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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Lounge Preview | ‘Welcome: Baazi Mehmaan-Nawaazi Ki’
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Lounge Preview | ‘Welcome: Baazi Mehmaan-Nawaazi Ki’

The Indian 'Come Dine With Me' has some new twists

Anchor Ram Kapoor.Premium
Anchor Ram Kapoor.

Don’t expect this reality show to be along the lines of MasterChef or Bigg Boss. Cooking ability or the interpersonal skills of sequestered participants don’t determine the winner here. Welcome: Baazi Mehmaan-Nawaazi Ki, produced by Miditech, to be aired on Life OK, is based on the BBC series Come Dine With Me.

In the Indian version, unlike the original where ordinary people are the contestants, one celebrity contestant invites four others to his/her house for an evening of fun and food. The idea is to showcase his/her talent as a host rather than just culinary skills—hence marks will be given for the perfect invite, the table setting and entertainment for the guests.

In another deviation from the international format, Welcome... will have actor Ram Kapoor as the anchor and at the end of the five dinners, every Saturday, he will announce the winner based on points awarded by the guests.

Mumbai-based Ajit Thakur, general manager, Life OK, says they hope to attract family viewers because the show is not only about “angsty relationships or perfect recipes, but the very Indian idea of being a ‘good’ host. Contestants are not provoking each other all the time; also this is the first time viewers can see celebrities in their home, their comfort zone." According to him, the contestants will range from TV and Bollywood stars, musicians and veejays to comedians. In its first season, Welcome... will run for two months.

The first episode has an overdose of TV celebs (a veejay, a Bhojpuri actor and singer, an item girl turned TV vamp and two Star TV bahus whose shows are now off air). The hostess, Sanaya Irani, an ex-TV bahu, tells viewers she cannot cook but believes in being the best hostess. Yet she designs a menu without knowing that one of the guests will refuse to eat “kukurmutta" (that which thrives on dog pee), as he calls it, another is lactose intolerant, and the third won’t eat anything that contains alcohol.

Yet Irani is a good sport, an affable host who takes no offence when people make fun of her, who doesn’t get agitated even when a guest admonishes her for not having “dal, chawal or roti" on her menu. “I cooked what I like to eat," she replies with a smile. She also tries to ease the tension between two of the guests. To find out how she fared, catch the first episode on Monday.

Three lessons on hosting we picked up from this episode: Know what your guests are allergic to, get dressed before the guests arrive, and eat what you cook.

Welcome: Baazi Mehmaan-Nawaazi Ki will air at 10pm from 21 January, Monday-Saturday, on Life OK.

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Published: 18 Jan 2013, 06:07 PM IST
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