( 6 March 2012 11:29 AM)

BANGALORE: The Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) game show seems to have brought about a change in the economic dynamics of programming in the southern language states. The southern versions of the KBC are the biggest shows till date in the respective languages in terms of prize money, participation, the mass media communication spends, with the hosts being some of the biggest names in the media and entertainment world in their respective states.

The Star Network acquired the rights for this season for its three southern language channels –Vijay TV (Tamil), Suvarna (Kannada) and Asianet (Malayalam) from the production house Big Synergy for KBC. Suvarna, in fact, claims that it received about 1.8 million SMS during the first phase of its version of KBC.

The show will be aired Monday to Thursday across the three channels over a 90-minute slot between 8 and 9.30 pm – with about 1300 seconds of ad time across each channel. This season will comprise 80 episodes each over a 20-week period.

The Tamil version of KBC - Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi (NVOK) - went on air last week on 27 February. The Kannada version - Kannadada Kotyadhipati (KK) will start airing from 12 March. Shooting for the Malayalam version – Mingankum Akam Kodeeswaram (MAK) - will commence later and the show will go on air sometime during the first half of April 2012. At present, Asianet has scheduled content for the 8-9.30 pm slot, reveal sources at Asianet.

Big Synergy, the production house, has already canned 12 episodes each of NVOK and KK, according to Big Synergy Media Limited director Anita Kaul Basu. All the three language versions will be shot at Chennai.

To attract participant interest and viewer stickiness, the channels have brought in some of the biggest names from their respective cinema worlds’ as hosts – its Suriya for NVOK, Puneeth Rajkumar for KK and Suresh Gopi for MAK. Like the mainline GEC version of KBC, Suvarana has planned airing an episode with Kannada diva Ramya on KK. For NVOK and MAK the respective channels have similar plans, say industry sources.

All the three channels have started spending big money to attract participants and exhort viewers to watch the show. The channels have used a 360 degree mass media communication approach using their own channels, radio, print, outdoor and Internet for the purpose as well as BTL activities.

The show has also attracted a slew of sponsors and advertisers in the respective langauges. NVOK is being presented by Sunfeast as the title sponosr, powered by Cadbury Dairy Milk, with associate sponsors – Aachi, Tata Nano, 7UP, Arun Excello, Tata Docomo, Nathella and Muthoot Fincorp. The print partner is The Hindu.

In the case of KK, Wipro’s brand Santoor is the title/presenting sponsor; it is powered by HUL’s Pepsodent, the telecom partner is Airtel and banking partner is Vijaya Bank. Amongst the associate sponsors are Sunfeast, Nano, the Confident Group, Perfetti Van Melle’s Mentos brand and Bhima Jewellers. Suvarna 24x7 is the television news partner and Big FM the radio partner. The sponsors’ list in the case of MAK is expected to be as strong and long, say sources at Asianet.