Quizmaster Siddhartha Basu talks to a participant at Delhi Public School in Ranchi on Sunday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

He’s one of the brains behind Kaun Banega Crorepati and Dus ka Dum and the face behind Doordarshan’s good old Quiz Time.

And dapper quizmaster Siddhartha Basu was the man to watch out for at the grand finale of Know for Sure, an inter-school quiz competition hosted by Encyclopedia Britannica, at Delhi Public School (DPS), Ranchi, on Sunday.

After a preliminary round among 33 schools from across the state, only six — three each from Ranchi and Bokaro — qualified for the final.

The Ranchi schools were DAV-Gandhinagar; DAV Public School, Bariatu and DPS. The ones in Bokaro were DPS, Guru Govind Singh School and Chinmaya Vidyalaya.

Quizmaster Basu asked teams assorted questions from fields such as flora and fauna, Indian words in English dictionary to sports and science.

From identifying a picture of cyclone Hudhud derived from hoopoe, the national bird of Oman, to rattling off cricket records and recognising astronaut Neil Armstrong, actor Robin Williams and youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, contestants did it all.

The team from DAV, Gandhinagar, looked the best prepared for the contest and won the title comfortably with 95 points. Guru Govind Singh School from Bokaro came second with 65 points and DPS-Ranchi scored 55 points to come third. Winners Spandan Chaturvedi and Adarsh Kumar got a certificate and a trophy each.

“Quizzing is all about curiosity and a sort of scepticism that prompts you to cross-check facts,” said Basu, who has directed superstar Amitabh Bachchan, no less, as the KBC host.

Basu had endeared himself to quiz buffs way back in the 1980s on Quiz Time. He is known as the pioneer of television quiz shows in India.