Sourav Ganguly's INTERVIEW in Today's TOI
Ads, promos, show, he has been shooting relentlessly for the past seven days. But Sourav Ganguly is far from tired. After a season’s gap, he is back with Dadagiri, a show which was coined after his famous petname and celebrated the former India skipper as a TV host. In between work on Saturday, he settles for an adda at his Behala residence. Life has changed a great deal since he started out as a host in 2009, he tells us, setting the ball rolling for this conversation. Excerpts:
After hosting Dadagiri for the first two seasons, you are again back for the show’s fourth edition. How does it feel?
It’s good fun. The only problem is that the shooting spot is too far from my place. That apart, I quite like it. It’s very different from what I have done all my life. So, I do a bit of this, I do cricket... it’s nice. I’m happy with the way people respond to my show. With time, I have started enjoying television.
A lot was written when after the first two seasons of Dadagiri, you went on to host Ke Hobey Banglar Kotipoti. But that didn’t deter you from signing up for the current edition of the show...
My contract was like that. It’s was a twoyear deal with a oneyear break. During that break I worked for someone else. Once this season came along, I took it up again. I’ll be doing the next season and the season after that. I didn’t know that a show like Ke Hobey Banglar Kotipoti would come my way. When I signed up for Dadagiri, that channel had not even been formed. Siddhartha Basu said, ‘Let’s do this’ and my answer was yes.
Did you watch Dadagiri when Mithun Chakraborty hosted it for a season?
Yes, I watched it a bit. Even when I was doing Dadagiri, I didn’t watch all the episodes. I would only catch the ones which I found very exciting, like a group of singers who performed very well, Yuvraj (Singh) coming down for one show and Shah Rukh for another.... otherwise it gets a little boring as I host it. It’s not like cricket that after playing, I could again sit back and watch it. After scoring a Test century, I would go home and watch. I couldn't do it for any show. Even when I do commentary, I don’t watch it.
Is your daughter, Sana, very excited about you hosting a game show?
Sana has got used to all this. She will watch a little bit. After that, it’s her own life. Also, she is too young. She never watched me playing except in the IPL. She would only watch IPL. When she was six or seven, she went to South Africa with me for Tests, but she never went to the ground. Back then, she was too small.
You are the hero of some of our greatest Test cricket wins. Do you think India nurtures this form of cricket anymore?
India does nurture Test cricket and it has to be done. It’s the best form of cricket. To be recognized as a powerful cricket nation, you need to have a good Test team. This team is going through a transition. Over the past year, it has done well in ODIs but not in Tests. So, there’s a big opportunity in the coming 15-16 Test matches to do well.
You were very angry when IPL got embroiled in a messy spot-fixing controversy and also called Sreesanth’s act ‘stupid’...
For me, Sreesanth is an absolute waste of talent. When you are gifted with so much talent and you don’t use it, it’s pointless. What will you do for 40 lakh? It’s just one Test series for him. If you get 20 wickets in three Test matches, you get double the money. If he does well in one season of IPL, he gets 10 times the money. I don’t know whether he has done it or not. I don’t have any proof, but whatever I have heard on TV, if he has done it, it’s absolute stupidity.
Is Indian cricket losing its sheen?
I don’t think so. There’s a problem everywhere. There’s one bad fish in every pond, a couple of bad fish in every river. That doesn’t make the pond or the river bad. You have these issues, but India has produced cricketers like Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Dhoni, Sehwag, whom people can’t touch. I don’t think one can judge cricket based on a few people.
Coming back to television, there were rumours that you are part of the remake of Telugu film Golkonda High School. Now it’s Nach Baliye...
Nach Baliye was a big joke. Nobody even spoke to me. Even if they had, I would have politely said that I’m not good enough to do it. And I know a couple of years back there were rumours of me doing Golkonda High School. I have to deal with it. I hear so many things about me that I often fall off the chair.
But there’s a huge demand to see you in films.
They know by now that I’ll not do films.Television is what I enjoy. There’s cricket, reality shows, but I’m just not good enough to do films. The only person who once told me that I must act in his film was Rituparno Ghosh. I said, ‘No sir’. He called me up to say, ‘I want to do a film and you be my hero’. I was like, ‘Are you mad?’ I asked him to cook a good meal and call me for dinner, that would have been far more enjoyable. I knew him very well. I was in England when he passed away. It was very sad. He was a good man, who led his own life.
During the show’s first edition, you were still the family’s little boy. Your father (Chandidas Ganguly) is not there now and you are the man of the house...
Oh yes, there’s a big difference between then and now. I didn’t have to look after three-fourth of the stuff I do now. But then, it’s the same with everyone.
You even drop Sana to school...
Yes, that’s to spend time with her. But then, she doesn’t want me to do that. She wants to be on her own. She doesn’t even want me to drop her to a friend’s birthday party. She is growing up.
Is there a googly from Sana you couldn’t answer?
Nothing. She doesn’t ask me too many questions. But she likes the googlies. After every episode, I carry home the script. When I’m back, I have to ask her the googly questions. Bringing the script back is important, otherwise I am sure to forget. But then, Sana has her own world. She refused to come with me to England. She said, I want to be home. She loves home.
How difficult is an idle day to come by?
It comes. I make sure it does. I can’t work without a break. For the past seven days, I have only been shooting. That’s the most I have shot in my life — ads, promos, Dadagiri. When I’m home, I wake up late, read newspapers, have breakfast and have a chat with Dona or mom. After that, I watch TV with Sana. But when you are with Sana, you don’t get to see anything apart from what she wants to watch. I find some of her cartoons to be noise pollution. So, I go through my ipad, breeze around, go for a walk, watch films.
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has been a huge success and Priyanka Chopra is set to play Mary Kom. Which cricketer will be best-suited for a biopic?
Sachin Tendulkar, maybe. And I loved Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. I also watched Chennai Express.
How did you like Chennai Express?
It’s not Shah Rukh’s best film, but it was entertaining.
SRK had come for the finale of Dadagiri Season One. Can we see you on the same platform again?
Yes, if he wants to come. He keeps busy. He came just on my request, like Aamir did. It feels uncomfortable to ask Shah Rukh again. If he wants to come, he’s more than welcome. He is such a big name...
Did you wish Wasim Akram on starting a new innings in life?
When I meet him, I will. I have seen them together. I have known her (Shaniera Thompson) before and I knew this was coming. I hope they have a great life. Wasim has gone through a lot. I was trying to organize things for him when he was flying from Pakistan to Singapore for Huma’s treatment and had to land in Chennai. I was in touch with him four-five times a day. It was tough for him. Often, he is away. He has work, there are children at home... it’s not easy.
Ads, promos, show, he has been shooting relentlessly for the past seven days. But Sourav Ganguly is far from tired. After a season’s gap, he is back with Dadagiri, a show which was coined after his famous petname and celebrated the former India skipper as a TV host. In between work on Saturday, he settles for an adda at his Behala residence. Life has changed a great deal since he started out as a host in 2009, he tells us, setting the ball rolling for this conversation. Excerpts:
After hosting Dadagiri for the first two seasons, you are again back for the show’s fourth edition. How does it feel?
It’s good fun. The only problem is that the shooting spot is too far from my place. That apart, I quite like it. It’s very different from what I have done all my life. So, I do a bit of this, I do cricket... it’s nice. I’m happy with the way people respond to my show. With time, I have started enjoying television.
A lot was written when after the first two seasons of Dadagiri, you went on to host Ke Hobey Banglar Kotipoti. But that didn’t deter you from signing up for the current edition of the show...
My contract was like that. It’s was a twoyear deal with a oneyear break. During that break I worked for someone else. Once this season came along, I took it up again. I’ll be doing the next season and the season after that. I didn’t know that a show like Ke Hobey Banglar Kotipoti would come my way. When I signed up for Dadagiri, that channel had not even been formed. Siddhartha Basu said, ‘Let’s do this’ and my answer was yes.
Did you watch Dadagiri when Mithun Chakraborty hosted it for a season?
Yes, I watched it a bit. Even when I was doing Dadagiri, I didn’t watch all the episodes. I would only catch the ones which I found very exciting, like a group of singers who performed very well, Yuvraj (Singh) coming down for one show and Shah Rukh for another.... otherwise it gets a little boring as I host it. It’s not like cricket that after playing, I could again sit back and watch it. After scoring a Test century, I would go home and watch. I couldn't do it for any show. Even when I do commentary, I don’t watch it.
Is your daughter, Sana, very excited about you hosting a game show?
Sana has got used to all this. She will watch a little bit. After that, it’s her own life. Also, she is too young. She never watched me playing except in the IPL. She would only watch IPL. When she was six or seven, she went to South Africa with me for Tests, but she never went to the ground. Back then, she was too small.
You are the hero of some of our greatest Test cricket wins. Do you think India nurtures this form of cricket anymore?
India does nurture Test cricket and it has to be done. It’s the best form of cricket. To be recognized as a powerful cricket nation, you need to have a good Test team. This team is going through a transition. Over the past year, it has done well in ODIs but not in Tests. So, there’s a big opportunity in the coming 15-16 Test matches to do well.
You were very angry when IPL got embroiled in a messy spot-fixing controversy and also called Sreesanth’s act ‘stupid’...
For me, Sreesanth is an absolute waste of talent. When you are gifted with so much talent and you don’t use it, it’s pointless. What will you do for 40 lakh? It’s just one Test series for him. If you get 20 wickets in three Test matches, you get double the money. If he does well in one season of IPL, he gets 10 times the money. I don’t know whether he has done it or not. I don’t have any proof, but whatever I have heard on TV, if he has done it, it’s absolute stupidity.
Is Indian cricket losing its sheen?
I don’t think so. There’s a problem everywhere. There’s one bad fish in every pond, a couple of bad fish in every river. That doesn’t make the pond or the river bad. You have these issues, but India has produced cricketers like Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Dhoni, Sehwag, whom people can’t touch. I don’t think one can judge cricket based on a few people.
Coming back to television, there were rumours that you are part of the remake of Telugu film Golkonda High School. Now it’s Nach Baliye...
Nach Baliye was a big joke. Nobody even spoke to me. Even if they had, I would have politely said that I’m not good enough to do it. And I know a couple of years back there were rumours of me doing Golkonda High School. I have to deal with it. I hear so many things about me that I often fall off the chair.
But there’s a huge demand to see you in films.
They know by now that I’ll not do films.Television is what I enjoy. There’s cricket, reality shows, but I’m just not good enough to do films. The only person who once told me that I must act in his film was Rituparno Ghosh. I said, ‘No sir’. He called me up to say, ‘I want to do a film and you be my hero’. I was like, ‘Are you mad?’ I asked him to cook a good meal and call me for dinner, that would have been far more enjoyable. I knew him very well. I was in England when he passed away. It was very sad. He was a good man, who led his own life.
During the show’s first edition, you were still the family’s little boy. Your father (Chandidas Ganguly) is not there now and you are the man of the house...
Oh yes, there’s a big difference between then and now. I didn’t have to look after three-fourth of the stuff I do now. But then, it’s the same with everyone.
You even drop Sana to school...
Yes, that’s to spend time with her. But then, she doesn’t want me to do that. She wants to be on her own. She doesn’t even want me to drop her to a friend’s birthday party. She is growing up.
Is there a googly from Sana you couldn’t answer?
Nothing. She doesn’t ask me too many questions. But she likes the googlies. After every episode, I carry home the script. When I’m back, I have to ask her the googly questions. Bringing the script back is important, otherwise I am sure to forget. But then, Sana has her own world. She refused to come with me to England. She said, I want to be home. She loves home.
How difficult is an idle day to come by?
It comes. I make sure it does. I can’t work without a break. For the past seven days, I have only been shooting. That’s the most I have shot in my life — ads, promos, Dadagiri. When I’m home, I wake up late, read newspapers, have breakfast and have a chat with Dona or mom. After that, I watch TV with Sana. But when you are with Sana, you don’t get to see anything apart from what she wants to watch. I find some of her cartoons to be noise pollution. So, I go through my ipad, breeze around, go for a walk, watch films.
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has been a huge success and Priyanka Chopra is set to play Mary Kom. Which cricketer will be best-suited for a biopic?
Sachin Tendulkar, maybe. And I loved Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. I also watched Chennai Express.
How did you like Chennai Express?
It’s not Shah Rukh’s best film, but it was entertaining.
SRK had come for the finale of Dadagiri Season One. Can we see you on the same platform again?
Yes, if he wants to come. He keeps busy. He came just on my request, like Aamir did. It feels uncomfortable to ask Shah Rukh again. If he wants to come, he’s more than welcome. He is such a big name...
Did you wish Wasim Akram on starting a new innings in life?
When I meet him, I will. I have seen them together. I have known her (Shaniera Thompson) before and I knew this was coming. I hope they have a great life. Wasim has gone through a lot. I was trying to organize things for him when he was flying from Pakistan to Singapore for Huma’s treatment and had to land in Chennai. I was in touch with him four-five times a day. It was tough for him. Often, he is away. He has work, there are children at home... it’s not easy.
Courtesy: TOI
