Dada Has a Question

The Class VI students cameo in Gangulys prime-time quiz show on Zee Bangla,Dadagiri Unlimited,has also urged his parents to leave their respective jobs for the day and be in attendance on the set for eight long hours. I dress up in my cricketing gear,and hand over dada the gifts he gives to the participants. During breaks and before the shoot,he talks to me,discusses cricket,shows me a trick or two. Its tiring after school,but I would do anything to be around dada, chirps Shubhajit,who has been learning cricket for the last five years.

In his make-up room,Ganguly,like his school-going fan,shows little trace of being hounded by a monster called the Kolkata Knight Riders. The room is clean and sparse,the clothes hanger nearly bare,the rifle-wielding security person is requested to stand out for a while,and he has just finished his days make-up. Takes two minutes actually, he says with a laugh. I did the show to try out something different. I used to be very camera-shy,not much of a TV personality,but I wanted to see where this thing takes me, says Ganguly,who is now doing the second season of the show.

You wonder what made him choose a Bangla show populated with fawning middle-aged women,starstruck men,and difficult general knowledge questions,when he had been on national TV,rubbing shoulders with Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika Arora Khan,tasting showbiz in its skin-sequin-sound best. He frowns in recollection of his stint as a judge on Knights and Angels,the TV hunt for a KKR cheerleader that he did before taking up Dadagiri. I was extremely uncomfortable doing it. I did it as part of KKR,and I had cricket at the back of my mind. I didnt understand it,I didnt like it a lot either, he says.

When you remind him that his juniors like Harbhajan Singh have turned up at numerous reality shows and been part of the dance-and-drama routine themselves,Ganguly takes a moment to answer. Theirs is a different generation. They are enjoying themselves,I guess, he says with a smile. He quickly adds though,Dance,music,dramathese have never been my forte. I read in a paper a few days back that I have been offered Bigg Boss. I hope I never get such offers, he says,shaking his head.

Gangulys show has no script and the producers just brief him about the questions he has to ask the contestants. What he does is mostly spontaneous. So,at times,he walks on to the stage,his head down,minus the swagger befitting one of Indias most successful and controversial cricketing captains. He smiles at the camera and his opening address is short,non-flowery and low on adrenaline. During breaks,which are no longer than five minutes,he waits on the stage itself,quietly punching away on his phone or making small talk with the crew. I dont have to do many retakes, he tells us almost apologetically before the shoot.

His new avatar as a humble,polite TV host has surprised many. Media critic Shoma A Chatterji says,When you watch the show,its difficult to figure out where Souravs image as a hero blurs with that of an ordinary man. His exchanges with the participants are non-gimmicky,almost ordinary by reality-show standards. Ever since he started doing the show,we have seen him emerge as a person with an immaculate dress sense,easy charm and few star tantrums, she says.

Those whove met him off the field,like cricket writer Ayaz Memon,say Ganguly is showing his other side to the public for the first time. He was almost mercurial on field. And off the field,he was confident,sharp and knowledgeable. The latter is what we get to see on the show, he says. A side that has impressed the average Bengali. And Ganguly knows that too well. I was known to be aggressive as a cricketer. But that was largely situational and driven by a passion for the sport. Otherwise,I am very quiet and soft-spoken. You can call me docile. I am just being myself on the show. I make the contestants comfortable. You might think they are star-struck,but Bengalis are very demonstrative by nature, he says.

While KKR might have given its home city and its favourite hero nightmares,Dadagiri Unlimited has reasserted how Kolkata relates to its heroes. Kolkata is a city of strong passions. People are emotionally connected to their sporting icons. Their acceptance of Souravs new role is just a reconfirmation of their loyalties, says Memon. The high TRPs between 9 and 11,as Zee Banglas business head Sujay Kutty tells us prove him right.

But a lot of Ganguly fans loved his aggressive on-field action and miss that on the show. Srijan Roychowdhury,a capital market analyst based in Mumbai,says,I have always admired dada as a cricketing icon. But when I see a TV show,I expect some fireworks. Dada,unfortunately,doesnt seem to fit the bill, he adds.

Not that Ganguly has set his eyes on television as a serious post-retirement option. This takes around 30 days a year. I dont know how long I will do it. I will get back to cricket. That is where I belong,that is my comfort zone, he says.

But if he persists,might he become a small screen darling? He is still young,as opposed to 67-year-old Amitabh Bachchan or Salman Khan in his late 40s, says Chatterji. Keep batting,dada.