Games people play

AMRITA MUKHERJEE / TNN / Jan 14, 2006, 23:46 IST

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Prize fighters, they are. They are the directors of game shows that pull in the punters.

Prize fighters, they are. They are the directors of game shows that pull in the punters.
The world might be knowing that it's quiz wizard Siddharth Basu who pulls the strings on Amitabh Bachchan's computers on Kaun Banega Crorepati, but when it comes to game shows on Bengali telly nothing much is known about the brains behind the innovative games.
One of the first batch of graduates of SRFTI, Debasish Sarkar is the director of Haun Maun Khaun.Debasish has been a part of popular non-fiction shows like Rojgere Ginni, Alpha Pentathlon and in the last four years he has shot almost 800 episodes in different non-fiction programmes.
"I am actually a trained film editor but I have been directing non-fiction too," says Debasish. Not one to take the cake when it comes to accolades for Haun Maun Khaun, Debasish says, "Frankly speaking, the success of a game show is always a team effort coupled with good infrastructure and financial backup."

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The weird games and the GK questions asked in Haun Maun Khaun are the result of innumerable brainstorming sessions held by Rangon Chakraborty and his team. Rangon is right now connected with three other game shows, Prajapati Park, Utshaber Shera Paribar and Hothath Honeymoon.
"I guess you perfect the art of doing a game show through experience. While formulating the games there are a few factors we have to always keep in mind.

It has to be visually enjoyable, financially viable, can be carried out in 30 seconds and can be quantifiable. Quantifiability is important because you can judge the winner immediately," said Rangon.
That's why it's always packing sweets in a number of sweet boxes, unscrambling words or eating a few chillies. Pompi Ghosh Mukherjee, who is directing Rojgere Ginni, says, "We always keep our eyes and ears open to ideas.
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If we go to a house where a three-year-old child talks about an interesting game we try to incorporate that and if our driver has something interesting to say we also take that." Pompi, agrees on the teamwork angle.
"Our producer Indrani Mukherjee gives her inputs, Arghya Kamal Mitra is the advisor and the rest is discussed in meetings. Execution of the ideas is complete teamwork."
And the team has to be young, fun loving with a sense of humour, says Arghya Kamal Mitra. Mitra, who directed the TRP-raker Dhonni Meye. "While framing the questions and deciding on the games we always keep the humour and intelligence in mind. Physicality is also important.
If it's something as simple as breaking eggs, the mess created adds to the visual humour." True. If you can get a gameshow participant to go down on his knees and propose to another participant or ask a housewife to play a memory game in the kitchen it does work.
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Non-fiction might be ruling TV around the world but our guys back home are no less clued in. The anchors might be the face of the shows but the crew form the backbone.
GAME, SET, MATCH
It's a strong research team that make game shows work
The team keeps in mind visual appeal, intelligence and humour while deciding on the content.
A game show is always teamwork and the director and the actor have to work in close tandem to make a show successful.
amrita.mukherjee@timesgroup.com

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