MUMBAI: Its launch has been delayed somewhat, but it looks like the wait will have been well worth it. Zee TV's reality hunt Business Baazigar - The Next Big Entrepreneur will have none other than group chairman Subhash Chandra himself at the helm. The channel has decided 18 March, Friday, as the tentative date for launch.
"Mr Chandra will be one among three principal judges of the show," says Essel Group corporate brand development head Ashish Kaul. Chandra will be a permanent fixture on the judging panel while the other two would change. Elaborating on the judging process, Kaul says, "There will be three main judges who will decide the winner. There will be secondary judges also in the show who will conduct the initial tests and help the main judges to decide on the winner."
The other two judges of the show are IIM Hyderabad professor Anil Gupta and venture capitalist Mahesh Murty. Industry sources reveal that Zee has also roped in Aditya Vikram Birla group vice chairman Kumaramangalam Birla to be one of the judges later on. Aditya Vikram Birla group is the main sponsor of the show.
The show will be hosted by Sandhya Mridul and Cyrus Sahukar.
Zee will telecast Business Baazigar during its Friday, Saturday primetime slot. The one-hour show will be placed in the same 9 pm slot in which Zee had earlier telecast India's Best Cinestar Ki Khoj. It was the success of Cinestar Ki Khoj that inspired Zee to launch another reality hunt. The show bid adieu in December 2004.
Idea Lao, Paise Le Jao! (bring an idea, return with the funding) is the core premise of Business Baazigar. The show will screen participants with smart business ideas and then give them the money they require to start up the business based on these ideas. Channel sources inform that the prize money would be essentially in the form of venture funding and different winners will get a different amount depending on their business idea. But the two main winners will have their big dream fully funded.
Business Baazigar will kick off with a curtain raiser where all the fifty participants shortlisted from the 10,000 first round entries will be featured. Later on, the contestants featured will come down to 10, out of which one winner will be selected each month.
Interestingly, while Chandra will be the main judge on Business Baazigar, Star India is also looking to have a business tycoon anchor for the Indian version of The Apprentice which it is expected to launch in July. Star has reportedly approached UB group chairman Vijay Mallya to anchor. The Apprentice, NBC's hit reality show, is anchored by real estate magnate Donald Trump and features contestants from different backgrounds living together and vying for the chance to win a dream assignment plus a six-figure salary in Trump's firm. To complete the high profile anchor line up on Indian television, we will have superstar Amitabh Bachchan back with the second version of KBC in the same month on Star Plus.
