New Delhi: Malted food drink and nutrition brand Cadbury Bournvita has been a staple in the Indian kitchen. But it does more than just enhance the flavor.
In the years since. was launched in 1948have seen drinks Reference in India’s pop culture and is famously associated with the ‘Bournvita Quiz Competition’ – one of the longest running TV quiz shows in India.
Started in 1972 as a competition organized in schools by anchor Hamid Sayani, the competition went through several stages of development, eventually turning into a radio show in 1973. Due to Hamid’s untimely death in 1975, his brother Amin Sayani took over the show, who continued it for about eight more years.
However, the version of the quiz that most people recognize today is the one that aired Zee TV Started in 1992 and hosted by Derek O’Brien, now a member of Rajya Sabha from the All India Trinamool Congress.
O’Brien’s charismatic style of quizzing, the show’s catchy melody, celebrity guests like Pandit Shivkumar SharmaAamir Khan and Kiran Bedik, and made it hugely popular with middle-schoolers answering some tough questions. The show also made many schools famous and as a twitter user Said, the competition was the “biggest branding exercise” for many Indian institutions.
“The show was a Sunday morning ritual for me. There were kids participating, which made the show fun to watch, and almost relatable. Despite their distaste for television, my parents couldn’t deny the educational aspect of the show, and I didn’t mind waking up in front of the screen. And at the end of the day, it was still a competition, so you want to see who is winning,” said a Delhi fan of the show, who did not want to be identified.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the competition.
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a nostalgic imperative
Despite its success, the Bournvita quiz competition was a niche english language show Closed to and from a select group Zee TV In 2000, It was relaunched in both English and Hindi colour’s TV channel in 2011, with actress Saumya Tandon as co-host.
With Hindi as the primary language, the show became available to an even wider Indian audience.
The participants of the show, however, were still from some of the top private schools and was hosted mainly in metro cities. Nevertheless, the show remains a nostalgic essential for India’s urban population.
Truly testing participants’ knowledge and memory
Common sense may seem like something that doesn’t need to be formalized, yet it remains an integral part of what is taught as subjects in schools to students.
The Bournvita quiz contest flourished because of the sentiments of the spectators, who could be seen shouting answers from their couches.
The questions in the Bournvita Quiz Competition covered a whole range of topics from politics, history, geography, literature and science from India and abroad to truly test the knowledge and memory of the participants.
Devangshu Dutta, Consultant Editor of Business Standard newspaper and a participant in the show Cited From Mint It added, “For us, it was the excitement of traveling to Bombay and being housed in the Taj Mahal Hotel, apart from watching the live version of famous radio programs in the (AIR) studio.”
The Bournvita quiz competition closed in 2012, with its final season going online on its app in 2015. TV shows are still talked about on social media platforms as something to remember.
quiz competition too appeared On digital platforms, along with online as well as online quizzes and interactive videos published books On the questions on the show. Some episodes of the show have also been archived on YouTube. The effort to keep its legacy alive has been laudable, but the glory of its early days remains unmatched.
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