Following film stars as they play games and begin adventures in tourism hot spots overseas is nothing new for Chinese TV audiences. But how about letting them drop their haloes to experience the pressures of life as ordinary folks?

When Huang Bo, the actor whose films earned nearly 5 billion yuan ($810 million) last year in China, suddenly finds himself on a crowded subway train to deliver fast food - or working as a street vendor selling shashlik - he brings something refreshing not only to TV viewers but also to himself.

"Though I mostly play ordinary people in films, frankly speaking, I am not very clear what their lives are like now," the 41-year-old actor says.