Between midnight and 2 am, television takes on a bizarre garb. Chattering anchors ask questions that are too easy to get wrong, but no one gets it right. The prize money is in lakhs. But is anyone other than mobile firms winning?

Gaur se dekhiye inn chehron ko. Kaun hai yeh doh cricketers?" asks anchor Rahman for the nth time, pointing to a picture puzzle (Virendra Sehwag and Rahul Dravid's faces have been merged. It's obvious that it's Viru and Dravid). The director knows Rahman needs a break. It's 1 am. We are on the set of Cricket Howzzat at Cellcast's Malad office. The screen zooms in on the picture puzzle. Rahman gets a 15-second break.

Anchor Rahman shoots for Cricket Howzzat minus a script. The show relies on his anchoring skills alone to keep viewers hooked. Pics/Pradeep Dhivar

Switch on your television post midnight, and there's no escape from Rahman, and other anchors like him on Gold Safe, Bollywood Chakkar and Bollywood Dhamaal. The graveyard shift, on till 2 am and beyond, is a different world on television. Interactive 'live' television. Every show boasts a ridiculously easy contest: identify the actor or cricketer in the puzzle. The right answer can win you anything from Rs 2,000 to Rs 85,000. The catch: you might have to spend a lifetime at the virtual 'waiting lounge' till your call gets through, if at all.u00a0 UTV Bindass, Imagine, India TV, E-24, and Zee TV endorse these shows.

The makers
"Ten per cent of the total viewership is interested in interactive television," says Cellcast's executive vice president Pradeep Menon. On an average, at least one person wins one contest. On a good day, one show can have as many as four winners. The virtual waiting lounge, as Pradeep shows us at the Cellcast office, is a box-sized room buzzing with telephone lines. Currently, the holder capacity is 10,000. "We are increasing it because it's IPL season and we are introducing interactive cricket shows," he reveals. The channel sells air-time to Cellcast, the show's content provider, which in turn make its cut from cell phone companies who make a killing each time a caller uses his mobile phone to dial up. "We receive our share after 120 days because the revenue goes directly to the cell phone company. They take 50 to 60 per cent of the profit. We get the rest," Pradeep says. Only calls made from mobile phones are eligible, at the cost of Rs 12 a minute. At nearly 17,000 calls per night, the profit margin is obscene.