Also expected on Indian Idol are Suniel Shetty and John Abraham. The latter is also expected to be part of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa! Zee's controversial Sa Re Ga Ma Pa which is rapidly approaching its grand finale has tall plans in the coming weeks. Celebrity guests will grace the show in the weeks leading to the grand finale. This week the elusive Tabu is expected on the show. Her segment will be telecast on Thursday. Good friend Himesh Reshammiya who's one of the show's judges, convinced Tabu to be on the show. Thereafter it's John Abraham's turn. He has apparently been convinced to join Subhash Ghai as a star-judge at the grand finale. "In fact we're in touch with several big names to join us in the finals, which will be telecast live on 24 February," says Sa Re Ga Ma Pa producer Gajendra Singh.

Rani Mukherjee has also been approached. "I love the show," says Rani. "And I'd have loved to be on it. But my dad isn't well."

Gajendra Singh sees the rush for stars as a healthy development on the game shows. "See, it's like this. The show gets a boost and the stars also get some exposure. It's a healthy give-and-take. So why not?"

Does money exchange hands to get these stars on the show? "Not so far," says Gajendra Singh. "Everyone from Priyanka Chopra to Subhash Ghai to Salman Khan has been gracious enough to come on Sa Re Ga Ma free of cost. We had to pay only one star-judge. And he wasn't a film person."

Advertisement

So much for Bollywood's avaricious image.

****

The flurry caused by Mr Bachchan's inability to shoot further episodes of KBC is palpable.

On Wednesday, Star officials had flash -meetings to devise an emergency plan of action to counter the KBC crisis.

"And we've come up with a feasible plan of action," says the Executive Vice-President of content Deepak Segal. "The immediate plan is it to put on a new game show called Jodi Kamaal Ki hosted by Rakshanda Khan. It's a game show featuring celebrity couples - husband-wife, sibling, whatever. The idea is to get them to reveal how much they know of each other."

Jodi Kamaal Ki, produced by Creative Eye, will be telecast on Saturdays and Sunday.

"On Fridays we're planning to put on our two 4-day week-day dailies Milee and Kavyanjalee in place of KBC," reveals Deepak. "This will take us forward until our two new big weekend soaps, the Sagars' Prthiviraj Chauhan and Tigmanshu Dhulia's working-class satire (yet untitled, but modelled on Saeed Mirza-Kundan Shah's Nukkad) are ready. These two were supposed to replace KBC after this season."

Plans for KBC's next season remain unchanged. "It is one of our USPs and we've no intention of doing away with it. As soon as Mr Bachchan is back to work we'll start planning the next season."

It was a special day, and a special episode. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa couldn't have chosen a better star-judge.

Priyanka Chopra, a singer in her own right, flew down from Delhi to specially join the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa team to record their Republic Day special.

"It was exhausting," the stunning Chopra concedes. "But it was worth my effort. I've been a Sa Re Ga Ma Pa fan ever since I can remember. In fact my dad (who likes to sing) and I were on the Baap-Beti special of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. So when I was invited to be on the show I couldn't say no. I rushed from Delhi on Sunday afternoon and went straight from the airport to the recording."

Priyanka had as much fun listening to the contestants as they had having her around. While Hemachandra (who's going to be out of the contest this week) sang Ae watan tere liye (Karma) and A.R Rahman's Bande mataram, Debojit crooned Ae mere pyare watan (Upkar) and Shankar Mahadevan's Suno gaur se duniya walo.

Vinit stunned Priyanka with his rendering of Zindagi maut na ban jaye (Sarfarosh) and Kar chalen hum phida (Haqeeqat)

Himani and Nihira who were part of the special episode sang Ae mere watan ke logon.

Exults Priyanka, "They were all s-o-o g-o-o-d! I was supposed to select my favourite from the contestants. But I just couldn't bring myself to do so. I quietly wrote down one name and gave it to Gajendra Singh for future reference… I'm surprised at the amount of singing talent in this country. Since I'm fond of singing myself I felt so happy being with these truly gifted boys and girls."

The Republic Day special of Sa Re Ga Ma on Thursday with Priyanka was interspersed with footage of the contestants at the Republic Day parade.

It seems some people never learn from their past mistakes. Having stepped on toes galore ever since her entry into the Murder zone, Mallika Sherawat has now gone and done the unthinkable. She has stood up a bunch of bright young eager singers who were supposed to record an episode of Zee's popular Sa Re Ga Ma Pa as part of the promotional package of Subhash Ghai's Shaadi Se Pehle.

Mallika who was supposed to show up for recording the episode on Sunday along with co-star Ayesha Takia sent a message late-evening that she was "unwell."

Horrified at being stood up at the last moment, Sa Re Ga Ma producer Gajendra Singh had to look for a last-minute replacement. "We didn't know what hit us. Mallika informed us just half an hour before the show. We were horrified. In a panic we called up her producer Mr Subhash Ghai. Can you believe it? This great man immediately offered to step into his heroine's place. He drove down to our studio within half an hour. And we recorded a terrific episode with Mr Ghai and Ayesha Takia."

Gajendra is all praise for Ayesha. "She was so bubbly and fun-loving, all the contestants adored her."

Considering how upset Subhash Ghai seemed with her behaviour, Mallika has a lot of explaining to do. Says Gajendra Singh, "I don't know why she behaved this way. But she was a judge on Indian Idol (on the rival channel Sony) earlier this week. Maybe she was asked not to come to our show. If so, she could've informed us earlier, and avoided embarrassment for us, herself and Mr Ghai."

(The views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)