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How KBC and Big B killed a good show with wife jokes and inane questions

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From a much-loved show, Kaun Banega Crorepati became an agenda-setting exercise.

The season 10 finale of Kaun Banega Crorepati or KBC aired Monday.  Host Amitabh Bachchan got ‘emotional’ at 22:46 pm (IST) and ‘bid goodbye’ to audience and fans at 23:04 – yes, the finale was even live blogged.

The show has consistently pulled a large number of viewers over the last 18 years (with some gaps). Last year, one single episode – featuring celebrity guest Abhishek Bachchan— was watched by 37.1 million viewers.

It’s difficult to explain the charm of Kaun Banega Crorepati to someone who didn’t grow up with the first few years of the show that started in 2000.


Also read: India’s unending obsession with ‘husband-wife’ jokes, both ‘veg’ and ‘non-veg’


Those were the days when dial-up internet wasn’t fast enough to find the answers, and when judging contestants from your living room was a daily activity. You would scream out the answer before the contestants could and roll your eyes condescendingly when someone used an unnecessary lifeline.

KBC is especially important because it was a mirror to how India changed, boomed, and grew in the new millennium. If you, like me, grew up on a healthy diet of KBC, you saw how the stories of the contestants changed, and how the show interacted with these stories. We all knew a large chunk was scripted, sure, but watching a person’s life unfold (and often change) on screen was an experience. Over the years, the show tried to evolve with the times – like when it adopted the new rupee sign ₹ in season 4 (2010) – but it always came down to the basics: The image of Amitabh Bachchan walking down the stage, the giant KBC logo halo-ing him, and the iconic theme tune playing. That’s what made the experience.

And that’s the nostalgia we kept buying into. KBC has become a household name in India. The ninth season of the show apparently made close to Rs 400 crore – so we know who really did end up becoming the crorepati there.

Popular as it may be, KBC (and some might disagree here) also has a certain responsibility to its audiences. As the stage and prize money got bigger, this sense of responsibility seems to have quite comfortably evaporated. The amount of titillation, pandering, and obvious agenda-setting wasn’t just a little awkward to see, it was also dishonest and disappointing.


Also read: Stop bothering Amitabh Bachchan with questions on rape & assault. He is a busy old man


Whereas the first few seasons were actually interesting and made us somewhat knowledgeable, the show later started asking the most redundant questions to its contestants. Case in point: When Amitabh Bachchan asked, “Which one of these film stars has Alia Bhatt not yet kissed on screen?” While the question does not have any explicit slut-shaming attached to it, the implicit questioning of a woman’s behaviour was just strange and unwarranted.

The same can be said for Bachchan’s interactions with the audience and participants. The fact that he thinks wife jokes are okay to crack on national television doesn’t just make him the human rendition of every WhatsApp uncle ever, it also creates an atmosphere of permission. Think of how many people watch the venerable Mr Bachchan crack these jokes and think they’re absolutely okay. All the efforts we make towards turning around this language of subtle, gendered violence goes to waste when a behemoth like Amitabh Bachchan endorses them.

So many of us cringe every night when we hear him ask the contestants on the show: “Aap shaadi kyun nahi karna chahte hain?” What does that have to do with answering question 10 worth Rs 3,20,000? We can only wonder. The question of marriage is an especially loaded one in India, and putting someone on the spot isn’t just unfair, it’s pretty cruel.

Finally, remember how the show came under fire for allegedly acting like the ruling party’s mouthpiece? Here are a few questions asked in season 9 of KBC:

-In July 2017, Narendra Modi Become the first Prime Minister to visit which country?

-Uzma Ahmed was forced to marry a man at gunpoint. With the help of our MEA minister, from which country did she return to India?

– Which of these government schemes deals with the expansion of LPG connection to households below the poverty line?

And the strange turn an episode took into becoming a Mann Ki Baat advertisement? How can one forget the constant reminders that the digitisation of the show happened to support ‘Digital India’ – “Digital ka zamaana aa gaya hai.”


Also read: Amitabh Bachchan may be a great actor but even he can’t get Indians into toilets for Modi


The way the public discourse changed over the years is reflected in the way KBC episodes are scripted. As the era evolved into hyperbolic, grotesque masquerades, so did the stories of the contestants. Our screens were filled with stories meant to evoke pity, not pride. The videos of suffering did the show’s ratings a favour, may be, but destroyed what the show meant to a generation of people.

These complaints might be small, and they’ll probably be dwarfed by the glorious odes people will be writing about KCB for the next few days. But it’s important to realise that as your audience matures, grows smarter, and demands better, it’s the show’s responsibility to grow with them.

KBC ending will be a stark reminder that all good things come with an expiry date, and it’s important to know when that arrives. And if it doesn’t? Well, then the show ends up a lot like its host Amitabh Bachchan. A relic that manages to reinvent itself, and yet refuses to become ‘woke’.

Lock kiya jaaye?

The author is a poet.

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92 COMMENTS

  1. What a waste of space. This is similar to how RW is today saying about Love Jihad in Tanishq ad, whereas other people (Libtards) are calling it just an example of unity. It’s all about perspective, how you want to look at it. Everyone has their own lens, based on their own biases

  2. Whats your problem man they are well aware of their content so is theur consumer n both are happy you can have your unnecessary comentry full of prejudice n hatred towards current regime on many other issues

  3. Oh, c’mon… There are hardly any shows taking mainstream political-sides in India, non-fiction or even fiction — and now, you wanna curtail that Free Expression, too?

    Did you even try any endeavour to convince creators of linear TV programming to “man/woman up” and start taking political-sides? Although, their most-likely responses would be that presence of heaps of laws that makes it awfully dangerous for them to [in World’s Largest Hypocrisy] — I bet you didn’t even go through the trouble!

    As a leftist myself — please take a chill-pill and stop writing such a clap-trap for mere “2 cents” and even, invaluable “90 minutes”.
    Rather, just pray that any equally successful game-show with equal skills but with Left-oriented leanings or miraculously, the show’s actual studio opens up a shop in India (as announced like, at least 1½ years ago) and immediately takes over the show followed by a sincere reconsideration. (Which is most unlikely given Sony Pictures®’ repute for lethargic-management across the globe.)
    Or just keep writing in that how Mr Basu is a “Chuck Lorre” of Indian reality TV, and dissing him — knowing fully well that he’s a “liberal” in his personal-life, even though his works appeal drastically to conservatives.

    But please, leave this vanity! You know very well, it is! Also, that part is about being “scripted”? Ain’t a stereotype? Which is not even surprising given the unchecked “KCB[sic]” in the article such probably also indicates The Print®’s notorious dearth of proof-readers! But the point is, just like those disparaging this publication with buzz-words with or without The Wire® — well, you’re doing no better! Also, please bother to make a distinction you’re talking about the Hindi — original adaptation rather “dozens” of regional ones included, too.

  4. 100 % correct . Selection process is completely flawed as contestants are selected by immature persons having no understanding of life. If one is 50 years old and unmarried has no chance of being selection for fastest finger first . Weak candidates are selected deliberately .

  5. The author must be happy to get 71 comments…bloated ego from the fact that some people read the article and bothered to comment. Keep trying harder; way to go. Hope you can sense the sarcasm Ms Kaur.

  6. I think one more person whom we have hardly heard of joining the Lutyens gang. We have seen all the episodes and nothing ugly and vulgar has been noticed. We are responsible citizens and hardly there is anything derogatory. You must be jealous of Big Bee and diehard anti govt person better reserve your comments for some very very vulgar movie and don’t scenes on TV. Will you pl comment on the realty show for kids where young children are made to perform outrageous dances to filthy music by their pathetic parents.

  7. Mr/miss author please write about shahabuddin’s or lalus attitude towards women and other parts of the society ! While we keep on hearing about star kids bowel movement news and their choice of lingerie and under wear ..it came as a surprise that most of the real stars of the Karamveer section of the KBC ,even though some where Magsaysay awardees, were completely unknown to the general public.it reflects upon what the serious intellectual media in our country wants to write about and who are their hero’s.

  8. Like hell it is!! Just tell me who is the first Prime Minister of the country? Or Who is the Chief Minister of Punjab? Does these question sounds like these are to promote Congress??? You would say no… But the answers to these and the authers point of view would surely mean that because answers to both are the members of Congress party… These Super liberals have just divided the society in you to halves bjp and the congress.. Even a simple General knowledge question about our current PM or MEA makes a decade old show mouthpiece of the ruling party!! This is what you see when you have urban Naxalists taking over the press!!

  9. why does all the articles in the print has to target the governing party???? it’s to ridiculous that the author sees the digital transfer of money to contestant’s account as promotion of the governing party.. with the deep penetration of internet in out lives and the kind of avenues we have yes this is a digital ka zamanna… no doubt in that… the author still wants to live in some primitive age it seems..

  10. Perhaps it is the first time only in my life and that I have watched and enjoyed the full season of the Game Show.

    Only frustration I had to face that Even after successful Login & Verification in SonyLiv App on my best quality phone
    and for the unknown flaws at my end Not even for a single moment in any Episode of the show – page to Play Along had displayed.

  11. Author has completely lost it ,it seems he or she is unmarried live in some isolated landane can not tolerate good humor of Indian household …KBC is hit from so many years one of the main reason is it can connect with basic roots of the audience and our leftist author is unable to connect with Indian roots.
    Can we know his views about coffee with Karan where Mr KJ shamelessly asks very uncomfortable questions related to one’s sexual life in front of his daughter or sister and beyond that on National television.

    • A) “Shamelessly” is a totally-subjective word.
      B) The author is clearly displaying her “Feminism”.
      C) And hence, whatever Mr KJo does on his show is totally fine as long as he does it from the consent (read permission) of the participating-celebrity. And that’s both of my position — and hopefully, Ms Author’s position, too.
      D) If Mr KJo’s audiences would’ve chickened-out from the light questions related to human-sexuality, they would’ve made the broadcaster Star® [India] known years ago! Apparently, they don’t loathe such questioning. Just like you are an audience for Mr Bachchan’s quiz-show, there’s an audience for “Godson” Mr KJo’s talk show, too.
      E) You restricted your perspective to male-celebrities only, huh…

    • i think you all belong to the azzadi gang .तेरे टुकड़े होंगे इंशा अल्लाह । KBC is the best TV show ever with Amitabhji at the helm .

  12. Legend like Mr. Amitav Bachchan can do anything for money. Through his wifey jokes he proved that his mentality belongs to which level. Hatsoff to Mrs. Jaya Bachchan for tolerating all these nonsenses for decades.

  13. Mr Author, I strongly believe that you are a new joinee who want make an “impact” by making such stupid & out of the world prints just to gain people mind share …but dear you still have miles to go .. find some sensible content and don’t beat arround the bushes to gain popularity …

  14. I do agree with most of what is mentioned and don’t agree with some part. The main problem is that the all the shows have become a brainwashing tool of some sorts.

    I hated this season of KBC . My mother made sure that I watch the sob stories and she believes the show is not scripted.

  15. The author all he/she said was rubbish.. but no problem it his/her perception to c the thing …. negatively .. what’s wrong if we ask government related question is’nt the important.. what wrong in it if he crack the joke over marriage… .. you write the articles you got the view… But I surely say why u r not the successful one

  16. An interesting start which promised an insight into the psyche of the anchor and perhaps the audience, but turned out to be an inane ramble.

  17. The author seems to be one of the many who didn’t get selected for the show. Frustration expressed by criticism, good old formula.

  18. And isn’t this write-up a mouthpiece of the opposition? Most of the points you make there are are seemingly made up. What was that about showing off digital India? Isn’t it a fact that all of us use digital means for most of our transactions? I for one, perform more than 80 percent of my tasks with digital mode. So why not flaunt it? Or looks like only the development done by the Congress is the real development and the current establishment has been into nothing..! The author is totally biased and has been the worst just like most posts here on the Print and then another third grade publisher , the Wire.
    Shame on you guys who criticise just for the sake of it. It would be good if you write cock and bull stories for the kids rather. Hopefully, at least they will buy your logic. In any case, today’s kids belong to “digital era” and know better than you.

    • It would’ve been better if you didn’t flaunt your own political-bias in abrasive fashion.

      “Third Grade the Wire???”

      What does this “down-market” language even mean?

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