Chatri Sityodtong gives fans an inside look at behind-the-scenes on The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition

Chatri Sityodtong is the chairman and CEO of ONE Championship. He’s also the focal point of the award-winning reality television series, The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition.

The show recently premiered on Netflix in over 150 countries worldwide. It’s already trending in several countries, as well as landing in the top 10 in a handful of them. Needless to say, The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition is a surefire hit.

Fans of ONE Championship know Chatri Sityodtong as the intense, no-nonsense leader of Asia’s largest martial arts organization. He shows multiple sides of himself across the reality show’s 13 episodes.

In a recent Facebook post, Chatri Sityodtong gave fans a little bit of a behind-the-scenes look. He tells a story about a particular moment inside the dreaded Boardroom with his adviser, Niharika Singh:

“One of the crew took this funny photo below on a day that Niharika and I spontaneously could not stop laughing during one of the boardroom scenes. We had to retake this scene many times because we both kept bursting out in laughter when the cameras rolled. We were not laughing at the candidates. We were laughing at how we had to maintain eye contact with each other while talking seriously about the candidates. For whatever reason, it was initially super hard to do because we are good friends in real-life as well as good colleagues. It was just painfully awkward and hilarious.”

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Chatri Sityodtong answers the question, "Was it real?"

Of course, anyone who has ever been on a reality television show gets this question a lot. Chatri Sityodtong answered:

“Yes, it was real. There was no storyline for the cast to remember. There was no script for anyone to memorize. There was nothing to rehearse ahead of time. The candidates and I behaved and spoke in real-time as everything unfolded in front of us. Many shots [like the boardroom scenes] required only a single take. Of course, some other shots required multiple retakes when something went wrong with the cameras, lighting, sound, energy, etc.”

Sityodtong is likening The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition to a real-life version of Squid Game, which coincidentally is also a hit Netflix series. The show combines the adrenaline-induced atmosphere of martial arts with the cutthroat world of business. What fans get is a unique take on the iconic "Apprentice" franchise.

Since it launched in early 2021, The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition has garnered a stack of awards and recognitions. Last year, it took home two major awards at the Asian Academy Creative Awards 2021 (AAA), topping categories for “Best Non-Scripted Entertainment” and “Best Adaptation of an Existing Format.”