Big B gets emotional as KBC 5 nears end

Bachchan had hosted four of the five seasons of KBC that started in 2000.

NEW DELHI:

With the finale of “Kaun Banega Crorepati 5” being aired next week, megastar and host Amitabh Bachchan says it is hard to say goodbye to the popular game show.

“The recording for the finale for ‘KBC’ took place on Thursday and it took an entire day to do so. It has been an exceptional season this year and when one leaves such settings there is bound to be a deep feeling of not wanting to depart. All the little things that made up these extraordinary days on set were of a very distinguished quality,” Big B posted on his blog bigb.bigadda.com. The last episode of season five, which began on August 15, will be aired November 17.

“A routine had been set, people worked to maintain a sense of togetherness in all these days. And today we had to say our ‘bye byes’. Tough when you have to do this, but I guess you must bury the old so that the new prosper,” added the superstar.

The 69-year-old had made his small screen debut with “Kaun Banega Crorepati” in 2000. And since then, the megastar has hosted four out of five seasons. The third edition was hosted by Shahrukh Khan.

The first three seasons were aired on Star Plus, but from the fourth season it was telecast on Sony with Bachchan back as the host. This season saw people from India’s rural areas participating with some them winning big. Recently, Sushil Kumar from Bihar won INR50 million and Anil Sinha from Patna won INR10 million but there were many others who won large sums of money.

Thanks to all this and Bachchan’s mass connect, the show managed to generate the highest rating of a non-fiction show by registering 7.2 TVR (television rating) and 8 TVR for two episodes when an ‘aam admi’ Kumar won the INR 50 million jackpot. This show was telecast in two parts and was watched by 25 million people on November 1 and 27 million people November 2.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2011.