Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu

Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu
File:Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu.jpg Official logo of the game show
Presented by	Akkineni Nagarjuna (Season 1–3) Chiranjeevi (Season 4) N. T. Rama Rao Jr. (Season 5)
Composers	Keith Strachan Matthew Strachan
Country of origin	India
Original language	Telugu
No. of seasons	5
Production
Production location	Hyderabad
Running time	90 minutes
Production companies	BIG Synergy (Season 1–4) Studio Next (Season 5)
Release
Original network	Maa TV (Season 1–3) Star Maa (Season 4) Gemini TV (Season 5)
Original release	9 June 2014 (2014-06-09) – 24 May 2017 (2017-05-24)
External links
Website

Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu is an Indian Telugu-language television game show. It is the official Telugu adaptation of the Britain's game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Produced by BIG Synergy, for first four seasons the show titled as Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu and aired on Maa TV for its first three seasons and for fourth season the channel was rebranded as Star Maa. The first three seasons were hosted by Akkineni Nagarjuna and the fourth season is hosted by Chiranjeevi. The revamped version of the show Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu is set to air on Gemini TV with N. T. Rama Rao Jr. as a host in 2021.

In 2021, After completion of first four seasons (2014–17), the makers revived the show with a new title as Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu and it is scheduled to air on Gemini TV with N. T. Rama Rao Jr. as a host.

Series overview

Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu

Series	Host	Episodes		Originally aired			Special Surprise
				First aired	Last aired	Network
1	Akkineni Nagarjuna	42		9 June 2014 (2014-06-09)	14 August 2014 (2014-08-14)	Maa TV	None
2		55		8 December 2014 (2014-12-08)	27 February 2015 (2015-02-27)		None
3		73		27 November 2015 (2015-11-27)	22 May 2016 (2016-05-22)		Jodi Special
4	Chiranjeevi	60		13 February 2017 (2017-02-13)	24 February 2017 (2017-02-24)	Star Maa	Children's Special

Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu

Season	Host	Episodes		Originally aired			Special Surprise
				First aired	Last aired	Network
1	N. T. Rama Rao Jr.	N/A		July 2021 (2021-07)	TBA	Gemini TV	TBA

Production

In March 2014, reports emerged that Nagarjuna would host the Telugu version of Kaun Banega Crorepati and the makers are in talks with him. With Nagarjuna confessing that he wanted to be a Television game host, the reports gained prominence. There were reports that Nagarjuna charged ₹3 crores for hosting 40 episodes for the first season. The reports of Nagarjuna's inclusion were confirmed in early April 2014 and Nagarjuna participated in the promo shoots. The official announcement was made on 18 April 2014 and the show was titled Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu which would be aired on MAA TV. The game show was launched in an event at Hyderabad. Nagarjuna and his wife include actress Amala were present at the event and Allu Aravind, MAA TV Chairman Nimmagadda Prasad, CMD of BIG Synergy Siddhartha Basu and his wife Anitha also attended the event. To introduce and educate the viewers about the show, Nagarjuna was seated on the hot seat and Amala has asked some questions about their personal life which were answered by Nagarjuna and the team of Nagarjuna, Allu Aravind, Nimmagadda Prasad and Siddhartha Basu spoke to the media about the game show.

The Call for Entry (CFE) was announced on 24 April 2014 and the registration lines opened at 8:00 PM. The makers asked the people to answer the five questions asked by replying with an SMS. The registration lines were closed at 7:00 PM on 1 May 2014 and the selection process was supervised by Ernst & Young. The channel's call for participants received more than a million entries, of which 1500 were shortlisted through randomized process. From among them, 100 contestants were selected through auditions in Vijayawada, Tirupati and Hyderabad. The show was announced to go on air from 9 June 2014 at 9:00 PM and by 6 June 2014 Nagarjuna completed shooting of 6 episodes. In those 6 episodes, 9 participants played the game who came from different economic backgrounds. Every contestant's back-end story was recorded and addressed in the show. It was also said that The prize money is from ₹1,000 to ₹1 crore and the rules are the same like the Hindi version and those who answer all the 15 questions correctly would win ₹1 crore. The telecast of the show started on 9:00 PM and ended on 10:30 PM from 9 June 2014 and was aired for 4 days in a week from Monday to Thursday which later changed to 5 days in a week from Sunday to Thursday since mid-July because of the show's success.

The shoot of 40 episodes of the first season ended on 18 July 2014 and the last episode of the first season was aired on 7 August 2014. Apart from the participants, celebrities like Vidya Balan Shriya Saran, Allari Naresh, Naga Chaitanya, Vishal Jhansi, Suma, Charmme, Lakshmi Manchu, Kajal Aggarwal, Chiranjeevi made guest appearances in the game show and answered to Nagarjuna's questions which were not a part of the game, but only some friendly talk with him.

Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu Season 2 to commence soon all for Entry (CFE) registrations open on 9 October

Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu (MEK), the most sought after game show in the history of the Telugu Television screen, is all set to come back soon with season 3.

Season 3 has started from 26 Nov 2015. This time they have introduced Jodi round also that created the extra enthusiasm in the audience.

The visual treat to the viewers of the Telugu TV with the big-time film star Nagarjuna as the host has achieved phenomenal reach and success with over 4 Crore Telugu people watching the MEK game show in Season 1.

The unprecedented emotional connect and engagement brought by Nagarjuna Akkineni as the host resulted in this kind of large scale family viewing and appointment viewing for 5 days a week in the prime time. To take the MEK game show to the next level, Maa TV has decided to launch the MEK Season 2 soon with Nagarjuna as the host again.

As the first step towards the launch of MEK Season 2, the registration process to participate in the game show through Call for Entry (CFE) process would commence on 9 October at 7.00 PM and would continue for 10 days till 6.30 PM on 18 October.

As part of the CFE process, one question is flashed every day at 7.00 PM on Maa TV. Those who are interested can respond to the question before 6.30 PM on the next day. Another question is flashed at 7.00 PM on the next day.

Season 4 launched on 13 February 2017, hosted by Chiranjeevi and the show made his Telugu TV debut but the season which did not fare as expected in terms of TVRs when compared to its earlier seasons and after this season the show was discontinued on Star Maa .

In 2021, the show makers planned the brand new season of the TV series on Gemini TV which is broadcasting the show for the first time with N. T. Rama Rao Jr. as a host with the show changing its title and logo to Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu.

Rules

The standard Millionaire format is used, with the Fastest Finger contest before the main game.

The money won after each question is roughly doubled from the previous amount won, exponentially increasing the amount won after each correct answer until the contestant reaches the final question, after which they win the maximum prize (1 crore).

Prize table

Question	Value	Amount lost if wrong answer	Missed answer value
1	1,000	0	0
2	2,000	1,000	0
3	3,000	2,000	0
4	5,000	3,000	0
5	10,000	5,000	0
6	20,000	0	10,000
7	40,000	10,000	10,000
8	80,000	30,000	10,000
9	1,60,000	70,000	10,000
10	3,20,000	1,50,000	10,000
11	6,40,000	0	3,20,000
12	12,50,000	3,20,000	3,20,000
13	25,00,000	9,30,000	3,20,000
14	50,00,000	21,80,000	3,20,000
15	1 Crore	46,80,000	3,20,000

Lifelines

A contestant can use a lifeline when he/she is undecided about which answer is correct. A lifeline can only be used once.

• Audience Poll: If the contestant uses this lifeline, it will result in the host repeating the question to the audience. The studio audience get 10 seconds to answer the question. Audience members use touch pads to designate what they believe the correct answer to be. After the audience have chosen their choices, the results are displayed to the contestant in percentages in bar-graph format and also shown on the monitors screens of the host and contestant, as well as the TV viewers.
• Phone a Friend: If the contestant uses this lifeline, the contestant is allowed to call one of the three pre-arranged friends, who all have to provide their phone numbers in advance. The host usually starts off by talking to the contestant's friend and introduces him/her to the viewers. After the introduction, the host hands the phone call over to the contestant who then immediately has 30 seconds to ask and hope for a reply from their friend.
• Fifty-Fifty (50/50) : If the contestant uses this lifeline, the host will ask the computer to randomly remove and eliminate two of the "wrong" answers. This will leave one right answer and one wrong answer, resulting in a situation of eliminating 50% of the choices as well as having a 50% chance of getting the answer right if the contestant is in a situation of making a guess.
• Double Dip : This lifeline allows the contestant to make two guesses at a question. Getting both answers incorrect results in the contestant's winnings dropping back down to the last milestone achieved. This lifeline differs from others in that once the player has chosen to use this lifeline, he/she must answer the question, and cannot walk away or use any further lifelines on that question.
• Code Red : The lifeline, which gives the opportunity for the contestant's family members to warn the contestant if they feel the answer is wrong.

Records

In the first 3 seasons, no one won the 1 crore prize in the show. However, In Season 3, two pairs of contestants, Husband-Wife duo Amarnath - Rohita from Vizag, and Mother-Son duo Uma - Aditya, also from Vizag, have each won ₹50 lakhs. Both attempted the ₹1 crore question accurately after quitting.

Reception

As per the TAM data, MEK has recorded 17.61 TVR in CS Female AB 25-44 Years category, 14.58 TVR in CS Female ABC 25+ years category, 10.20 TVR in CS Male ABC 15+ Years category, 12.31 TVR in CS ABC 15-44 Years category and 10.15 TVR in CS 4+ Years category, which is a record of sort for a game show in Telugu.

One of the episode in mid June 2014 garnered a rating of 9.7 TVR and averaging 6.7 TVR in that week becoming the fourth most watched Telugu GEC at that time. The following month it garnered its peak rating of 10.8 TVR, consistently maintaining its position in top Telugu GEC since four weeks.

External links

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• Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu on IMDb