Malayalam Film Celebrities Who Nailed It As TV Show Hosts

The superstar Mohanlal is charismatic not only on the big screen but also on mini screen. He was the host of highly popular show Big Boss- the Malayalam version of Big Boss Hindi which is based on the original Dutch show Big Brother. Big Boss had most of the people glued to the show due to the popularity of the host as well as the contestants. The show was aired on prime time and had high TRP. It catapulted Mohanlal to a successful avatar as that of an anchor.

Esther Anil, the adorable daughter of Mohanlal in blockbuster Drishyam, is hosting the children's musical reality show Top Singer. The cute girl now looks ravishing and her gowns are a treat to watch. The musical show had celebrity judges but Esther plays a perfect hostess to all the cute kid participants. The show is on air and the channel is running it on prime time.

Many had their fair share of doubt when it was announced that Action Star Suresh Gopiwill be the host of Ningalkkum Aakam Kodeeshwaran (NAK), the Malayalam TV version of the most popular game show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? But once NAK started airing, all the doubts proved to be meatless and Suresh Gopi won everyone’s heart with his one of a kind of hosting style. He gained back his stardom which was down and dusted due to a long list of flops (similar to what Amitabh Bachchan did with Kaun Banega Crorepati?). His style of announcing a commercial break, “Dhe Poyi, Dhaa Vannu”, was so popular that it became a part of the popular culture. 

Poornima Indrajith, was the first host of the popular game show Swarna Mazha in 2006. She is also one of the most popular film celebs on the Malayalam mini screen and has anchored a lot of reality shows. Her second stint at hosting a game show was in this year with Kuttikalodaano Kali, which is the Malayalam version of the famous international game show, The Kids Are All Right. And both the times, Poornima scored a perfect 10 for her hosting. Kuttikalodaano Kali is currently on air and has already become one of the shows with huge audience following.

Nyla Usha became a common name in every Kerala household after she began hosting the first season of Minute To Win It, this year. The show, follows the same format of the US game show with the same title. Nyla, with her experience as an RJ for over a decade, has made sure that the show is in among the top place holders in TRP charts. Her gorgeous looks, unique style of presentation and interaction with the participants has resulted in the wide popularity of the show.

Govind Padmasoorya or everyone’s favorite GP, had proved his skills on the mini screen by co-anchoring two hit dance competitions. But, he proved that it was not a fluke as he was at his best as the host of Fastest Family First: Adi Mone Buzzer. The show’s first season started in 2015 and early this year, it ended. GP won the hearts of millions of Malayalam TV audience, especially female and kids. The show, which was initially aired in the post prime-time slot was moved into the prime-time slot, due to its huge popularity. He was so charismatic that he even won the Kerala State Television Award 2016 for Best Host for this game show.

Suraj is a brilliant comedian and a national award winning actor. He has hosted a variety of shows on TV from the beginning of his career. But, Sell Me The Answer was his first game show. He came as a replacement for Mukesh in season 2, as Mukesh left the show to contest in the Kerala state elections 2016. The shoes Suraj had to fill was pretty huge but he nailed it. Suraj, with his charm and witty nature, made a spot for himself in the domain of TV game shows in Malayalam.

Mukesh is most probably the first Malayalam actor to host a proper game show on TV. And he was really good at his job. His first show, Deal Or No Deal, was launched in 2009 and was on air for 4 seasons. TRP of this game show never went down during its airing time. This is the show, which had the maximum number of seasons for a Malayalam game show hosted by a movie star. Later in 2015, Mukesh returned to hosting on mini screen with the show Sell Me The Answer. The show’s concept was really new and audience loved it. So far, it had 2 seasons and with these two shows' popularity, Mukesh commands a big chunk of TV audience.

We can credit Urvashi for breaking the taboo of film personalities not getting involved in television productions, other than for their film promotion. She was one of the, if not the, first celebrity who ran a TV game show and was highly successful in it. In fact, she is the only film personality who had hosted three game shows on Malayalam television and was spot on, each time. Her first show was Swarna Mazha in 2006. Later she was the host of Rani Maharani in 2010 and Mummy & Me in 2012. All the three shows were highly popular and the second & third shows were exclusively for female participants.