Who wants to be (almost)
a crorepati in Afghanistan
Indo-Asian
News Service
London,
Oct 20 (IANS) "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", the
popular British television gameshow that spawned "Kaun
Banega Crorepati", is to have a version in Afghanistan
- the world's fifth poorest country.
However,
the top prize of a million Afghanis in this South Asian nation
will be the equivalent of $21,000.
Afghanistan
is the 107th country to be lured by the quiz show's promise
of instant riches since its launch in Britain in 1998.
Ed
Louwerse, managing director of 2waytraffic, the company that
owns the rights to 'Millionaire', said $21,000 was a “life
changing” amount of money in Afghanistan.
The
deal is said to be the first time that a global entertainment
format has been legitimately sold in the country since the
fall of the Taliban in 2001.
Afghan
television executives visited studios in Europe. Shams Prods,
a Kabul-based production company, will begin filming 52 hour-long
episodes in November, 2waytraffic said.
“Millionaire
will travel and travel and it's still ground-breaking. There
are still territories in Asia and South America where the
format would work well,” Louwerse said.
Afghanistan
is ranked 174th out of 178 countries in terms of poverty -
ahead of only Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone and Niger in
sub Saharan Africa.
According
to the country's second National Human Development Report
released last year, Afghanistan has slipped a place in the
poverty league since 2004 and average life expectancy dropped
from 44.5 to 43.1 years from 2003 to 2005.
Indo-Asian
News Service
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