Once a month Sameer Nair tries his hand at cooking a leg of lamb. He kicks back with a chunk of meat on his plate and hits START on a DVD from his collection of world cinema.

But that’s when the creative head is not busy plotting rival channel Sony’s doom or conceptualising new ways to keep Star Plus at its number one position. Debutante Star One is running neck-to-neck with Sony and Nair is determined to make sure it’s not a photo finish. ‘‘I want both the number one and two in the general entertainment category in our kitty—Plus followed by One,’’ he states plainly.

The consolidation of Star One depends on replicating last year’s successes with new seasons of The Laughter Challenge and Nach Baliye. The channel will finally air its first Balaji soap, Kya Hoga Nimmo Ka.

Post Amitabh Bachchan’s illness, the network has been flooded with inquires on the fate of KBC. Contrary to rumours that the show is winding up, Bachchan is slated to resume shooting at the end of January. ‘‘In fact the whole episode has cost us only about four or five repeats,’’ says Nair.

After the 85 episodes of Kaun Banega Crorepati are exhausted, Star Plus will launch a big budget historical based on the life of Prithviraj Chauhan, directed by the Sagars. ‘‘There’s a huge revival of historicals with films like Troy worldwide. We were looking for a true Indian hero and finally zeroed in on Chauhan,’’ says Nair.

Star Gold, which started out as a vintage channel is also getting a makeover with the latest blockbusters like Black being telecast. But don’t be surprised if you catch a dud or two in the line-up as well. They’ve recently acquired Bluffmaster and Shikhar.

Despite the success of Desperate Housewives and Lost, Nair feels that the English genre is wasted on cable television. ‘‘There’s no place on cable for niche channels anymore with ratings that don’t climb higher than 0.2 at times. They all need to move to Direct-To-Home,’’ he says adding that 2006 is hailed as the year DTH will flourish.

Aside from his obsession with dislodging Sony, industry insiders say that he and Tarun Katial, business head Sony, remain good friends, even after Katial, Nair’s heir apparent at Star, crossed over in 2002. ‘‘All I can say is that his exit made no difference to the channel,’’ he offers.

Reticent and aloof by nature, Nair detests public appearances. The only awards functions he attends are the ones Star is directly involved in. It’s been three years since he last went up on stage to accept a trophy.

Predictably the maximum awards he’s accepted are for Star Plus, which also consumes most of his energy.

The 41-year-old hotel management graduate, who ended up selling ad space for the Yellow Pages now finds himself on the other side of the table.

He entertains several pitches for new shows every week and the rejects usually find their way to other channels. ‘‘We took a look at the format for Kam Ya Zyaada before Zee TV,’’ he reveals. Also if his sources are to be trusted, Sahara One’s game show Mission Ek Crore may not take off at all, and if it does, it will probably be without Sanjay Dutt.

Their Indian version of The Apprentice is on the back burner while talks continue with prospective Trumps—Anil Ambani among others. A mentor to countless employees, Nair claims that he would make a sorry Trump, because the one thing he’snever said to an employee is, ‘‘You’re fired!’’

( www.financialexpress.com)