A Questionable Business

At the end of October, Star India8212;a network Basu has made his second home8212; launches Star One. The new channel will be the outlet for a slew of game shows and quiz shows including Bluffmaster, a mind-bender that is more IQ-EQ test than plain vanilla quiz. Produced by Basu8217;s Synergy Communications and directed by the man himself, Bluffmaster could just become a trendsetter.

For his part, Derek O8217;Brien is also very much in the game. Right now the Kolkata office of Derek O8217;Brien and Associates 8220;resembles a travel agency8221;, jokes an employee. In January, a 107-strong team leaves for Singapore to shoot the Bournvita Quiz Contest for Sony.

So how did O8217;Brien and Basu make a fortune of, what one may call, questionable business practices? In a sense, Synergy had a head start. In 1985, the Basus began with Quiz Time, a national inter-college quiz on Doordarshan. It was a terrific combo: Basu8217;s booming voice8212;Delhi theatre regulars still talk of him with dreamy eyes8212;and journalist wife Anita8217;s eye for detail.

In 1988, the Basus made enterprise of hobby and formally set up Synergy. The satellite television boom was about to happen. The timing was right, even if they did not know it.

Around the same period, O8217;Brien was beginning to tire of his advertising job and turning to a family vocation. Father Neil O8217;Brien was the doyen of quizzing in Kolkata, birthplace of the 8220;mind sport8221;. Neil was strictly amateur, doing it for love; son Derek smelt opportunity.

In 1992, Derek and his wife Rila8212;an accomplished vocalist who did Kolkata8217;s best Whitney Houston cover versions8212;incorporated Big Ideas. 8220;It was crazy,8221; says O8217;Brien, 8220;weeks after getting married, I had to explain to my father-in-law why I was giving up a good job with an ad agency and walking into a big question mark.8221; A few years later, the company was renamed after its one-man brand.

A decade on, Derek O8217;Brien and Associates is HQ-ed in Kolkata but has branches in four cities, employs 50 people, hosts 200 live shows a year, produces or contributes to television series such as the 4,800-school marathon called the Bournvita Quiz Contest8212;annual budget, Rs 2 crore8212;helps frame questions for Miss India contestants, and also provides content for SMS contests.

O8217;Brien is also big in the skeikhdoms. 8220;In the Gulf,8221; he says, 8220;a school or open quiz is a social event. Muscat8217;s Times of Oman quiz can be overwhelming8212;7,000 people, almost all NRIs.8221; To him, a quiz in Pakistan is the final frontier.

Synergy8217;s CV is no less impressive. 8220;We8217;ve done quizzes,8221; laughs Anita, 8220;for Taj Hotels, for the IIMs, for CII on infrastructure, even a quiz on steel.8221;

Its golden goose is, however, television. Some 80 per cent of its business comes from the small screen, compared with 40 per cent of O8217;Brien8217;s. Mr and Mrs Basu did, after all, produce that mega-blockbuster in 2000, Kaun Banega Crorepati?

Quizzing8217;s quantum jump is due in no small measure to corporate interest. KK Sinha, director, HR, NTPC, and the man behind a national quiz that runs right through 55 schools at every NTPC plant from Singrauli to Ramagundam, would agree. This year, Sinha plans to take the 8216;Medha Quiz8217; umbrella to business schools. The quiz gets O8217;Brien a lot of money, but what8217;s in it for NTPC? Positioning, says Sinha.

Even as participants, companies do take these things seriously. 8220;I can give you examples of executives changing jobs immediately after winning the quiz. Or getting a promotion,8221; says O8217;Brien.

So who wins these quizzes? The demography of quizzing reflects corporate geography. Where Kolkata was once a force, today it8217;s an afterthought. If ad agencies knew the answers a decade ago, it8217;s the techies from Bangalore and Hyderabad and MNC bankers who seem to be hard to beat these days, says O8217;Brien.

Basu agrees with the city spread but points out, 8220;Most remarkable is the degree and range of quiz activity in smaller towns and cities. There8217;s more happening there than ever before.8221;

Maybe there8217;s a sequel somewhere out there. The next Basu or O8217;Brien is probably learning the ropes, sharpening the questions in a small town in the boondocks, waiting to conduct the biggest live quiz India has ever seen8212;strictly in a regional language.
Umm 8230; what8217;s Tamil for 8220;trivia8221;? Mr O8217;Brien? Mr Basu?

TRIVIA8217;S LITTLE LEAGUE

There8217;s no clear number three, but the quiz business has a respectable moonlighting quotient

Joy Bhattacharjya, 38, is the ideas man at ESPN-Star Sports and, on what must have been a particularly kinky day, is said to have thought up the Shaz 038; Waz Show.

None of this gives the former software professional as much pleasure as the ESS School Quiz, a 2,700-school, 61-episode logistical nightmare that tests young children on sport. 8220;The prelims are mind-boggling,8221; says Bhattacharjya, 8220;there is a written round, sealed question papers opened in an exam hall, almost like the CAT.8221;

For six months, he supervises a dozen-strong research team that puts together questions. Suppliers range from a sports journalist in Pune to a publishing executive in Delhi, who earn up to Rs 75 per accepted question. 8220;We8217;ve had winners from towns like Farakka,8221; says an ESS executive. Bhattacharjya8217;s fee? 8220;Not less than Rs 50,000 per show.8221;

Being a good Tam-Brahm, Navin Jayakumar would probably balk at such money. An eye surgeon at Chennai8217;s Shankara Netralaya, Jayakumar conducts the Landmark Quiz every August 15. This 900-team beast is India8217;s biggest live quiz8212;but he does it virtually gratis.

8220;We get teams,8221; Jayakumar says, 8220;from the districts of Tamil Nadu, from Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Bangalore.8221; The glitz and gizmos are absent but this event is still the southern quiz buff8217;s annual pilgrimage.