Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Sep 11: Popular Tulu comedy TV show 'Private Challenge' season 2 on Daijiworld Television featuring 'Tulunada Manikya' Aravind Bolar and Daijiworld founder Walter Nandalike, is all set to telecast its 50th episode on Sunday, September 11.

The show, which had created a new trend of comedy among the TV audience of coastal Karnataka, was also viewed by the worldwide Tuluvas on YouTube, Facebook and on Localwood OTT platform. With the glorious half-century mark, the makers are upbeat on the response for the rib-tickling show.

"We never expected the show to reach this level. We wanted to entertain our audience during the extremely difficult times of Covid in April-May 2020. Our expectation was to reach around 10-15 episodes with Bolar in different characters. But the show gained worldwide popularity, week after week. The expectations of the viewers were high, but a big salute to Aravind Bolar who never disappointed our audience. He excelled in every role that was presented on the show. Indeed, the show had created a new sensation and trend among the viewers because this was purely a new concept and not copied from anywhere," says Walter Nandalike who turned into an actor from his erstwhile anchor roles.

Aravind Bolar, the ace-comedian who has featured in more than 80 Tulu, Kannada, Malayalam and Konkani movies, is overwhelmed with the response he received from the global audience. "No doubt, my face and the roles were familiar to the Tulu audience, but 'Private Challenge' helped me reach a wider audience, especially abroad. I had a tremendous satisfaction performing more than 110 roles so far which I feel is a new record in Tulu language," says Bolar.

The first season was mostly an in-house or studio set-up show where Walter Nandalike presented himself as a TV anchor with funny questions and Bolar appeared in different characters. He performed 62 characters in 60 episodes of the first season including double roles in two episodes.

Stany Bela, Daijiworld's programme director who created the scripts and directs the Private Challenge show says, "When Walter Nandalike was hospitalised due to Covid in August 2020, we had no episodes shot to telecast. That is the time we thought of featuring Bolar as an anchor as well as the guest. That idea clicked very well and our editing and support team worked hard to make it realise."

"Bringing in new ideas every week is a challenge. Sometimes, we added more co-actors to break the monopoly of just two faces. That idea also worked well. Some of the episodes in the second season were massive hits like the Dubai flight show that has crossed over a million views on YouTube. The other hit episodes are jewellery shopping, ice cream parlour, new car purchase, parent-teacher meeting, fish selling woman etc,” says Bela, who directs Konkani and Tulu language serials also for Daijiworld TV.

Electrical Point, a popular electrical equipment outlet has been the main sponsor for the event throughout both the seasons.

According to the 'Team Private Challenge' sources, the show will continue and may take a break again. The two noted actors completing 110 episodes is a commendable job.

Walter Nandalike says, "The first season was not so challenging for me because my role was just as an anchor which I was doing for the past seven years. But here, I had to be funny in my communication. Meanwhile, season 2 helped me learn many things from Bolar, director Stany Bela and other team members. Acting with Bolar is a challenge for any artiste as he is a senior and massively popular actor. But now, I have gained a lot of confidence. This show helped me bag roles in movies and serials."

Kiran Kepu is a senior and key cameraperson for shooting the show. Dayanand Kukkaje, Harish and James also assist him. Srikant Somayaji, the senior video editor is in-charge of the editing team.

Few of the episodes of the show were shot outside the coastal region. The 40th episode of season 2 was shot in a resort and coffee estate at Chikkamagaluru. One episode each was shot in Bangkok, Thailand, Dubai and UAE.