‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ can change lives

Amitabh Bachchan is all set to host the fourth season of KBC which starts airing on October 11.

NEW DEHLI: Amitabh Bachchan, who is all set to host the fourth season of “Kaun Banega Crorepati” (KBC), remembers how the show changed the mathematics of his life and pulled him out of a financial crunch.

“Ten years ago in the year 2000, when the entire world was celebrating the new century, I was celebrating my disastrous fortune. There were no films, no money, no company, a million legal cases and the tax authorities had put a notice of recovery on my home,” Bachchan, 67, wrote on his blog.

“An offer for television changed all that when I agreed to anchor ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ much against all the advice and resentment from friends, family and advisers. It soon became apparent that it was going to be big and prosperous. I merely sat back and played the game as best it could be played. Before long I was out of the financial crisis and signing on an almost two-year deal with the channel that was carrying it,” he added.

And now Bachchan is once again ready to embark on a 60-minute journey with contestants to change another man’s life and make someone a millionaire on the fourth edition of “Kaun Banega Crorepati”, which starts airing on October 11.

“My intimacy with ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ started in 2000 and after 10 years I am again going to host this show and hope the way you accepted me with love 10 years ago this time also you will offer me the same adoration,” Bachchan told reporters.

“I want to thank Sony Television for increasing the prize money from INR10 million to INR50 million. The jackpot of INR50 million can change someone’s entire life.”

Siddharth Basu, producer of the show, also said, “That life-changing sum heightens the drama. I want to thank Sony for putting that INR50 million over there.”

Bachchan hosted the first two seasons of “KBC” and the third one was hosted by Shah Rukh Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2010.