KHMC to offer Rs 2 crore to Marathi audience

For the 'Jodi Special' season, host Sachin Khedekar will play the game with two contestants instead of one. The two participants must be relatives.

The Marathi version of the biggest game show in India, Kaun Banega Crorepati, is back in season two. Christened Kon Hoeel Marathi Crorepati 2, the quiz show will offer prize money of Rs 2 crore, double of what was offered in the previous season. A lot of things are new in this upcoming season, including the look of the host, Sachin Khedekar.

In this season, which is scheduled to hit the TV Screens on ETV Marathi in January, the participants will have to come in pairs. Termed as Jodi Special, the show will have participants in pairs within the family, say, mother and son, daughter and father, brother-sister or uncle and nephew.

ETV Marathi expects close to double rates for the sponsorship and advertising deals for the upcoming season, since its ratings have grown from 36800 GVTs during the launch of the first season to about 49700 TVTs currently.

The channel claims to have received over double the entries as compared to the last season, when about 4.5 lakh people approached the show. Season 1 of the show ran between Weeks 18 and 32 of 2013.

While ETV Marathi is yet to decide the slot for the second season, it is sure that the show will be bi-weekly, either on Monday-Tuesday or Saturday-Sunday.

Maharashtrian audiences contribute a serious chunk to the Hindi television viewership. Not only the viewers, the actors of the Marathi television industry also overlap with the Hindi television industry and it's quite a task to pull off a show that has made history on Hindi television on a Marathi channel. However, ETV Marathi took the challenge and launched the regional version of the most successful game show in India. The Marathi adaption of the format, Kon Hoeel Marathi Crorepati (KHMC), gave a big push to ETV Marathi, which grew over 70 per cent in 2013 with the help of KHMC.

In Season 2, the show will continue to have a contest for the television viewers, similar to the earlier Ghar Baslyaa Dhanlaabh contest.

Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) is the Indian adaptation of the international format, Who Wants to be a Millionaire. After doing wonders for the Hindi GECs, Star Plus and Sony, the show was adapted for the regional markets including West Bengal in June, 2011 (Key Hobe Banglar Kotipoti); Bhojpuri version (Key Bani Crorepati); Tamil Nadu (Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi) in February, 2012; Kerala (Ningalkkum Aakaam Kodeeswaran) in 2012 and more recently in Karnataka (Kannadada Kotyadhipati) in March, 2013. ETV Marathi is the latest channel to take the show to the regional markets.