Siddhartha Basu, the proprietor of Synergy Adlabs, is well known name in television industry mostly because of his innovative reality shows.

Now he is back to the small screen with Dus Ka Dum, a show based on Power of Ten, the much known show in Australia and Germany. The amount of ten crore as prize money along with bonus of a chance to meet Salman are assumed to be best eye catchers for Indian television ever.

Let's share few moments with the legendary show-maker Siddhartha Basu and try to explore the world of his Dum.

Q. What's the reason behind signing Salman for this show?
A. The amount invested in the show itself demands an equal stage of promotion. Even Sony wanted an A class star for the show. They stopped with the name of Salman only as he has done no television show ever before.

Then we thought if Salman gets interested in the show then it'll definitely be a positive issue with the show. I am happy that he got interested in the show and worked well with it. I believe that like Salman, the audience will also enjoy the show.

Q. Did Salman readily accepted the show or you had to convince him?
A. I was not a part of the team while the first proposal went his way. I was just asked whether we should take Salman or not. Then I just told them that it would be a good thing if Salman gets into the show.

Even previously I knew that Salman is a good entertainer. When Salman agreed with the show then only I came into the scenario.

Q. Till the time no show, hosted by celebrities, got the level of popularity as KBC with Amitabh reached. What is the reason?
A. See, every show has its own time. Those days there were no show of that standard on television. But situation is quite different now-a-days. Today there are 350 channels in Indian market and all they have tough competition.

They all want their own recognition through different shows. Now there are more challenges and sources of success are very few. As far as this show is concerned, I think, I have done a good job. I hope this show will also have the same popularity as KBC.

Q. How is this show different from other shows?
A. It quite different. This one is a game show while all others are quiz shows. Generally noticed that quiz shows get popular with learned people, whereas this kind of shows get popular among mass. You can call it a show for mass. Here one just has to predict about what the nation is thinking about.

Q. Few people find few things regarding the promo of this show quite vulgar. What do you think of the message people are getting from those promos?
A. I must say that there is nothing vulgar about any of the promos. It's a complete family show and has been made keeping in mind the togetherness of any family. It has every kind of questions which are directly related to everyday lifestyle of the mass.

Q. How will you select the contestants?
A. Contestants will be selected through SMS and audition. Through the audition people will be groomed to talk properly, their personality will be developed and in a sense the x-factor hidden in a common man will be judged.

That test will be carried out in six cities. For the first drive of the show we received a total of 3000 SMSs and have chosen few of them.

Q. The winner will take away ten crores. Along with that a genuine question arises as how much is Salman taking for the show?
A. See, whenever a big show, like this, is launched, we always have to look for A class stars. But scenario is quite different in other countries. The channel has decided about getting Salman for the show and it's the channel only to decide upon the money matter. I have no idea about that.

Q. Being the producer of the show you can at least tell us whether the amount given to Salman is less or more than that of Shah Rukh getting for his Paanchvi Pass...
A. Believe me; I have no idea about that. Truly speaking I keep away from getting into commercial issues with talents.

Q. What's the reason behind copying concepts of all the reality shows from outside the country? Can't we develop anything with Indian flavour?
A. I am not agreed with you. We have worked on both the formats but you can see only those materials that are imported.

Actually, getting onto global platform is the only reason of taking those formats. Those shows are technically very strong and we try on molding them in accordance with our culture and daily lifestyle.

Q. Which will be the next game show?
A. For the time being I would like to say, keep watching. Rajnee Gupta