They are the master craftsmen- artistes, technicians,visualisers, all rolled into one. They lend their artistry to mundane associations to create path breaking scenes and dramatic sequences. They are the directors, who direct the cumulative energy of their work force towards one creative whole - they are the captains of shows that make us laugh and cry. In this special fortnightly section, we pay our tribute to these masters, who choose to remain off the screen and create magic on it!

He's the director of the recently launched Jodee Kamaal Ki. Manoj Nautiyal is the man behind the scenes who makes the guests on the show reveal their intimate secrets and coax and cajole them to be themselves! Ananya Sengupta spoke to the young director of Star Plus' new game show Jodee Kamal Ki who seemed to have had a blast shooting for the show.

Dheeraj Kumar with Manoj Nautiyal

"I worked on the concept for eight months!"
I started working on this for six to eight months and then I approached a production house. Then I told Dheeraj ji that I wanted 45 minutes with the channel heads. I gave them a presentation and they discussed it for 20-30 seconds, they commissioned it in a minute! That was great!

"Shooting for the show's a pleasure"
Oh! it was a lovely experience! These people were very sporting and really there were no ego hassles and starry tantrums. The shoots would be a smooth ride and I have completed shooting for 17 epsiodes with 51 couples, and till date I have had no problems.

"Non-actors are more spontaneous"
See, actors will be actors, so it didn't come as a surprise to me that the guests who were not actors were more interesting to work with. They are not used to being on camera and thus have no inhibitions about how they look or what they say! They are more honest and spontaneous. And since audiences know little of their personal lives, the details that they reveal become more interesting!

Manoj with Mona Singh

"They usually become comfortable in five minutes"
It's not easy to reveal things about each other without being conscious. But I have seen that as soon as the camera rolls, guests get over their self consciousness and generally have fun! We try to ask them personal questions, but again, we don't want them to reveal something that they are not comfortable with. I personally sit with them and try to make them comfortable. They have stories to tell that can move one to tears. They are tragic, yet inspirational. We sit with them to make them understand that we are not here to make fun of them...or their stories, once they get comfortable, then it's a smooth ride. We respect them, pamper them, but don't create any hype. That works wonders.

The guests with producer, Dheeraj Kumar

"They had no problem with personal details"
We do a lot of research before we shoot with a particular couple. We ask them what they are comfortable with and which details they want us to leave out. But these guests are very sporting, we have not edited much of what they said on camera! Sometimes they become so comfortable that they tell us later that they've just remembered something that they would want to reveal!

"We wanted to move away from the techno sets that were used in KBC"
We wanted a big set. If you see, we have used a lot of gold and the lighting has also been done to get some warmth into the sets. It was consciously done.

"We were told 'You can't make them dance..'"
Once, during a meeting with the channel and the creative guys, they told us that you can't make these big shots dance! But the choreographer has managed it! Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha was a treat to watch on the dance floor!

Pics by Satej Shinde