Talk to Me8230;

Singh brings to the show a down-to-earth attitude, carefree conversation style and designer wardrobe. 8216;8216;To give it that relaxed feel, they wanted me to wear my own clothes,8217;8217; she says, reeling off names8212;Arjun Khanna and Anshu Arora Sen are her favourites.

Two appears to be the new magic number on talk shows, with networks promising you double the fun. Soha and Saif Ali Khan, and AD and Sabina Singh, are slated to make appearances on Singh8217;s show. And here8217;s another one, dedicated exclusively to couples: Suchitra Krishnamoorthi hosts Hum Aur Tum, a feel-good show about married life on Zee TV. The Dum Tara girl listens and laughs warmly as guests narrate anecdotes that have never previously left the bedroom. 8216;8216;But tell me only what you8217;re comfortable with,8217;8217; she asserts, recalling an embarrassing incident when host Shekhar Suman asked about her sex life on his programme.

While Singh chats up young achievers, Krishnamoorthi struggles with her Hindi diction. 8216;8216;I8217;m really having to work on my desi accent,8217;8217; confesses the songstress.

Big-screen guy Karan Johar is also turning to the tube to steer the conversation in his forthcoming attraction Koffee With Karan, and this too is a couples gig. 8216;8216;Maybe one director accompanying an actor he8217;s worked with,8217;8217; muses the king of K.

Talk shows have come a long way since Tabassum8217;s Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan in 1972. The original hostess of chat, she disarmed guests with her motherly smile and gently asked the most probing questions. 8216;8216;They trusted me thoroughly because I knew them all personally,8217;8217; chirps the still bubbly 60-year-old.

Shimmering in white, her face drawn in a concerned smile, well-manicured hands folded near her chin, Simi Garewal epitomises the modern-day agony aunt. Different from quickies like The Lounge that shoot three episodes a day, Garewal8217;s is an elaborately planned formal affair. The sets of Rendezvous are constructed to resemble her verandah at home.

All arrangements bear her personal touch, right down to the colour of the flowers which always match the guest8217;s outfit. And she researches her guests thoroughly for up to a year before calling them on the show. After a hard day8217;s work, it8217;s the darkness of her bedroom where Garewal chalks out the line of questioning. 8216;8216;In the morning, I can8217;t understand my own handwriting,8217;8217; she says.

All successful talk shows have the same basic premise: The personality of the host synergises with that of the guests to create either comfort or conflict. BBC8217;s Karan Thapar fits into the latter slot. A bulldozer who made cricketer Kapil Dev cry on television, Thapar wears his stern demeanour on his sleeve. 8216;8216;On my show, others cry and on Simi8217;s show, she sniffles herself,8217;8217; he says, adding 8216;8216;Dev needed to be allowed that moment, and stopping the show would have been treating him like a baby8217;8217;.

One host who puts his guests instantly at ease is Farooque Shaikh. He has no airs and agrees graciously to carry a blank cue card with the sponsor8217;s brand name and wave it around for the cameras. Giving full credit to his NDTV research team, he admits that all he has to do is come in half an hour before the show and glance through the material.

The ratings confirm it is the sugar-coated tecirc;te-agrave;-tecirc;te that does well because people are not comfortable washing their linen in public. 8216;8216;We live in close-knit joint families that cushion our falls. In Western society, fora like the Oprah Winfrey or the Larry King shows are used as open court, where misunderstandings can be thrashed out,8217;8217; says Deepak Sehgal, a senior vice-president at Star India.

This is the reason issue-based shows of the 8217;90s were steadily phased out. 8216;8216;Suddenly channels decided they wanted to be hip and happening and lost all interest in us,8217;8217; sighs Kiron Kher, erstwhile moderator of Purushetra.

Because of this innate difference in mindset, our chat shows will never be as sensational or revealing, experts say. 8216;8216;We also set limits to how much we can probe,8217;8217; confesses Thapar. 8216;8216;When interviewing Nadira Babbar about why she took Raj Babbar back after he cheated on her, I bit my lip and resisted the urge to cross-question her.8217;8217;

The channels hope that the younger generation of chat show hosts will drift towards greater casualness on television. 8216;8216;It will definitely be easier for me to break the ice with my guests because I8217;m the same age, and they know I won8217;t try to put them on the spot,8217;8217; feels Johar.

Agrees the perceptive Tabassum, 8216;8216;You can8217;t have an old lady interviewing Mallika Sherawat.8217;8217;