KaunBanega Crorepati (simply KBC; English: Who Will Become a Crorepati) is an Indian Hindi-language television game show. It is the official Hindi adaptation of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise. It began with actor Amitabh Bachchan as presenter. The actor Shah Rukh Khan replaced Bachchan for the third season, after which Bachchan returned as the presenter.[2] The programme aired on Star Plus for its first three seasons from 2000 to 2007, and was commissioned by the programming team of Sameer Nair.[3][4] In 2010, it started airing on Sony Entertainment Television and was produced by BIG Synergy (under various names over periods of time) from season 1 till season 10. Afterwards, the credited production companies co-producing are Studio NEXT since season 10[a] and Tree of Knowledge (Digi TOK) since season 11[b] respectively.
KBC premiered on 3 July 2000 and was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, his first appearance on Indian television.[5] KBC initially offered contestants the chance to win Rs. 1 crore. The declining ratings of KBC paved way for reformatting the series immediately as Junior KBC with kids as contestants which started airing from 6 May 2001.[6][7] The season ended on 31 December 2001.[8] The show was well received in its premiere season.[9][10]
On 5 August 2005, the show was restarted after a four-year hiatus, and renamed Kaun Banega Crorepati Dwitiya or KBC 2.[11] During this season, the top prize amount was doubled to Rs. 2 crore. It was abruptly ended by STAR Plus after Amitabh Bachchan fell ill in 2006 after he shot his last episode on 13 January 2006.[12] Bachchan had shot 61 of the 85 scheduled episodes when he fell ill.[13] He announced he would return after he recovered, but when his health prevented him from filming the remaining 24 episodes, Star TV took the decision to stop production.[14]
Star Television recruited Shah Rukh Khan to host the third season of the show when Bachchan declined.[15] The grand prize remained Rs. 2 crore. The third season of the show began airing on 22 January 2007 with the first contestant as Prasenjit Sarkar who was the last contestant dropped from season two midway owing to Bachchan's health.[16] The show started well but the show's ratings dropped significantly due to the change of the host.[17] The season ended on 19 April 2007 with a special finale.[18]
During this season, much like its international counterparts, there were various rule changes made to the show. The number of questions was reduced from 15 to 13 and, as in the United States version of the show, a timer was added to each question.[21] There was a 30-second time limit for questions 1 and 2, and a 45-second time limit for questions 3 to 7. Questions 8 to 13 were not timed. Any time not used was voided and not banked (unlike the United States version which banked the time for the final question).[22][23] Much like other countries' version of the game, the clock stops whenever a lifeline is used and if the time limit expired, the contestant was forced to walk away with their current winnings. This season introduced the "Double Dip" and "Ask the Expert" lifelines (similar to the United States counterpart from the Millionaire clock format). Also from this season onwards, Fastest Finger First Contestants earlier who used to come for one episode has now been allowed to stay for one week.
This season introduced a play at home segment called "Ghar Baithe Jeeto Jackpot". This contest allowed home viewers to send an answer to a question via SMS during the show, with 1 Lakh Rupees going to the randomly picked winner, who can double or triple this amount by correctly answering further questions.
The registration (contestant tryout) for the season started on 28 May 2012. This sixth season (labeled as KBC 6) was also hosted by Amitabh Bachchan and premiered on 7 September 2012. It aired from Friday to Sunday evenings on Sony TV. The season ended on 26 January 2013.[25] The tagline used for the season was "Sirf Gyaan Hi Aapko Aapka Haq Dilata Hai" (It is only knowledge that gives you your right). This season retained the 13 question format of the previous season.
This season, KBC started a new tradition of giving an advantage to socially excluded people, known as "Dusra Mauka" (Second Chance). Sonali Mukherjee, a victim of acid throwing, appeared along Lara Dutta in the first such special. On 13 January 2013, another special aired in which Manoj Kumar, a Mahadalit was accompanied by Indian actor Manoj Bajpayee. The winner of season 6 was Sunmeet Kaur.[26][27]
Season 11 of KBC premiered on Sony TV on 19 August 2019, with Bachchan resuming hosting duties. The show aired on weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 pm IST, with Karamveer Special episodes airing every Friday until 11 p.m. IST.[41][42][43][44] The show's tagline for the season was "Ade Raho" (lit. "keep standing"). In this season, the Plus One lifeline was replaced by Switch, with optional categories for the switched question. The final episode of the season aired on 29 November 2019, which featured Sudha Murthy as the Karamveer Special contestant. The series Beyhadh 2 took over KBC's timeslot beginning on 2 December 2019.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, filming occurred without a studio audience. Consequently, the Audience Poll lifeline was replaced by the Video a Friend lifeline, which is similar to the Phone a Friend lifeline, except via video call.[50]
Registrations for season 13 of the show started from 10 May 2021. The format of digital auditions were continued and entire process was divided into four parts: registration, screening, online audition and personal interview.[55] The show's promos were titled Sammaan and were directed by Nitesh Tiwari.[56] They were released in three parts with the last part revealing the show's air date and time. The show premiered on 23 August, on Sony TV channel and SonyLIV app. The Friday Special Episode was titled as Shaandaar Shukravaar.[57] Studio audience returned for the season and the audience poll lifeline was reinstated.[58] However, the Fastest Finger First was removed and a Triple Test was introduced in which contestants took three general knowledge questions with four options similar to season 7 version, and the contestant answering all three in the shortest time headed to the hot seat.[59] The timer was named "Dhuk-Dhuki ji".[60]
Sony Entertainment Television announced the 15th season of KBC on 18 April 2023. The promo for registration was also released on the same day. The Registration started from 29 April 2023 at 9.00 PM IST.
Jaskaran Singh, a man aiming for Indian Administrative Service, becomes the first Rs. 1 Crore winner of Season 15 on 5 September. Jasnil Kumar became the second Rs. 1 Crore winner on 21 September. The final episode aired on 29 December 2023.
Sony Entertainment Television announced the 16th season of KBC on 16 April 2024. The promo for registration was also released on the same day. The Registration started from 26 April 2024 at 9.00 PM IST. The show will be premiered at 12 August 2024
Similar to the original series in the United Kingdom, members of the public completed a qualification quiz which opened at the start of each series at various times in the year (also known as "registration period"). Applicants would send a premium-rate SMS to a designated number, and answer a question by responding.[67] Contestants would c a series of interviews before being randomly selected from a pool of other hopeful contestants and appearing on the set in Fastest Finger First. In order to be eligible, contestants must be residents and citizens of India and at least 18 years of age.[67] Even if the contestants are below 18 years of age (only in the junior special episodes), the prize money they will earn will be called points and deposited in their fixed deposit but will be converted to rupees whenever they cross 18 years of age.
The selected contestants are then brought to the studio to play Fastest Finger First where they will be asked to arrange four answers into the designated order in the shortest amount of time. In Season 7, contestants would play three questions and the one who answered the most correctly in the shortest amount of time will get selected to sit in the hot seat. In the 13 & 14 season, Triple Test replaced Fastest Finger Contest in which contestants have to answer three of 4 questions questions with four options like the ones in the game. One who has the most correct answers in the least time (added for the three questions) came in the hotseat.[68] Fastest Finger Contest was re-introduced in Season 15.
After determining the winner of Fastest Finger First, they would join the host in the "Hot Seat" to start answering a series of multiple-choice questions on their way to win the top cash prize as outlined in the table below. Along the way, the contestant is free to walk away from the game with their winnings but if they got a question wrong, they would walk away with nothing unless they correctly answered a milestone question (highlighted in yellow) that would guarantee some winnings.
Additionally, starting in season 4, the contestant would have to answer these questions within a certain amount of time. Contestants were allotted 30 seconds to respond up to and including the first threshold question (in 2017, this was increased to 45 seconds).[71] The following question up to and including the next threshold contestants were allotted 60 seconds to give their "final answer". For the final set of questions (the question following the second threshold) the questions were not timed. Using a lifeline paused the timer temporarily until it resolved. If the contestant used Flip The Question, the timer would restart from the base value of the question.
The total number of questions varied over the multiple seasons of the show's run. As the number of questions changed, so did the total prize money available. In 2017, KBC introduced a jackpot question. For the Jackpot Question, the contestants were not allowed to use any of the remaining lifelines.
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