How did 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' shoot without the audience?

Posted on 17th Oct 2020 by rohit kumar

Earlier, on the stage of \'Kaun Banega Crorepati\' (KBC), Bollywood veteran actor and host of the show Amitabh Bachchan used to shake hands with the participants very warmly and even hug him but now everything has changed, he is from far away Greetings The \'hot seat\' is very important in KBC, on which a contestant has to struggle to get prize money of Rs 7 crore and also has to answer 16 questions. But compared to last season, now the hot seat has been kept slightly away from the chair of this famous host. Only eight contestants appear every week in this edition of the popular quiz show \'KBC\' being launched during the pandemic, while the first 10 contestants appeared every week. Screens are placed circularly at the back where these participants sit. Their seating arrangement has also been done in such a way that no one will cross them in enthusiasm and come to the main area of ​​the KBC game.

 

The game show has now entered its 20th year, but the show is particularly popular among the country\'s middle and lower-middle-class as it provides a platform for people\'s ambitions. Although Covid-19 is prohibited from moving viewers to the set, this time everything has been opened for the contestants. Its director Arun Sheshkumar says that this time the number of auditioners increased ten-fold after the process was completely done online. Earlier, people associated with KBC were called to their nearest city after the initial phone contest to take part in a three-stage general knowledge test. He says, \"A large section of South India used to be deprived of it because they were not comfortable with the language, so we did not go there but this time it has been improved.\" The auditions in remote areas also increased the attraction of the remote people. Sujata Sanghamitra, who is associated with the running of the show, says that a woman from Assam gave the test from inside the car as it was the only place where the network was stable and she was from such a small village which is not even on the map.

 

Auditioners were instructed on how to use the video meeting app, and those selected for the finals competition were trained to film stories from their backgrounds. \"Our reality team usually goes to these participants\' hometowns and shoots with their family or at their workplace,\" says Sanghamitra. But this time we had to do it all by sitting far away. In such a situation, our contestant\'s nine-year-old daughter shot her mother while cooking and speaking. However such footage also has a different kind of freshness. \'

 

Preparation for the new season started in March itself. Due to the state of uncertainty in the months that followed, there was no doubt that the show would not be able to make a comeback this year because even those who are locked in their homes will be entertained to keep their minds and minds busy Will find means Various possible events were discussed, including whether to digitize the entire show and allow everyone to perform from home, and subsequently combine all the scenes to form a show. The shooting started again in September as soon as the lockdown was started in the cities.

 

Earlier in July, Amitabh Bachchan was also confirmed to be infected with Covid-19 and recovered in August. Because of this, there was a lot of fear in the team. Sheshkumar says, \'We were very cautious about what to do and what not to do. Now people cannot go close to them and take pictures as before.

 

Britain\'s show \'Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?\' On the lines of KBC, it started on Star TV in 2000, and later it started airing from 2010 on Sony Entertainment Television. The Film City studios where the show is filmed usually have a crowd of Bachchan fans who come to be distant audiences and take selfies with them. But this year only participants were allowed to stay on the spectacular set of 100 sets of KBC. There was no studio audience on this set. This time the option of \'audience poll\' was also removed, which is one of the four lifelines during the quiz in which anyone can be asked to answer the question. Instead, a friend has been given the option to make a video call. Given the lack of audience, director Sheshkumar changed the shot to include more close-ups. He says, \'It\'s like an intimate conversation between two people. I was skeptical as to whether the audience would accept the show but gave their positive response. The new season began on 28 September.

 

The team of 225 people who worked on the set was reduced to 100. On the set, the men of this team have to undergo a thorough sanitization with body temperature, oxygen check, while the participants undergo three tests before being allowed to come on set. Sanghamitra says this with regret that she is no longer able to hug anyone or share her lunch with anyone else. In the room where she discusses the script of each episode with Bachchan, there is also a glass wall-like structure. Similarly, there is a similar situation in the production room.

 

A special room has been made just for \'Big B\' so that he can rest there. Priya Patil\'s job is to take care and the wardrobe of the host but she appears in a PPE suit and face shield on the set. Last year, he tried a variety of tie knots on Bachchan, including Aldridge and Trinity. Since the wearer has to get close to the wearer to remove or remove the knots, Patil has started using collar pins, lapel pins, and small braches this time, which does not cause much trouble.

 

It is no surprise that Covid-19 is mentioned in everything nowadays. The hosts ask the contestants about the difficulties encountered during the lockdown. The first episode this year started with the Hindi poem \'Phir Bana Aana Hata Hai\' which shows that people struggle to return after any outbreak. Similarly, the return of the audience to the set is also expected in the future and the set designers have retained the earlier seating capacity. The director says, \'The energy the audience communicates is missing but we are coping with every situation. Whether we can bring them back or not, we want to be ready for that too. \'