Siddhartha Basu
| Photo Credit: Special association
When the historical past ebook on quizzing on tv in India is written, Siddhartha Basu can be remembered as the man who popularised the well-known catchphrase “I’ve started, so I’ll finish” as he volleyed inquiries to contestants on numerous reveals for practically 40 years. Basu first captured the creativeness of a nation in 1985 with his disarming smile, good diction and charming mop of hair, when he hosted Doordarshan’s Quiz Time, the inter-collegiate quiz present on Sundays at 9pm. Four many years later Basu is nowhere close to ending what he began — taking part in quizmaster. He is back with Sony Liv’s Quizzer Of The Year (QOTY), co-designed with Anita Kaul Basu and the crew at Tree of Knowledge Digital, for college students from Standard IX to XII.
Siddhartha Basu in Quiz Time
| Photo Credit:
Special association
Speaking over telephone, Basu says, “QOTY is a daily digital offering which is on the Sony Liv app through the year. Within that, there is an open quiz and a schools’ contest. There will be episodes on city championships and the national finals. The aim is to offer an interactive daily engagement, at a time of choice and on a device of choice to students and everybody else.”
Participation is by registration on the Sony LIV app, adopted by answering seven questions daily. “The scope of the quiz will be their school curriculum and general knowledge. There is diverse content, and the questions have elements of intrigue and tease,” says Basu, including, “No question is repeated. You can binge play from Sunday to Saturday and there are prizes for weekly and monthly toppers.” The last winners can be awarded an academic scholarship of ₹1 crore and the title of Quizzer Of The Year.
With quiz reveals shifting away from reside tv the place it was evident for those who knew the proper reply or not, Basu says that years of expertise have helped put together quizzes for an “app generation”. “We have tried to curate the content and game in such a way that we minimise people having others or Google to pitch in their answers for them. The contest aims at both out-reach and integrity.”
A quizzer is not the one who indulges in an omnivorous studying record or is aware of that staple of the quiz world — capital cities — by rote. The stage has shifted from recalling information at an occasion to how a lot prize cash is at stake. Does that imply the viewers for common reveals corresponding to Kaun Banega Crorepati just isn’t on a par with those that watch the intense Mastermind India? Basu, who has been related with each, says, “I’ve seen everything from the purist to the popular. But now the net has been spread wide. The motivations are diverse. Some just want to find out where they stand. It is no longer so much about how informed you are, rather it is about arriving at an answer in an informed way.”
QOTY
| Photo Credit:
Special association
Basu says that viewers are more and more not eager on watching gladiators of common data battle it out on tv. “Appointment TV is an endangered species. Today, we’ve moved away from the format because people want to be able to take part themselves, not just watch other people perform.”
At 68, Basu performs Wordle and QOTY underneath an assumed title to “get my daily dose of Vitamin Q”. Once a faculty boy in Madras the place he studied at IIT-M’s Kendriya Vidyalaya, Basu, who has his palms full with different quiz reveals, compiling quiz books and a cameo in Boman Irani’s upcoming directorial debut, says, “exploring the unknown, the half-known and the worth knowing is a life-long passion. Today, facts are at a discount, sadly. The regard for facts and the importance of arriving at the truth has become more critical now. Hopefully, quizzing will give people a tool to sharpen their own awareness and teach them to see it as a pleasurable pursuit”.