Gaurav Kapoor with a participant in India’s Minute To Win It

Can you shake your booty well enough to displace four ping-pong balls? Or maybe balance a bucket on your head still enough to catch three balls in it? Or simply blow enough air into balloons to knock off plastic glasses. If you can, you may go home with Rs 1 crore!

No difficult quiz questions, no Dolly Bindra to negotiate, no daredevil stunt to do, AXN’s new game show India’s Minute To Win It is urging you to complete fun tasks with everyday household items. An adaptation of the American show US Minute to Win It, the Indian avatar goes on air tonight at 10. It will air every Wednesday and Thursday at 10pm.

Each contestant — and all Indians this time — is presented with a challenge that must be completed within 60 seconds. There are 10 levels to complete to win the Rs 1 crore jackpot. Once you cross Level 3, you are sure to take home Rs 50,000 and if you cross level 6, you will win a minimum of Rs 7.5 lakh. If you fail three times (can be over different tasks), you are eliminated.

But the real fun factor in India’s Minute To Win It is that all the challenges make use of everyday household items like buckets, empty cans, toothbrush, noodles and pizza trays. Some of the challenges include Bite Me (where you have to pick up paper bags of different sizes using your mouth), Bottoms Up (where you knock over empty cans using a yo-yo tied to the waist) and Card Ninja (where you have to toss cards and hit a watermelon).

Despite being an Indian show with Indian contestants, India’s Minute To Win It was shot at the Kru Studios in Malaysia’s Cyberjaya. t2 was there on the sets in mid-December and quizzed Rohit Bhandari, senior vice-president, AXN and Animax (India), on why they chose not to shoot in a Mumbai studio like most of the other game shows on air.

“The crew here in Malaysia just shot for the local version of the show and were best equipped to handle our first season,” he said. “Also, we want to keep the set of the show intact so that we can come back and maybe shoot another season. We wouldn’t have had that luxury in Mumbai.”

Hosting the show is the man we saw up close with the Preitys and Shilpas of the IPL world at the auction last weekend — Gaurav Kapoor. “I loved watching the American version of Minute To Win It and in fact I have seen more episodes than most people on the set here,” Gaurav told t2. “With so much negativity around on television, it’s cool to have a fun, family game show. It’s not just a job for me; I am having a blast.”

For the first season of the Indian version, auditions happened in Mumbai and Delhi and there was even a boot camp for the chosen participants to practise the games. “There is a total portfolio of 200 games and you don’t know which one will come up when you are actually on the show but you can sure practise,” added Rohit. “In fact, we are confident that once India’s Minute To Win It goes on air, everyone would try and play these games in their own homes and then audition for Season Two!”

The USP of the games is clearly the simplicity. “You get addicted to them because the items are right in front of you at home all the time,” said Mumbai-based businessman Manish Joshi, who started out well but couldn’t cross the difficult levels on the show. “The game I lost out on — placing eggs upright in a base of salt — I had got it right many times at home but couldn’t finish it here when it mattered.”

The clock clearly can be a Dolly bad adversary at times.