‘Meri GK bhi bahut hard hai,’ says Ranveer Singh, the hatke host of The Big Picture

Mona

The Big Picture gets television viewers the swashbuckling host Ranveer Singh. The Gully Boy actor feels his telly debut is perfectly timed. While offers to host shows had come earlier, it was the concept he felt he was ready to try it out.

The launch of the show had the actor in his characteristic flamboyance–shiny, vibrant blazer and an attitude to match. Taking the audience along, the brand-new show host was real, engaging and entertaining.

The format, like most quiz shows, has questions, lifelines and prize money. There are 12 questions with visual options. The three lifelines are – family and friends and Indiawalle. Only one has to buy the correct answers for a price, by sharing the winning amount. “When I had options earlier, I never felt I was ready. But as it came from Colors – the Ronaldo, Messi of television, I took it.”

What makes Ranveer a hatke host is that he is open to share anecdotes from his personal and professional life, coupled with self-deprecating humour.

Calling himself a sher at Filmcity but a chooha at home with wifey to how he feels fortunate to have her constructive criticism to better himself, this host is totally at ease with himself. While the contestants can win up to Rs 5 crore at Big Picture, Ranveer’s big picture has a home that has a happy, healthy wife and children. He wishes to entertain till he dies. Oh yes, a farmhouse at Panvel is also what he’s eyeing at if the show becomes a hit.

While he feels for the film fraternity which suffered due to the pandemic, his decision to take on telly wasn’t related to the pandemic-induced set-backs. “I have always been fond of TV, quiz shows have been a favourite,” he says sharing that he was once a contestant on one such show. “Meri GK bhi bahut hard hai,” he claims sharing how he loves the energy that quiz shows bring – for the contestants as well as for families watching them.

He finds the two mediums very different. “In films you get time to sit and eat but TV is 8 to 8, 12 hours of continuous work.” One major difference, according to him, is that in films one gets a character as a shield. “Here on TV, everything is spontaneous. One has to be there 100 per cent.”

With The Big Picture he shares that he has turned a good boy. “I have done tons of homework, done mock shows and taken feedback from wifey and am happy incorporating all that in the game. It’s an exciting new opportunity for me to show another skill set that of a host.”

And what makes his show different? He thinks it’s the visual element. “We are living in a visual world. From I-pads in schools to life on Instagram and daant khana on Facetime to flirting on Snapchat, we are living in the era of visuals. That’s what our show is based on. It’s a new-age quiz show.

Ranveer kept shooting throughout the lockdowns. You will see him in different avatars pretty soon as Simmba sets to return in Sooryavanshi on Diwali, 83 on Christmas and Jayeshbhai Jordaar on Mahashivratri.

The Big Picture airs on Saturday Sunday starting October 16 at 8 pm on Colors.