Sameer Nair, the programme head of Star TV back in 2000, recalls Amitabh Bachchan being his first and only choice to be the host of the Hindi version of the popular game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The franchise was being launched in India as Kaun Banega Lakhpati—till Star TV’s owner at the time, Rupert Murdoch, decided to add two more zeroes to the figure in a matter of “seven seconds”, as Nair puts it.
Most thought it was a bad idea for a larger-than-life superstar of the big screen to constrict himself to the idiot box. That it might make him lose his aura. But 25 years later, on the show’s last episode of the 16th season telecast on March 11, the 82-year-old exuberantly arrived at the sets to open the proceedings of “Gyaan ka rajat mahotsav” (silver anniversary of knowledge) with his trademark greeting “Aadar, aadaab, abhinandan, aabhaar” (salutations of respect and gratitude). His appeal is, evidently, far from diminished.
“Amit ji brought gravitas to the show—he was in equal parts a friend, philosopher and guide…. The deep baritone voice, magnetic eyes, dramatic pauses and booming laugh—all added to the magical entertainment,” sums up Nair. Add to it Bachchan’s impeccable enunciation and literary disposition and you have an idol for the aspirational Indian middle class.
It has indeed been an extraordinarily enduring association between a show, its presenter and the audience, notwithstanding the ups and downs of the TRPs, the occasional criticism about stoking materialism and devolving over the years into a sentimental family saga, rather than the genuine test of knowledge that it originally started as.
While Bachchan successfully stamped KBC with his signature style, there’s a lot that also needs to be unpacked about how it upped the star’s game, beaming him into crores of homes across India at prime time when his peers were compelled to quietly switch to retirement mode. Not only did it bring the older die-hard fans back to his fold, but also made a new generation wake up to a star who seemed cool beyond his years. He managed to bridge the generation gap in the audience. And we aren’t even coming to the huge fee he is rumoured to get per episode.
These days, much of my family time is spent watching my ageing father watch KBC episodes on a loop on YouTube. I jokingly call it a ‘soother’ for his fretful, fading mind. His unconditional love for the show and my shared viewing with him has given me an empathetic perspective beyond my entrenched cynicism and equivocation.
The recent seasons of KBC have been all about Bachchan carrying forward the mantle of the Baghban patriarch effectively to the next level. He is the dignified elder but not distant, stately but not authoritarian. He is a confidant who inspires people across age groups to share their deepest feelings with him and, in turn, the nation at large. Be it a young couple's pain at their parents not accepting their inter-caste marriage or a couple forced to live separately in distant cities because of workplace demands. It’s something Shah Rukh Khan couldn’t channel in his one season as a host despite his flair.
Bachchan smoothly adapts to the personality of each of the contestants—playful, jocular, theatrical or serious. He might be playing the lead, yet becomes the supporting actor and ally for participants, letting them take centre-stage. He tries not to be the hero in what is arguably his best role since being Salim-Javed’s Vijay.
The very sentimentality and wealth creation that KBC has been critiqued for appear to be its trump cards, because it all boils down to the triumph of the underdog. It’s tough to not get moved by the plight of Usmanbhai, a farmer from Uttar Pradesh, matter of fact in talking about the vagaries of income and the inability to pay his child’s fee for seven months. Or Sudhir Kumar Verma, a daily wage earner, referring to his trial by fire of being scorched in the furnace of mines. How can one not celebrate the never-say-die spirit of Himani Bundela, the first visually impaired crorepati on the show? And what’s not to appreciate about Jayant Dule playing for the money to build bathrooms for the women in his village? It’s a peep into the social contradictions of India and puts the spotlight on the struggles of the invisibilised, and their rare shots at success.
In the last episode of season 16, Bachchan admitted being the kendra (centre) of the show, but one supported by three mahashaktis (superpowers)—the participants, viewers on the sets and those watching the show in their homes. It’s hard to imagine that this trinity would have left him untouched. For someone who has been mythologised as the representative of the marginalised, personifying the social discontent and defiance of the times in the peak of his stardom as the screen’s Angry Young Man, it’s somehow apt to see him interacting with those common Indians in his most persuasive avatar since Vijay. It’s about a superstar climbing down from his ivory tower to mingle with hoi polloi and make the privileged among us do the same.
Read all columns by Namrata Joshi
Consulting Editor
Follow her on X @Namrata_Joshi