Kya aap paanchvi pass se tez hai?

Literally translated into english, it means 'are you brighter than a 5th standard (grade) kid?' Let me rephrase that question....do you want to buy a lottery ticket? Confused? Here's the explanation.....This program from 'Star Plus' is yet another reality show where people call in or send SMSs to participate. This is to a special number that charges s special price (usually 5 times the regular call/SMS charges), the revenue from which is split between the telecom operator and the television channel. Sony's 'Indian Idol 3' reportedly brought in excess of 70 million votes. That meant Rs. 35 crore in SMS revenue alone. Taking out revenue sharing between telecom operators and 50% of the net proceeds as the sponsoring telecom operator's (Airtel) share, that still left Sony with atleast Rs.10 crore. No wonder Hussain and Mini Mathur kept asking us to vote repeatedly!!

Anyway, back to 'Kya aap...?', Star Plus was the pioneer of SMS voting/participation when it started KBC. They surely are going to make lots of money with this show as well. They keep the entry question so simple that it tempts even the most resistant critic. For example, the latest question for which call-in lines are still open as I write this post, which of the following capital cities is on the sea coast - Hyderabad, ____ (forgot the option) or Chennai. Choose your pick. For such a question, surely there'll be thousands of SMSes. In such a case, there's a very low probability of selection of a candidate. Something like one in a lakh or a million. So, how different is a lottery ticket from this now??