Comedy Superstar: The Inside Story

Sab TV is set to launch new comic reality show Comedy Superstar over the weekends at 10 p.m. slot starting 22nd August. The objective is to create a rib crackling family reality show keeping in line with Sab’s brand proposition, ‘Asli maza sab ke saath aataa hae’. The show is produced by Pyramid Production and would consist of 26 one hour episodes.

Comedy Superstar boasts of a very strong judging panel: Sushmita Sen and Sonu Sood along with the well-known face of comedy shows Shekhar Suman.

The show is an outcome of extensive research, as Pankita Sadrani, Head, Pyramid Films elaborates, “Massive research was conducted for this show. It took us six months to understand the kind of comedy Indian audience really wants to watch and what should be the parameters of comedy reality show catering to entire family. We discovered that there is lot of talent in this space, the only area of concern was that so far they had never got a good platform to showcase their talent.” She adds, “In the last 10 years, there has not been a single comedy challenge show, so that was the base of it. We wanted to do something that was different from regular comedy shows. This is a huge platform and that will be the USP of it. The moment you get into the competition space it makes all the difference and brings out the best in you.”

Format of this new show is different from the other reality shows in this space as the performance of the contestants will only be judged by the jury and it will not be open to social media, audience polling etc.

Pankita has something very interesting to say about why they thought SAB TV to be the perfect platform, “We only went to SAB because somewhere it is the channel which presents comedy in the best possible way. For me it is the comedy channel, and so who can do better than SAB TV? We are here to bring freshness in the comedy reality genre which has been missing for a long time.”

The judging panel is being touted as the heart, soul and body of the show. While Shekhar Suman has been part of comedy shows for a very long time, for Sushmita Sen and Sonu Sood, it is their first foray into the comedy genre on the small screen. Pankita elaborates on the reason behind it, “Sushmita and I go a long way and she was the first person I zeroed down on. Her sense of humour is tremendous and she has been part of blockbusters with a comic sprinkle. Sonu Sood, meanwhile, is a man of many hidden talents. While researching, we discovered that he also writes comedy dialogues and has given his inputs on some of the comic dialogues in Dabbang. As for Shekhar Suman, we all look up to him.”

Pyramid Films has made sure that humour is kept unadulterated and the show does not appear to be staged. Keeping SAB spirit in mind, each episode maintains the family appeal. Pankita smiles, “Every episode looks like a big family gathering. There was nothing artificial, it was very organic. Nothing was told or was scripted. It was beautiful and it was flowing.”

To give the show a pan India appeal, the production team travelled to different parts of India such as UP, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and other states to select the participants. More than 1000 people were auditioned, out of which only 12 got selected. Interestingly, offline, online and mini-auditions were conducted to zero in on the final 12.  The show looked for contestants who possess all the attributes of an entertainer like, the ability to entertain audiences, a good humor and an exceptional personality.

No show of this magnitude can be created without its fair share of challenges. Pankita shares, “One of the biggest challenges was that many contestants came from small regions of the country and were very overwhelmed by the set and the judges. So these were ‘events’ which were very human and you could help them by counselling them and talking to them. Other than the basic challenges I think it has been a joy ride.”

As to what has been the happiest takeaway from this joyride, Pankita immediately responds, “It is overwhelming to see the transformation in each and every contestant. As you would see in the show, in every coming episode, each contestant could do something beyond what they were doing before.”

zeba(@)adgully.com
 

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