India's University Challenge launches

Jeremy Paxman presents the UK show

An Indian version of the BBC TV quiz University Challenge launches on Thursday night.

The Indian version, hosted by popular quizmaster Siddhartha Basu, will have harder questions than its British counterpart, its backers have said.

The 27-episode show will be shown at 10pm IST (Indian Standard Time) on Thursday on BBC World - but will only be available in India.

The students will face a tougher time because its backers think Indian students are more diligent than their UK counterparts.

Click here to review the programme yourself

Many of the Indian participants will be doing their homework before they appear on the show, producers predict.

"The mindset is different. The contestants will be very dedicated - they will swot up," said commissioning editor, Nahendra Morar.

The set will also be more colourful to fit in with Indian tastes after the British red and grey desks were deemed too bland.

The show's host Siddhartha Basu said quiz programmes were extremely popular across all areas of society.

"We have quizzes all over the place; in temples and even one in South Asia's largest jail," he said.

Revival

An exhibition match has already taken place between British and Indian universities with the questions tailored for the UK contestants.

The show was launched in 1962 by ITV, making host Bamber Gascoigne a household name until it was dropped in 1987.

It was revived on BBC Two in 1994, with journalist Jeremy Paxman taking the quizmaster's role.

The British show is itself based on an American series, College Bowl, which has run on and off since the early 1950s on radio and television.

Tell us what you think on the form below.

Hey, great show guys. Probably a championship between universities from all over the world will be next.
Shyam, India

Quizzing is always fun, vibrant and intellectually stimulating with someone like Siddhartha Basu hosting it.
Ram Prasana, USA

In the first episode of University Challenge India, IIT Chennai (Madras) beat Birkbeck, London University. The questions were on topics of common appeal. Strangely enough, contestants slipped on some recent topics - as on Afghan leaders but cracked some of the more ancient questions on the opium war, Woodstock and T.S.Eliot's poems.

All in all, the content standard is as good if not better than the popular Mastermind series in India. Next week, the hallowed Edinburgh University of R.L.Stevenson and Conan Doyle takes on Jadabpur University from the first capital of British India, Calcutta (now Kolkata).
NNB, India

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