Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Of Gifting Tag Heuer and Gurgaon

Since yesterday, large amount of air time and blog space must have been used to focus on the Kaun Banega Crorepati – SRK. From the rumors of a tiff between SRK and Big B, to analyzing how well the king has filled into Shehnshah’s shoes – there have been innumerable discussions. I saw it only for some time yesterday. Then it became a bit boring for me. SRK, I thought was falling prey to the overacting which incidentally has made him famous in films. May be it was a first day jitters for him too. He was trying to create humor, which sometimes was not there.
Today, I again watched the show and felt much better. But the incident which left me dumbfounded was when SRK gifted off his Tag Heuer 2000 Aquagraph watch worth Rs 1 lakh 28 Thousand to a contestant.
I just can’t resist comparing the two giants of film industry in the TV show. I guess had KBC been launched with Amitabh for the third time too, it would have been a disaster. Shahrukh has certainly brought in a difference with him. Giving massages to the contestants, warm hugs all around, decent sense of humor and most of all his knowledge regarding the accent and basic languages of so many different parts of the country is amazing. Yes, you can say that this is what he is being paid crores and crores of rupees but no matter how rich you are, it takes guts to gift your 1 lakh watch just like that. This spontaneity was absent during the Amitabh era – who was much more conservative – a fatherly figure quite opposite to the young exuberance of Shahrukh.
One thing – seeing the show, you are guaranteed to increase your knowledge. Not in the world I could have imagined that Gurgaon is Guru ka Gaon. I always thought the first half of the name came from Gurh (jaggery). But my brain databases were updated yesterday when I came to know that the city(or village in earlier times) was gifted by Yudhishtra to Dronacahrya as a Guru Dakshina.

4 comments:

Keshi said...

ok then my next watch is GURU :)

Keshi.

Tarun said...

I agree with you partially.. But I completely diagree with spontaniety not present in Amitabh's time...How can you eben say that.. I had been a regular watcher of KBC at that time and I can safely say that the timing and spontaniety of Amitabh was much much better than SRK.

Baaki comments lunch main...:)

KT said...

well abt KBC till today I haven't watched the KBC-II but will watch soon .....

abt the comparisons yes they have a generation b/w them and each may bring one's own class to the show... how much the audience receive it, it remains to be seen.

Not taking the cynical approach (into thinking that this was a publicity stunt by Tag Heuer whose brand ambassador is SRK) I think it was really innovative to grab attention by gifting something like that...

in the end.... although I didn't give it a throught but if had been asked, I would have chosen Gur-Gaon only just like BabuRao Ganapath Rao Apte... udhar ka log Gur hi tarah meetha hone ka.....

Anonymous said...

Sid, i beg to differ with you told about the comparisions between BigB and SRK. I watched both the serials for quite some time. Though i admired Shahrukh's hosting abilitites but he was really falling short of Big B's charm. Gifting an expensive thing cannot be considered as a spontanity, it may be a mere publicity stunt from SRK to prove himself better than Big B. Though SRK speaks (or tries to) with the contestents in their own language to add more colour but surely he misses the grace of Big B. Though Big B is old enough to call him a fatherly figure but he was never boring. Above all Big B never used to show/use his super stardom in the show and his humbleness used to mesmerize the country. Anyways after Don, it has been proved that for Shahrukh "Big B jaisa banna/karna mushkil hi nahin namumkin bhi hai".