Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu (), previously known as Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu, is an Indian Telugu-language television game show. It is the official Telugu adaptation of Britain's game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. It was produced by BIG Synergy for first four seasons and was aired on Star Maa. The first three seasons were hosted by actor Nagarjuna and the fourth season was hosted by actor Chiranjeevi.
In 2021, after the completion of the first four seasons (2014–2017), the show was revamped with a new title Evaru Meelo Koteeswarulu under the production of Studio Next with Sun TV Network buying its broadcasting rights. It started to air on Gemini TV from 22 August 2021 to 5 December 2021, with N. T. Rama Rao Jr. as the host.
Series overview
History and production
Debut (2014–2019) In March 2014, reports emerged that Nagarjuna would host the Telugu version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and the makers were in talks with him. With Nagarjuna confessing that he wanted to be a television game show host, the reports gained prominence. There were reports that Nagarjuna charged 3 crores for hosting 40 episodes for the first season. The reports of Nagarjuna's inclusion were confirmed in early April 2014 and Nagarjuna participated in the promo shoots. The official announcement was made on 18 April 2014 and the show was titled Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu aired on MAA TV. The game show was launched in an event at Hyderabad. Nagarjuna and his wife Amala were present at the event, as were Allu Aravind, MAA TV Chairman Nimmagadda Prasad, CMD of BIG Synergy Siddhartha Basu and his wife Anitha. To introduce and educate the viewers about the show, Nagarjuna was seated on the hot seat and Amala took the role of host and asked questions about their personal life which were answered by Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna, Allu Aravind, Nimmagadda Prasad, and Siddhartha Basu spoke to the media about the game show.<ref>{ { cite web|url=https://www.indiaglitz.com/nagarjunas-meelo-evaru-koteeswarudu--launched-grandly-tamil-news-106382|title=Nagarjuna's Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu " launched grandly|website=IndiaGlitz|date=18 April 2014|access-date=31 July 2014}}</ref>
The Call for Entry (CFE) was announced on 24 April 2014. The makers asked registrants to answer the five questions asked by replying with an SMS. The registration lines were closed on May 1, 2014, and the selection process was supervised by Ernst & Young. The channel's call for participants received more than a million entries, of which 1500 were shortlisted through the randomized process. From among them, 100 contestants were selected through auditions in Vijayawada, Tirupati, and Hyderabad. The show was announced to go on the air on 9 June 2014 at 9:00 PM and by 6 June 2014 Nagarjuna completed shooting of 6 episodes. Nine participants from different socioeconomic backgrounds played the game in each episode. Every contestant's back-end story was recorded and addressed in the show. The prize money ranged from 1,000/- to 1 crore/- ,and the rules were the same as the Hindi version. Those who answered all 15 questions correctly would win 1 crore. The show initially ran from 9:00 PM to 10:30 PM from Mondays to Thursdays, but it was later changed from Sunday to Thursday because of the show's success.
The shoot of 40 episodes of the first season ended on 18 July 2014 and the last episode of the first season was aired on 7 August 2014. In addition to contestants, celebrities such as Vidya Balan Shriya Saran, Allari Naresh, Naga Chaitanya, Vishal, Jhansi, Suma Kanakala, Pooja Hegde, Charmme, Lakshmi Manchu, Kajal Aggarwal and Chiranjeevi made guest appearances on the show.
Season 3 started on 26 November 2015, with a special theme of Jodi (couple). As the first step towards the launch of MEK Season 3, the CFE for the registration process commenced on 9 October and would continue for 10 days. As part of the CFE process, one question was broadcast every day at 7:00 PM on Maa TV. Those who were interested could respond before 6.30 PM the next day.
Season 4 was launched on 13 February 2017, hosted by Chiranjeevi.