Siddhartha Basu

Siddhartha Basu

Siddhartha Basu
Born Kolkata, India
Nationality Indian
Occupation Television Producer
Religion Hinduism

Siddhartha Basu is an Indian television producer-director and quiz show host.

He is best known for hosting shows like Quiz Time, Mastermind India and University Challenge, and as producer-director of shows like Kaun Banega Crorepati?, Dus Ka Dum, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and India's Got Talent.

Founder-Director of the television production house BIG Synergy, he is now a creative mentor and consultant with the company.[1]

He is also the founder of Tree of Knowledge, a greenfield venture in the area of interactive edutainment events, e-learning, gaming, and publishing.

Early life and education

Born in Kolkata in a Bengali Hindu family,[2] Basu grew up in Bombay, Delhi, and Madras. He did his early schooling from Besant Montessori School and Cathedral and John Connon School, Bombay, and later studied at Frank Anthony Public School, in Delhi. Next he moved to Chennai, and completed his schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Madras. He returned to Delhi to graduate in English literature from St. Stephen's College, and subsequently earned a post-graduate degree in the same subject from Arts Faculty, Delhi University, as a residential student of Hindu College.

Theatre

As an undergrad, in 1973, he became a founding member of "Theatre Action Group"(TAG), a theatre group in Delhi, under the artistic direction of Barry John, and acted in numerous plays, most noted for his performance in and as Oedipus and Mozart in Amadeus. After a hiatus of many years, he returned to the stage in Prime Time’s landmark production of Mahesh Dattani’s Dance Like a Man, playing the roles of Jayaraj and Amritlal.

Career

Siddhartha Basu's career in television began in 1977 as a documentary filmmaker with a company called TVNF, after he completed his MA in English Literature from Delhi University. Meanwhile, he also worked with All India Radio as an announcer and hosted programs on General Overseas Service, and Yuva Vani.[3]

In 1985 he first hosted the inaugural series "Quiz Time" on Doordarshan. It was an inter-collegiate quiz show, still well remembered for the quality of quizzing and quizzers. Basu moved on to host and produce subsequent series of Quiz Time, "Spectrum" - the 7 nation SAARC Quiz, "The India Quiz", and "The Beanstalk Quiz Summit" (On Doordarshan), "Mastermind India", "University Challenge" (2003) on BBC World, and "India's Child Genius" on STAR World.[3][2]

Along with his wife, former India Today journalist Anita Kaul Basu, he formed the media company Synergy Communications Pvt. Ltd. in Delhi in 1988, which in due course became Synergy Adlabs, then BIG Synergy - after its tie-up with Reliance Mediaworks. Promoted by Siddhartha and Anita Kaul Basu, and Karun Prabhakaran, Synergy built its reputation as a leader in the field of factual entertainment, starting off as one of the country's first independent television production houses.

In 2010, Big Synergy was named "Production House of the Year" at the Indian Television Awards.

In 2011, the Synergy team won the "Indian of the Year –Entertainment" award of CNN-IBN.

Basu's biggest quiz show success came in the form of Kaun Banega Crorepati?, first produced for STAR Plus in 2000. KBC, as the show is also known, is the licensed Indian version of the globally successful format Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan as its host. The second edition of the show KBC2 began airing in August 2005 and notched up the highest ever opening in the history of Indian television, going on to sustain its position among the most watched programmes in the country. The third series of KBC was hosted by Shah Rukh Khan in 2007, while 5 subsequent seasons between 2010-2014 were once again hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.

The first 2 seasons of Sony's hit show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, the Indian version of BBC's celebrity dance show, Dancing with the Stars, were produced by Synergy, as were the first 2 seasons of India’s Got Talent, on Colors TV . Big Synergy has also produced other landmark shows such as Aap Ki Kachehri - Kiran ke Saath, Sacch Ka Saamna, and Dus Ka Dum, with Salman Khan as host, on Sony Entertainment Television.

Film acting

He has played a few character roles in Hindi movies – R&AW Chief Robin Dutt (RD) in Shoojit Sircar’s critically acclaimed film Madras Café (2013), barrister and Bombay Mayor Romi Mehta in Anurag Kashyap's period extravaganza Bombay Velvet (2015). He acted as President of India in the superhit 2014 Malayalam movie of Rosshan Andrews, How Old Are You? which was later reprised in Tamil as 36 Vayadhinile (2015).

Personal life

Siddhartha is married to Anita Kaul, who worked as a journalist with India Today magazine from 1983–1988 and with whom in 1988 he set up Synergy, a television production company.[3] They have a son, Aditya, who is presently working in the Hindi film industry, and daughter Medha [4] who works with an international organization in the field of public policy.

Books

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
2013 Madras Cafe Robin Dutt (RD) Hindi film
2014 How Old Are You? Indian president Malayalam film
2015 36 Vayadhinile Tamil film
2015 Bombay Velvet Romi Patel Hindi film

References

  1. ↑ http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/big-synergy-phantom-films-tieup-for-content-production/article8796973.ece
  2. 1 2 "Lounge: Siddhartha Basu". televisionpoint.
  3. 1 2 3 Board of Directors BIG Synergy.
  4. ↑ "DINNER WITH BS: Siddharth Basu and Anita Kaul Basu". Business Standard. September 30, 2008.

External links

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