Anurag Basu returns to TV as producer and chat show host after Kites

Anurag Basu interviews Bengali-speaking celebrities on Zee Bangla show Ke Hobe Biggest Fan; plans to produce short stories inspired by Ek Kahani on Doordarshan

Music composer Pritam Chakraborty has returned elated from Kolkata. Reason: He has just shot for a chat show episode for Zee Bangla’sKe Hobe Biggest Fan (Who will be the biggest fan?) with friend and show host, Anurag Basu.

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Multi-talented
Chakraborty tells us how extremely gifted Basu is and how he loves chatting with his friends and colleagues from the industry.

“I was blown away by what I saw of him as a chat show host. I think he’s an excellent anchor and he has the ability to get people talking on topics they’ve never spoken on. I saw his episodes with Sourav Ganguly and Soha Ali Khan. They were mind-blowing,” he chuckles.

The plot
Ke Hobe Biggest Fan digs deep into the life of a celebrity. In each episode, a popular name reveals information about their family, personal life, education, childhood, first love, hobbies, aspirations and much more. It also involves a competition to find the biggest fan of the star.

Anurag Basu quizzes fans about the celebrity’s life and the one who gets all the answers right is crowned the winner. The questions and answers are divided into five segments — Screen Test, Action, Flash Back, Censor and Climax. The show started last Thursday and airs from Thursday to Saturday at 9.30 pm.

Basu, who started his career with directing TV soaps, will also travel to Kolkata often to research his forthcoming Kishore Kumar biopic. “I don’t know much about that, but I know that he’s working on Silence and the biopic simultaneously; he will start one of the projects soon,” says Chakraborty, who made a one-episode appearance on Indian Idol Season Five recently.

Returning to TV
A source close to Basu state that he’s also planning to produce a fiction show under his banner Ishana Movies, which will be a compilation of several emotional short stories.

“The idea comes from Ek Kahani, a similar show that ran on Doordarshan (DD) many years ago. Basu and his generation grew up watching the show. Since no one produces such shows anymore, Basu has decided to make it under his banner, which is named after his daughter Ishana,” adds the source, stating that the channel anchoring the show hasn’t confirmed yet.

Meanwhile, three of his assistants have been fighting over who would direct the show. Our attempts to contact director Anurag Basu, who has Life... In A Metro, Gangster and the recent Kites to his credit, were futile.

Basu’s TV biography
Started his career with the TV series on Zee TV, Tara, which was one of the longest-running soaps in the 1990s. He was in his mid-20s when he directed 70 episodes of the show.

Later, he directed shows like Saturday Suspense, X-Zone, Koshish Ek Aasha, Miit, Love Story and even Kasautii Zindagi Kay. He has now returned as a chat show host and producer.