Sony Entertainment Television, now Multi Screen Media, has signed up a handful of sponsors for 10 Ka Dum, the game show that will be hosted by superstar Salman Khan.
The sponsors of the show, to be launched on June 6, include Vodafone, Garnier, LG and P&G (for Gillette).
"We will announce a few more sponsors in the coming week," said Rohit Gupta, president, network sales at Sony.
The broadcaster is all set to market its new property in a major way. It released a music video featuring Salman Khan recently. Without divulging the size of the marketing budget, Sony's Executive Vice-President and business head Albert Almeida said: "We will swamp the media with the show's promos."
Almeida's confidence in the show stems from two things: one, Salman Khan is appearing as a small-screen host for the first time. "He has an unpredictable way of posing questions," he said. Two, 10 Ka Dum or Power of 10 is a universal show: it is not knowledge-based. "It is mass, popular and democratic. Anybody can play as the questions are related to everyday life," said Almeida.
The concept of the show is simple. The contestants are expected to 'think' like the rest of India. For instance, the contestant will be asked a question which has already been pre-polled to the nation. The answer to the posed question will be the average percentage of a mass opinion poll that's been conducted across India. If the contestant guesses the correct answer in accordance with the collective opinion of India, he would start winning.
The game starts with two players, who play off against each other and then the winner gets to answer the questions, leading up to the Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) prize. "There is no life line but participants can bring a companion and ask his opinion or even take an audience poll," said Almeida.
10 ka Dum game show is based on an American show called Power of 10 hosted by Drew Carey.
