STAR One's talent hunt show gets 2 lakh calls

STAR Ones' talent hunt show for stand-up comedians – The Great Indian Laughter Challenge – has received a phenomenal response from around 2 lakh aspirants.

Ravi Menon, vice-president, programming, STAR One, says, “We think the response has been fabulous, especially given that this is not a typical singing or dancing contest, where practically everyone can try their hand at.”

Out of these 2 lakh contestants, Delhi and NCR (National Capital Region) has contributed the maximum with 25% respondents. Kolkata alone contributed another 20%. “We are amazed to have such a large number of contestants from Kolkata despite the fact that a good command over the Hindi language was a pre-requisite for this contest.” Mumbai contributed to around 11 per cent of respondents.

Menon says, “The first promos for entries started on April 5 but the real thrust began only from May 15, when the Navjot Singh Sidhu-Shekhar Suman promos begun.” The phone lines for the entries were closed on April 30.

This 13-episode talent hunt show will go on air from the first week of June at 10 pm on every Friday. Fifty contestants will be selected for the television rounds. In the first ten episodes, (five contestants per episode) the participants will perform in front of the judges – Suman and Sidhu. One contestant will be selected from each episode

The eleventh episode will focus on the grooming of the final ten contestants. In this episode, the contestants will also get the chance to meet other celebrity comedians. The final rounds – which will select three winners – have been divided into two episodes. The winners will get to be a part of 'The Great Indian Comedy Show' team.

Menon is hopeful that this talent hunt show will further drive the channel's viewership. The move indicates that STAR One is putting an additional stress on its positioning as a comedy channel.

Some of the comedy shows on the channel such as 'Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai', 'Instant Khichdi' and 'The Great Indian Comedy Show' are the top scoring shows for the channel, which was initially promoted as the channel for upwardly mobiles or the upper SECs. © 2005 agencyfaqs!