Stars don’t open up to live audience
— Sajid Khan

Host-turned-actor-turned-filmmaker Sajid Khan popularised the humour element in television shows through his unique anchoring style in the musical countdown Ikke Pe Ikka.
Srabanti Chakrabarti in conversation Sajid Khan, who is hosting a weekend chat show on the recently launched channel Colours

Sajid Khan’s chat show on the recently launched channel Colours will have superstars as guests.

There are so many chat shows being aired on various channels. What is different about Sajid’s Superstars?

The main USP of my show is the celebrity guests. When I say superstars, I mean it. In my show you will not find any wannabe superstars, or stars in the making, you will find only people who have made it big. For example, the show has stars like Anil Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Viveik Oberoi, Riteish Desmukh, Farah Khan, Karan Johar and Ranbir Kapoor.

Tell us something about the show?

It is more of an informal quiz of sorts. There are no live audience because I know this for a fact that stars do not open up in front of live audience and I wanted this to be a no-holes-barred show. My show is also be about how well stars know themselves and their near and dear ones. For example, I asked Ranbir - ‘Did your mom act with Randhir Kapoor first or Rishi Kapoor?’

(Laughs) No. The poor guy was not aware of it. There will be a number of such twists and turns in the show. Then I have also asked questions like ‘What was your first film and who was the director?’ to some stars. These may sound like simple questions, but they are actually quite difficult after you have acted in hundreds of films with thousands of people.

Does the show have the typical Sajid brand of humour?

Yes. Apart from my jokes and digs, there will be a special section where the celebrity will tell us a joke and I will assess the humour level. Then there is a scandal section where the celebrity will be asked a scandalous question. For instance, I asked Riteish in the scandal round whether he is gay or not. And there will also be a section where I will decide the best and the worst acted scene of the guest! When I showed Akshay a scene from his second film Dancer, he was on the verge of killing me! Ditto with Riteish when I showed him a ‘ham’ scene from Out of Control.

I am pampering them with gifts so that they do not get upset. There will two types of gifts I will be giving to the guests during the show - one in the middle of the conversation and the other at the end of the show. I am giving expensive gifts including perfumes, laptops, cameras, digital music players, books and so on. The first gift is pure fun. For example, I have given Viveik the book How To Win Friends And Influence People, Anil Kapoor the book The Fountain Of Youth and presented diapers to Farah for her triplets.

When will we see Sajid Khan as director once again?

I took a big risk when I decided to make Hey Baby. Thankfully it succeeded. I had left an established TV career to direct films and without any technical background. I think it was just my love for films that sailed me through. I love films more than a human being! My next project is titled Houseful and will star Akshay Kumar, Riteish Desmukh, Jiah Khan and Deepika Padukone. It is a romantic comedy and I expect to start shooting in January 2009.

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