Taking a leaf out of Karan Johar’s book, BFFs Sajid Khan and Riteish Deshmukh co-host the chat show Yaaron Ki Baraat on Zee TV (Saturday and Sunday, 8pm). The format of Koffee with Karan and Yaaron Ki Baraat is similar: celebrity friends of the celebrity hosts are invited for interviews and asked to participate in quizzes and games.
The first episode of Yaaron Ki Baraat on October 8 featured Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha, a rare occasion when the two actors got together to discuss their friendship. Their lively banter and sporting performances in a game of charades was thoroughly entertaining.
Compare this episode with Johar’s weekly show, which is now in its fifth season and kicked off with an episode on November 6 featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Alia Bhatt. The actors offered few insights and plugged away their upcoming release, Dear Zindagi, while Johar’s innuendo-laden questions seemed jejune and forced.
Shah Rukh Khan also appeared on an episode of Yaaron Ki Baraat with co-star Anushka Sharma. They have reportedly been friends since they worked together in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi in 2008. Their camaraderie was evident and had more to offer than Koffee with Karan, especially since Johar insisted on hinting that Bhatt and Khan shared more than a professional relationship.
The other big difference between the shows is language. Many of the guests on Yaaron Ki Baraat, including Farah Khan, Vidya Balan and Parineeti Chopra, appear more comfortable in Hindi than in English. The hosts, Khan and Deshmukh, keep the audience in splits with their witty one-liners and their inexhaustible knowledge of film trivia, with a special interest in movies from the early 1980s and ’90s.
In one hilarious segment, a siren went off randomly in the middle of a chat, following which a screen displayed a torture scene from the 1987 film Dacait. Deshmukh, Sajid Khan and the audience on the set joined the guests in a brief jig as the video clip played out.
In a recent episode, Vidya Balan confessed that this was her favourite segment in the show. She danced like no one was watching. As a tribute to the favourite genre films of Khan, the writer and filmmaker, and Deshmukh, the actor and producer, this segment is interactive (and interruptive). We predict that it will achieve cult status for its numerous pop culture references.
The line-up of guests on Yaaron Ki Baarat is infinitely more interesting than Koffee With Karan. Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan and Ajay Devgn showed off their hilarious antics. Boman Irani and Rajkumar Hirani were also fun to watch, as were macho men Suniel Shetty and Jackie Shroff pole-dancing to their hit songs.
Farah Khan came on the show with her BFF, Karan Johar. He was more entertaining here than in his own programme.