Quiz for money

TRAVELLING IN a cavalcade of ``jhanavasam'' cars, wearing garlands of Rs. 500 notes, might appear queer.

It was a vintage car rally, that was meant to be different. A row of cars, seventeen ``lakhshadhipathi'' families all of whom earned their lakhs by participating in a TV programme.

The rally was to mark the 25th episode of the programme.

For the participants, it was a surprise as the only notice to them was to assemble on Venkatanarayana Road.

The rally, which was flagged off by actor Prashanth, was organised by Vijay TV, which made the participating-families richer by a lakh each through their `Vijay Lakshadhipathy' programme aired from Monday to Friday.

Ms. Latha, an employee of a nationalised bank, was first time lucky. It was her maiden programme on a satellite television channel and she won the prize in the first episode itself. ``When we went to the studios for the recording, we knew very little about the programme. The shooting started in the night and went on till the next day morning,'' she recalls with joy.

The first round was tough while the second and third rounds were easier. The final round was tough again and the participants had to pass through crystal maze within a short period of time.

Most of the participants of the programme said they had never participated in any television programme before. Similarly, the shooting schedule was long and the personnel from the channel provided all help, said Mr. K. Jayesh, another winner.

The team of Mr. G. Srinivasan, was in the third place during the first two rounds, but made a come back in the third and fourth rounds. This is the only small screen programme which offers a huge cash award, said Mr. Rohit Adya, Chief Executive Officer of Vijay TV.

``With the increased prize money, the number of pager-logged entries have gone up. In a day we receive about 7,000 entries in the pager'', he adds.

It is the call of money.

By P. Oppili

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Section  : Southern States
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