Lakshmi Manchu is loving being back on the idiot box, with her celebrity game show. The striking actress has pulled out all stops, beginning the show with a "little dance jig", something she's never done on the big screen yet. "Oh, the dancing bit wasn't planned. It was an impromptu decision to join in and shake a leg with the dancers during the inaugural episode of the show. I loved it and decided to include a 30 second dance bit in every episode," says Lakshmi.I get to do what I want to do According to the actress, the best part about hosting Doosukeltha is the fact that she gets to do "what she wants". "It's got the highest ratings in that slot across channels. It's so much fun! I get to do what I want, wear what I want and there are no long Telugu dialogues to memorise," says Lakshmi, who is also producing the show. She's involved in every aspect of it, be it "choosing the cloth material used to reflect the light, selecting the specially imported LED from China or inviting celebrities," besides hosting and producing the show in its entirety.
"We pulled off the set design without an art director. We have an LED floor for a TV show, a first in the industry," beams Lakshmi, who jokes about "almost having a heart attack" when the "LED equipment did not show up the day it was supposed to". "It finally arrived on the morning of the first episode. We did not have time to do a test run either. We had the celebrities and the entire shooting set up and ready. Thankfully, everything went well," recalls Lakshmi.
The celebrity game show is phased in four rounds. First is a general knowledge round with questions drawn from our mythology and popular Telugu literature, etc. The second round has questions based on celebrities. The interesting bit is when other celebrities call, the contestants need to identify who is on the line! "We asked the celebs to change their voice when they speak and it's been quite fun," adds Lakshmi. In the third round, two identical twins have to be identified from their pictures and the final round is the LED round.
Limitations of Telugu talk shows While her transformation from being a popular talk show host to game show host might be complete, the actress confesses the move was dictated by "the limitations of how much can be explored in a Telugu talk show format."
"If I was hosting an English talk show in Bombay or Delhi, it would have been better than all the shows that are on right now. There is a limit to what all you can try in the regional talk show space. The celebrities that are frank get exhausted and it is a completely different ball game here," laments Lakshmi. However, the actress is glad about having gotten to do what she did on TV. "Nothing connects with the audience like TV does. The first season of my talk show had only 13 episodes telecast and the second one had 26. But the fame that it earned me was disproportionate to the number of episodes. Not many people have seen Gundello Godari and U Kodathara Ulikki Padathara, which I consider to be my best works till date. But everybody has seen Prematho Mee Lakshmi and Luck unte Lakshmi, Lakshmi Talk Show," beams the Manchu girl, who reckons it was TV "that made people identify her as Lakshmi Manchu and not as Mohan Babu's daughter or Vishnu and Manoj's sister." Surprisingly, she claims to have made more money hosting TV shows than acting in big budget films. "Producers of big movies can get very stingy. I've learnt to say 'no' because I've been burnt by big directors after doing interesting roles for peanuts. With TV, you have the numbers everyday and your contribution is a lot easier to measure," avers Lakshmi.
I am me The actress also earned a lot of brickbats for her accent, as people would often ridicule her for speaking Telugu with an Americanised twang. Not stopping at that, her detractors would point fingers at her dad, Mohan Babu. "It bugged me when people blamed my dad for my lack of proficiency in Telugu. I did not go to the same schools and colleges as my dad went to nor did I grow up devouring Telugu literature like him. I do love my mother tongue, but I'm not the orator that my dad is. Is that my fault? Here I am, a Telugu girl who is trying her best to speak in my mother tongue, even though I'm not very good at it. Would you encourage that or snub me for it? There are so many actresses who've gone on to be much loved superstars who speak no Telugu at all," she retorts.
But the actress has gotten over her critics and "just doesn't care about them." However, she has not stopped working on her Telugu. "I've gotten much better at it. I don't need to read my lines in English first, like before, and can hold my own in a conversation without any prompting," she signs off.
Limitations of Telugu talk shows While her transformation from being a popular talk show host to game show host might be complete, the actress confesses the move was dictated by "the limitations of how much can be explored in a Telugu talk show format."
"If I was hosting an English talk show in Bombay or Delhi, it would have been better than all the shows that are on right now. There is a limit to what all you can try in the regional talk show space. The celebrities that are frank get exhausted and it is a completely different ball game here," laments Lakshmi. However, the actress is glad about having gotten to do what she did on TV. "Nothing connects with the audience like TV does. The first season of my talk show had only 13 episodes telecast and the second one had 26. But the fame that it earned me was disproportionate to the number of episodes. Not many people have seen Gundello Godari and U Kodathara Ulikki Padathara, which I consider to be my best works till date. But everybody has seen Prematho Mee Lakshmi and Luck unte Lakshmi, Lakshmi Talk Show," beams the Manchu girl, who reckons it was TV "that made people identify her as Lakshmi Manchu and not as Mohan Babu's daughter or Vishnu and Manoj's sister." Surprisingly, she claims to have made more money hosting TV shows than acting in big budget films. "Producers of big movies can get very stingy. I've learnt to say 'no' because I've been burnt by big directors after doing interesting roles for peanuts. With TV, you have the numbers everyday and your contribution is a lot easier to measure," avers Lakshmi.
I am me The actress also earned a lot of brickbats for her accent, as people would often ridicule her for speaking Telugu with an Americanised twang. Not stopping at that, her detractors would point fingers at her dad, Mohan Babu. "It bugged me when people blamed my dad for my lack of proficiency in Telugu. I did not go to the same schools and colleges as my dad went to nor did I grow up devouring Telugu literature like him. I do love my mother tongue, but I'm not the orator that my dad is. Is that my fault? Here I am, a Telugu girl who is trying her best to speak in my mother tongue, even though I'm not very good at it. Would you encourage that or snub me for it? There are so many actresses who've gone on to be much loved superstars who speak no Telugu at all," she retorts.
But the actress has gotten over her critics and "just doesn't care about them." However, she has not stopped working on her Telugu. "I've gotten much better at it. I don't need to read my lines in English first, like before, and can hold my own in a conversation without any prompting," she signs off.
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