"We are trying to find a Donald Trump on Baazigar"

It ain't Apprentice and it ain't Survivor. But don't be surprised if you see shades of each on the much delayed Business Baazigar that finally goes on air on Zee TV on 31 March at 8 pm. The new genre reality hunt this time round on Zee will be a tad more cerebral than the music talent hunts that have preceded this one. Of the thousands of entries for whacky and intriguing business ideas that flooded the channel, 250 shortlisted ones will be scaled down to 50, and then on to 20. These selected few will be put through rigorous tasks to test their business acumen and team spirit (tasks could include asking participants to survive in Mumbai with a rupee in their pocket for a day, and expecting them to earn in that period too). Shortlisted participants range from college students to senior citizens, all eager to translate their ideas into reality and win the coveted Baazigar crown that will fetch them a venture funding from the Rs 200 million corpus set up by Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra. 24 FPS producer Alankar Jain attributes the delay of the BB launch to the massive logistics involved. "3000 hours of footage has already been shot," he says. This will translate into 24 episodes of an hour each. How much money the winner will walk away will depend on the jury's discretion, and the winner's ability to negotiate and convince the jury of his business needs, much the way venture funding is done. The jury, for the record, comprises Subhash Chandra himself, along with Passion Funds CEO Mahesh Murthy and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta. So, again, this ain't inspired by The Apprentice? "No way," says Jain firmly. "The Apprentice figures out the best guy to work for Mr Trump. Business Baazigar aims to find Mr Donald Trump himself!"