Soha with Mir on Mirakkel

The Zee Bangla laughathon, Mirakkel Akkel Challenger 5, is back for a fifth run with Mir as the frontman. The stand-up comedy show that generated the highest TRPs for four consecutive seasons on Zee Bangla is being glammed up with special episodes starring celebrity guests.

After Raima Sen on New Year’s Eve, it’s Soha Ali Khan’s turn this Friday and Saturday to face Mir’s fun posers.

“Soha enjoyed the show a lot. Talks are on with various other Bollywood artistes.... Though the format is the same as before, we’ve tried to make this edition funnier. We’ve incorporated age-old jokes that we still laugh at,” said show director Subhankar Chattopadhyay.

Mir, who skipped the last season, is happy to be back. “It really feels great. We began in 2006, we are almost on the verge of completing four years of Mirakkel and we are not even a mega serial! Only mega serials achieve that kind of status,” said the funny man.

The winners of the last four seasons are acting as mentors for the contestants this time. “We have introduced the guru-shishya tradition, which is there in the music shows. The gurus will not only help the 18 contestants hone their funny bone but also perform on every episode. We’ve already shot 36 episodes,” added Subhankar, who is currently in Bangladesh to audition more participants for the show.

The elimination format will be decided once the auditions are through. For the time being, the episode winners are walking away with a cash prize of Rs 20,000. Mirakkel Akkel Challenger 5 airs Monday to Saturday at 9.30pm.