The Question Man

Headquartered in Delhi,the 10-member core team is supplemented by a number of “contributors” from all walks of life. “The KBC audience is in the Hindi heartland,so our contributors are accordingly chosen; they are doctors,engineers,professors,journalists,historians and sometimes,even students,” explains Dey,who travels to Mumbai every time an episode is being shot.

The first step towards preparing each questionnaire is to calculate the size of the database which Computer Ji can dip into every time. The ratio,says Dey,is 1:3. So if they need one thousand questions for a season,they keep handy at least three thousand. Categories of questions are then decided — history,current affairs,science and sports. Mythology and Bollywood,Dey adds,are popular with the audience.

“The idea is to not only come up with a question but also ensure it teases the contestant and entertains the audience. So while one can ask a straightforward question like ‘Who won the 1983 cricket World Cup?’,it is much more fun to ask ‘Which were the four teams that made it to the semi-finals of the 1983 cricket World Cup?’,” he points out.

Each question is also accompanied by an explanation of the right answer,the references used as proof and at least two independent sources that will corroborate its validity. “So,if the answer establishes that Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra,it has to be accompanied by a government gazette that confirms the fact,” Dey explains.

This is followed by another round of internal checks to avoid error before it is scrutinised to check if it’s a good enough show-worthy question. “A time-bound question is never encouraged,such as who is the chief minister of Maharashtra,because answers in such cases can have changed by the time it appears on the show,” he says. The team also brings in external auditors to verify the answers. However,access to complete database remains only with Big Synergy’s head,Siddhartha Basu,Dey and one more member of the team.

Although such stringent checks,Dey — who has been working on KBC since 2001 — admits that one erroneous question did go on air. “It was when the show aired on Star Plus that a question was asked and we later realised it could have more than one correct answer,” he recalls. The team,backed by several proofs including Encyclopedia Britannica,had slotted the answer to ‘Which Vitamin is created within the body?’ as Vitamin D. But the contestant,a doctor,upon being booted out for the “wrong answer” had challenged the outcome. After a thorough look into the matter,the contestant was recalled on the show.

Dey says the most important part of setting KBC questionnaires is to ensure they cut across masses. Says Dey,“It has to work for as much for someone who serves tea as for an IIT graduate. A contestant from the North may be able to answer a question on Hindi and Urdu contemporary writers but may not know anything about Tamil literature. We try to avoid such a scenario but after a point,it’s Computer ji deciding.”