The news is finally out. After weeks of speculation, Megastar Chiranjeevi is the new showman who will anchor the popular show “MEK” – series 4. This may come as a surprise to many who are used to seeing King Nagarjuna as the popular host for the program. But a lot has changed since the last series had Nag as the anchor. MAA TV has become part of the Star TV network and the principal owners of the original MAA TV – N Prasad, Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna have sold their stakes. But what could be the real reason for Chiranjeevi replacing Nagarjuna is a multi-crore question? According to sources, Nagarjuna has already derived great mileage out of the previous seasons by promoting himself and his sons well. However, the TRPs for the show never maintained the top-notch ratings that greeted the show when it started. From a high of 15 or so, the TRPs have dropped to an abysmal levels in the last-concluded season and that has not gone down well with the new owners despite Nag being very professional and a celebrity who has a handful of ad endorsements.
It therefore became imperative to get another huge celebrity who can fit in the shoes very well and take the game show to a new dizzy level something that will also strike gold with the advertisers as well because once the Ad tariffs are hiked up to the levels that Star TV charges as part of its universal network, the tag of a celebrity host also had to be bigger and better. The last time the series of MEK hit a new seasonal high was when Chiranjeevi agreed to round off the last episode of the first season which saw a huge spike in the TRPs to levels above 18-20. That episode also showed a great chemistry between the youthful Nagarjuna and the evergreen Chiranjeevi as both of them were mutual admirers of each other. Star TV has taken a judicious call to rope in Chiranjeevi now as the perfect replacement for Nagarjuna, the latter havingseen better days in TRPs but not able to sustain the ratings. Moreover, in terms of acting caliber and range of performance, Chiranjeevi is usually more nuanced, composed and majestic when it comes to any peformance – and one can be sure, Chiru may have spared no effort this time to prepare for the latest act in MEK. The reasons are, therefore, quite plausible why Star picked the Megastar: Unlike the embrarrassmant cost Star TV faced in one of the Hindi series of Kaun Banega Crorepati when Shah Rukh Khan replaced Amitabh Bachchan when both of them were not so charitable towards each other, both Nagarjuna and Chiranjeevi share a great bonhomie and are more than business partners and family friends in number of ways. It will be easy transition for the program to eventually have a replacement in the form of Chiranjeevi who is the only universal choice if one were to look for a Telugu equivalent for Amitabh Bachchan in view of his seniority and box-office track-record. The supreme hero is already re-inventing himself for a rejuvenating re-entry into Telugu films with his 150th film and has a family of in-form heroes who are ever in circulation – from Ramcharan Tej and Allu Arjun to Varun Tej and Sai Dharam Tej. It is therefore the most apt choice and perfect decision for Star TV to raise the stakes of the MEK show by infusing a Megastar whose magnetism and charishma are well-established. The advertisers also will feel confident to buy into the high media-buying budgets of Star Network as the show enters the busy festival series no.4.
To conclude, Star has a clear strategy to choose Chiranjeevi over Nag and it is pointless for fans to make unnecessary controversy about this deal.
