(2 November 2005 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Zee TV has slotted Kam ya Zyaada, the game show which offers Rs 30 million as prize money, for December. The channel will initiate a month-long promotional activity for the big ticket show with a teaser campaign that kicks off next week.

Kam ya Zyaada is an adaptation of the Scandinavian format Gimme Five (G5), owned by the Denmark-based Zodiak Television World. The acquisition was revealed by Zee and Zodiak last month at the Mipcom summit in Cannes. Optymistix is producing the show for Zee TV.

Zee is investing heavily on the project. The channel will be using the game show as a driver property. The G5 format is unique since the show is interactive when it is off-air, claims Zodiak. At a time when mobile interactivity is being aggressively explored by television players, Zee is looking at Kam ya Zyaada as a strong platform that will drive its ambitious mobile interactive strategies.

Viewers watching the show will have to answer yes/no, higher/lower to the five SMS questions they receive, as fast as possible, and the lucky ones will get to join a weekly TV Quiz. The five SMS questions are used as a casting procedure week by week, says the format information provided on the Zodiak website.

According to Zee Network programming head Kartik Chintamani, Kam ya Zyaada will be a daily affair, running Monday through Friday. "The show has a lot to do with viewer-participation and hence interactivity. Viewers participate in the show by sending their answers through SMS. Hence, the participants will find it as a live show though it would be a recorded one actually," he says.

Chintamani says viewer-participation will be ensured pre-launch through a series of campaigns which kick off next week." The message will be conveyed through a 360 degree campaign. We will begin with a series of teasers to raise curiosity and then the final campaign will provide the required information to the public," he says.

As already reported, Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpai will anchor the show. Justifying the choice, Chintamani offers, "Manoj was an ideal choice because we found him best suited to the format. As an actor and a celebrity, he has got credibility and we believe in his potential to strike a chord with the masses."

With Kam ya Zyaada, Zee TV will be attempting to make a mark on the Monday - Friday band while Star's KBC 2 is focused on the week-end band. Sony will launch its Rs 10 million game show Deal Ya No Deal this month while Sahara's Sanjay Dutt-anchored Mission Ek Crore is expected only next fiscal.