsha being the exception. Rajdeep Sardesai tops the list while wife Sagarika Ghose comes in fourth. NDTV’s Barkha Dutt is second in line, while Rahul Kanwal is placed at number three.

    The list of some of the most followed Indians from the entertainment industry is not a tricky one to guess. Shahenshah Amitabh Bachchan is ranked number one with 11,881,345 followers, followed by the three Khan’s; Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman with 1,02,96,567,  9,925,022,  9,475,555 followers respectively. Female actor Deepika Padukone comes in fifth with 83,99,197  followers.

    The big names who joined the platform this year are Rajinikanth, Arjun Kapoor, Kajol, Twinkle Khanna, Kirron Kher, Alok Nath, Armaan Jain, Amit Trivedi and Prakash Jha.

    The top 10 hashtags for the year were ManwaLaage (Manwa Laage,  a song from the movie Happy  New Year), Happy Birthday Hrithik Roshan, Hrithik The Most Handsome Indian, I  Stand With Deepika Padukone (Users support actor Deepika Padukone for her stance against a national newspaper), Jai Ho Thunder Storms In 11 Days (the hashtag refers to fans waiting for Jai Ho movie 11 days prior its release) among others.

     

  • Salman dethrones SRK in Forbes list

    Salman dethrones SRK in Forbes list

    MUMBAI: The Forbes 2014 India celebrity list is out. And this time, it has a new leader.

     

    After enjoying the top rank in the list for three consecutive years, Shah Rukh Khan has been replaced by Salman Khan. The reason behind SRK going down from the coveted spot to number 3 position is lack of any film release (except a cameo) between 1 October 2013 to 30 September 2014.

     

    Meanwhile, Salman topped the charts, both in terms of revenues and fame.

     

    At number two place, it’s Amitabh Bachchan, who has moved up by three positions in 2014. Big B’s charisma was enhanced by his nearly 12 million Twitter following.

     

    The top 10 celebs and the money made by them:

     

    1. Salman Khan: Rs 244.50 crore

    2. Amitabh Bachchan: Rs 196.75 crore

    3. Shah Rukh Khan: Rs 202.40 crore

    4. MS Dhoni: Rs 141.80 crore

    5. Akshay Kumar: Rs 172.00 crore

    6. Virat Kohli: Rs 58.43 crore

    7. Aamir Khan: Rs 80.47 crore

    8. Deepika Padukone: Rs 67.20 crore

    9. Hrithik Roshan: Rs 85.00 crore

    10. Sachin Tendulkar: Rs 59.54 crore

  • Narendra Modi triumphs again, this time on twitter

    Narendra Modi triumphs again, this time on twitter

    MUMBAI: Twitter as a global social platform, has always allowed netizens to express themselves in 140 characters, during moments of celebration, protest, mourning and joy. The micro blogging site receives more than 500 million tweets per day. And we Indian’s are not far away.

    Politicians, actors, cricketers, opinion leaders and citizens have taken to the platform quite well this year. But for the year 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t just steal the show during the elections, but also on twitter.

    The Golden tweet aka .the most-retweeted tweet for India in 2014 was Modi’s election-winning tweet. It received more than 70,000 RTs as it became the most retweeted tweet ever in India. The tweet read, “India has won. Bharat Ki Vijai. Aache Din Aane Wale Hain.”

    Globally, the golden tweet went to the Ellen Show’s starry photo from the Oscars telecast, which gave rise to the selfie phenomenon world over. It received more than 33,67,817 RTs.

    Meanwhile, India’s list of power tweeters is dominated by Bollywood stars, apart from Modi. In the top 10, Amitabh Bachchan leads with 1,18,18,056 followers, followed by Shah Rukh Khan at 1,02,46,755. Cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli too make their entry but at number 15 and 16, respectively. Author Chetan Bhagat adds variety to the list, rounding off the top 20 for India.

    Rohit Sharma’s smashing the world record for the highest individual ODI cricket score of 264, on 13 November was the top peak moment for twitter. In fact, of the top 10 moments, three are related to cricket including the Indian Premier League. The second largest peak in twitter conversation for the year was Rajinikanth’s arrival on twitter. With over 2,00,000 followers in the first 24 hours and now over 1.1 million in total, it’s clear that he has many loyal fans both off and on twitter. Hardly surprising, two of the top five peaks in conversations were about Modi.  With 8.5 million followers, he is currently the second most followed political leader in the world (after President Barack Obama) and continues to grow his followers at a rapid pace.

    The fastest rising Twitter hashtag trends in India saw a mixture of sports, disasters and political campaigns. Conversations around the 2014 FIFA World Cup lead the trend, followed by the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines flight, MH370. Meanwhile, Mufflerman, a campaign led by the fans of the Aam Aadmi Party in support of leader Arvind Kejriwal, gathered momentum towards the end of the year.

     

  • Subhash Chandra knew I had a winning concept: Rajat Sharma

    Subhash Chandra knew I had a winning concept: Rajat Sharma

    “In the 21 years of this show, nobody has been forced to reply, Rajat knows the art of extracting a reply through his sweet questioning. Another big quality of Rajat is that he uses his tongue sparingly in his show, but he uses his heart to the fullest. A clever mind works behind this,” is how Prime Minister Narendera Modi described the man who has been for 21 years making the icons of the country answerable.

     

    Rajat Sharma’s journey with ‘Aap ki Adalat’ began with Zee TV in 1994 and from then there has been no stopping. The talk show has seen politicians, sportspersons, celebrities and others pour out their heart as well answer some of the trickiest questions.

     

    Amidst the celebrations, indiantelevision.com’s Meghna Sharma in a freewheel chat with Sharma spoke about what keeps him ticking, his favourite interview and much more.

     

    Excerpts…

     

    21 years is a long time, what do you have to say about the journey? What keeps you ticking?

     

    It still feels that the journey has just begun; all my memories with the show are still very fresh. The type of guests we have hosted on ‘Aap Ki Adalat,’ their replies, the viewers’ response, the in-studio audiences, the ambience that makes me feel at home every time I step into the Adalat Studio, the affection showered upon me, probably the never-ending love of my viewers…all makes me feel really blessed and probably gives me the strength to keep going.

     

    When did you come up with the idea of starting ‘Aap ki Adalat’? Any glitches faced while launching the show?

     

    The idea came up in a casual conversation with Zee TV owner Subhash Chandra on a flight from Delhi to Mumbai, 21 years ago. Without much thinking I told Subhash Chandra how the interviews should be done for TV. I told him about putting politicians in the dock and making them accountable to public. After we landed I forgot about the conversation. Subhash Chandra, however, was quick to realise that I had come up with a winning concept.

     

    Your most memorable interview so far and why?

     

    Like I said, all of my interviews have been really special and still very fresh in my memory, however if you tell me to pick one, I would pick the one with the then PM candidate, Narendra Modi. The reason for my pick is not only did the show created a huge ripple in the broadcast media Industry, when almost India’s 85 per cent news audiences watched the show’s first telecast with competition reduced to negligible numbers but also because of spontaneity and ease with which Mr. Modi responded even to the trickiest questions…given the fact that he had a really bad throat after addressing six-odd election rallies during the hectic campaign spree. We weren’t expecting more than 15 minutes of shoot. We ended up shooting him for over two hours and the result was breathtaking.

     

    Whom/what do you attribute this success to? How do you still maintain the charm of the show?

     

    Talking of success, I am very sure that it wouldn’t have been the way it is now if the director of my show, who also is my wife, Ritu Dhawan wouldn’t have been around. She is the one who has been standing like a rock behind my success…taking care of everything, from my looks to the positioning of the show, she is everywhere.

     

     

    I have always believed in doing my job right and just focus on that. We have been able to create the right mix of depth, detailing and research mixed with the right amount of humour, we have ensured to keep the show relevant to the changing preferences of the audiences over the last two decades, probably that’s what you are referring to as charm.

     

    After 21 years, will we see any changes in the format?

     

    Change is inevitable, however more than planning any such change we would rather keep ourselves adaptive to what our audiences would prefer.

     

    From President to PM to celebs, everyone attended the celebrations. What do you have to say about the support?

     

    One word, I am overwhelmed. Feeling deeply humbled. While just focusing on my work, I never expected the amount of affection and respect showered upon me by all including country’s topmost icons. I am more than grateful to all and most to my viewers who have backed me all through as their advocate while I tried to amplify their voice with who mattered.