Host Helmy builds a career on hard work

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Some people may have grown bored of Siapa Berani (Who Dares?), which airs live weekdays at 8 a.m. on Indosiar television station.

But not so for millions of viewers across the country, as well as the hundreds of groups that sign up every week to become contestants on the general knowledge quiz show.

After more than 220 episodes, the quiz show is still highly popular, which amazes even the show's creator and co-host Helmy Yahya.

"I think it's a miracle. Especially as I offered this show to several TV stations and they turned it down. Indosiar finally accepted, and look at it now," he said after a recent show.

Helmy, 38, said that the strength of the show probably lay in its content.

"It's been a long time since there was a TV show about science and general knowledge. People like it, you know. Indonesian people actually have a thirst for knowledge. It's just up to us how to make it interesting and watchable," he said.

The interview took place in the TV station's cafeteria, where the show's contestants, still in their costumes, milled around, picking up their prizes and once in a while asking Helmy to appear in a photograph with them.

Helmy admitted that he got a bit bored with his routine of hosting the show every morning with TV actress Alya Rohali.

"Every morning it's like ... oh nooo ... not again," he laughed.

"But as soon as I meet the contestants, it's all gone. Seeing their spirit makes mine rise again."

The popularity of the show has established Helmy as a TV show creator with the Midas touch. Through his production house PT Triwarsana, he has produced a dozen popular shows on several TV stations, such as Asal (Whatever), Mimpi Kali Ye (What A Dream, an Indonesian version of MTV's Fanatic) and Kuis Joshua.

He started his career in show business back in 1988 when jazz musician Ireng Maulana asked Helmy to manage him after they had worked together several times in organizing jazz events.

Through Ireng, Helmy met quiz show queen Ani Sumadi, the force behind popular quiz shows such as Berpacu Dalam Melodi (Racing in Melody).

It was from Ani that Helmy learned to produce TV shows.

The brother of producer/singer/emcee Tantowi Yahya is a man of many talents. He is the manager of child entertainer Joshua and author of five novels including Blok M, which has been filmed. He also sings.

His success goes back to his days in elementary school when he always got the highest grades. After graduating from high school in his hometown of Palembang, South Sumatra, Helmy went to the Bogor Agriculture Institute (IPB), where he was admitted without having to take a test, but later on transferred to the National Accounting Institute (STAN), which offered him a scholarship.

"My father was very old back then. I had a feeling that he wouldn't see me graduate. So, I looked for a scholarship and got one from STAN. It turned out I was right. Two years later, my father died."

Studying accounting, he said, was something that he really hated. He actually wanted to study at medical or journalism school.

"But I'm a very, very serious person. And finally I graduated as the best student," he said.

After graduation, Helmy received a scholarship from Miami University in the United States and completed his master's in only 10 months.

Everything seems to have come easy to him, but it was really the fruit of his hard work.

As the son of a street vendor, Helmy said that his childhood and teenage life were very modest.

"I had a very happy childhood, even though my family was rather poor. I barely got pocket money back then. And my shoes had holes in them. But those conditions taught me to be tough, independent and a hard worker," said the youngest of five siblings.

Since he was a teenager, Helmy did any job from which he could earn money.

"But mostly, I earned money from competitions. Any competition at all, and I always won. I won scholarships and I was even able to buy my own motorcycle," he said.

Helmy's next project is to make an album of the traditional Melayu Deli music of North Sumatra.

"My fans are mostly housewives. So I target them. If not Melayu, I would sing those Latin soap opera style songs," he said.

"I work in the marketing field. I have to know my market, and the right strategy to get customers."

Another project is making movies as he is now the marketing director of State Film Production (PFN), a state-owned company that has been in the doldrums in recent years.

Helmy was the scriptwriter for the movie Joshua, Oh Joshua, which was supposed to replicate the success of Petualangan Sherina (Sherina's Adventure) but failed.

"Yes, I must admit that I failed on that film. But film is actually a collective work. We had many difficulties at that time. But at least the film reached the break-even point," he said.

With PFN, Helmy plans to revive Si Unyil, which aired every Sunday on state-owned television station TVRI as the most popular puppet show of the 1980s.

He also urged people to revive Indonesian films through PFN.

"I don't know, but I see new Indonesian films and I'm, like, why do they have to be confusing? Do our movies have to be that way?"

"So, I reckoned, let's make a commercial movie which is of course, artistic. But first, let's just make a movie that people would like, that people would watch. Something like Petualangan Sherina," he added.

Helmy laughed when asked if there was sibling rivalry with Tantowi, although he said he had a "wilder" personality than his older brother.

"We support each other. And we work in different fields. Tanto is more of an event organizer, while I'm in TV shows."