Switching over

“The parents and kids in focus will be replaced by other parents and children who have been picked for their extreme nature. It is a competition to see who survives the switch the best,” says the spokesperson of the channel. The channel authorities decided to change the show’s format in order to cater to the changing taste of the audience. Nikhil Gandhi,Business Head of UTV Bindass explains,”The basic concept of the show remains the same. The whole idea was to come up with a new situation. We see tiffs between parents and kids due to generation gap in every single household. We conducted a research and found out that 42 per cent of parents in metropolitan cities don’t support the ideas and opinions of their children. So I think we have hit the right chord,it’s going to be a total entertainer.”

Unlike the earlier season that saw popular faces like Pooja Misshra,Natasha Suri,Adam Bedi,the sequel will feature only some celebrities as guests. “Since we want the audience to connect with the families,we are keeping it simple. The families that are participating in the show were shortlisted from a contest that we had held.”

Speculations were rife that actress Genelia D’souza,who hosted the first season,will present the sequel too. This was followed by news that the father-son duo of Shatrughan and Luv Sinha has been finalised as hosts. But finally former veejay Gaurav Kapoor has been zeroed in for the task. Putting all speculations to rest,Nikhil explains,“Genelia’s dates were not available. Talks were on to rope in Shatrughan and Luv Sinha as hosts but there was a small change in the format. Finally we chose Gaurav as we liked the way he hosted the second and third seasons of the Indian Premiere League. He,too,loved the concept of the show.”

Gaurav,on his part,is excited to be associated with the show and confident that he will be able to relate to the contestants. Ask him if he had any tiffs with his parents as a child and he quips,“Just like everyone,I also faced the generation gap. But I didn’t have any major issues apart from the usual ones like studies,pranks and masti that I did in school.” Given a chance would he prefer to be a contestant on the show and he says cheekily,“I’m too co-operative to qualify as a contestant on the show.”