Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Will Become a Millionaire;
also simply known as KBC) is an Indiantelevision game show based
on the British programme Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It
originally aired on Star Plus for the first 3 seasons from 2000 to
2007 and was commissioned by the programming team of Sameer Nair. Since
2010, it has been airing on Sony TV and produced by Big Synergy.
Contents
· 7External links
Kaun Banega
Crorepati
Latest Promotional poster
with Amitabh Bachchan.
Directed
by Arun Shesh kumar [citation needed]
Presented by Amitabh Bachchan (1-2, 4-10)
Shah Rukh Khan (3)
Composer(s) Keith Strachan (1-10)
Matthew Strachan (1-10)
Ramon Covalo (4-10)
Sawan Dutta (5-10)
Country of
originIndia
Original language(s) Hindi/English
No. of
seasons 10
No. of
episodes777
Production
Running time 60
minutes
Production company(s)Big Synergy Productions
Distributor Sony Pictures Television(Global)
Release
Original
network Star Plus (1-3)
Sony Entertainment Television (4-10)
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Original Release 3 July 2000–2020
present
External links
Broadcast
details
Season 1:
2000–01
KBC premiered on 3 July 2000 and was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, his
first appearance on Indian television. KBC initially offered
contestants the chance to win 1 Crore Indian rupees. The
season ended in 2001. The show was well received in its premiere season.[1][2]
Season 2:
2005–06
On 5 August 2005, the show was restarted after a four-year
hiatus, and renamed Kaun Banega Crorepati Dwitiya or KBC 2.
During this season, the top prize amount was doubled to 2 Crore Rupees. It was
abruptly ended by STAR Plus after
Amitabh Bachchan fell ill in 2006.[3] Mr Bachchan
had shot 61 of the 85 scheduled episodes when he fell ill. He announced he
would return after he recovered, but when his health prevented him filming the
remaining 24 episodes, Star TV took the decision to axe it.
Season 3: 2007
Star Television recruited Shahrukh Khan to
host the third season of the show. The grand prize remained 2 Crore Rupees. The
third season of the show began airing on 22 January 2007. The show started well
but the show's ratings dropped significantly due to the change of the host.[4] The season
ended on 19 April 2007 with a special finale.
Season 4: 2010
The fourth season (called KBC 4) was hosted
by the returning Amitabh Bachchan and started on 11 October 2010, on Bachchan's
68th birthday. This season was telecast four days a week, Monday through
Thursday evenings. The tagline of the season was "Koi Bhi Sawaal Chota
Nahi Hota" (English: Every question is important. Literally: No
question is small). The show moved from STAR Plus to Sony TV. The new logo
designed for the fourth season incorporated the new Indian Rupee symbol,
which was unveiled earlier in the year. The contestant tryout for the fourth
season opened on 2 August 2010 at 9 PM IST.[5] The total
prize money for this season was ₹ 1 Crore, and a jackpot question
for ₹ 5 Crore. The fourth season of the show was highly successful
due to the return of former host Amitabh Bachhan.[6] The season
ended on 9 December 2010.
During this season, much like its international
counterparts, there were various rule changes made to the show. The number of
questions were reduced from 15 to 13 and, as in the United States version of
the show, a timer was added to each question.[7] 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).[8][9] 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).
Season 5: 2011
Amitabh Bachchan returned
to host the fifth season which premiered on 15 August 2011 on the Independence Day of India and
ended on 17 November 2011. It was again aired four days a week. Compared to the
previous season, there was only one major gameplay change: there was only a
single milestone (the Padao) that the contestant chose. The tagline used for
the season was "Koi Bhi Insaan Chota Nahi Hota" (English: No
human is small. Literally: No person is inferior). This season was the
generally viewed as the most popular show on Indian television in 2011.[10]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.
Season 6:
2012–13
The registration (contestant tryout) for the
season started from 28 May 2012. This sixth season (labeled as KBC 6) was
also hosted by Bachchan and premiered on 7 September 2012. It aired from Friday
to Sunday evenings on Sony TV. The season
ended on 26 January 2013. The tagline used for the season was "Sirf Gyaan
Hi Aapko Aapka Haq Dilata Hai" (English: 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". 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.
Season 7: 2013
The rehearsals for the show began on 26 June 2013.[13] Registration
started from 8:30 PM on 27 May 2013.
The seventh season (called KBC 7) was also
hosted by Bachchan entitled "Seekhna Bandh Toh Jeetna Bandh"
(English: If Learning stops, winning stops or simply: Learn to
Win) was used as the tagline for the season. The total prize money was
increased to ₹7 Crore, and the number of questions increased from 13 to
15. The season was commenced on 6 September 2013.
The season had a few changes, including a new
lifeline called Power Paplu. This lifeline allowed the contestant to reuse a
lifeline that was previously used on another question. (It could not be a
lifeline that was used on the current question. For example, a contestant could
not use "Ask the Audience"/"Audience Poll" twice on the same
question.) Double Dip and Ask The Expert were discontinued and in lieu 50:50
and Flip The Question (also known as "Switch" or "Switch The
Question") were revived. The Phone-a-Friend was extended to 45 seconds.
The prize for jackpot question was increased to ₹ 7 Crore.
The Kaun Banega Crorepati 2013 set was a 360-degree multimedia stage.
The final four questions were a part of Sapta Koti
Sandook (English: The Seven Crore Jackpot) that let contestants
win from ₹1 Crore, ₹3 Crore, ₹5 Crore and finally ₹7 Crore.
The system of Fastest Finger First was also altered. Instead of playing one
question, the winner of the leader board formed at the end of three questions,
sits on the Hot Seat. (i.e. the player who answered the most
questions correctly in the shortest amount of time).
Season 8: 2014
The highest winning prize of this season was
also ₹7 Crore. The registrations of KBC 8 were commenced on 22
July 2014 and the shooting started on 2 August 2014.[14] Shooting of
the entire show was held in Surat. This was the
first time that KBC was shot outside Mumbai.[15] The format
underwent minor changes for the season, with the number of questions reduced to
14, the Double Dip replacing the 50:50, as well as the Flip being replaced by
the Triguni (Three Wise Men) lifeline. The Phone-a-Friend was shortened down to
30 seconds and the original Fastest Finger First system (as used for seasons 1
to 6) was reinstated.
The grand premiere episode of the series
premiered on 17 August 2014 (Sunday) at 8:30 PM IST for 3 hours. The season
aired from on Monday through Thursday evenings. Initially running for 1.5
hours, the program reduced to an hour. The season ended on 6 November 2014, and
aired its two grand finale episodes on 9 November and on 16 November 2014. The
tagline for the season was "Yahan Sirf Paise Nahi, Dil Bhi Jeete Jate
Hain" (English: Not only money here, hearts are also won). Three
special guests appeared in the grand premiere episode: television comedian, Kapil Sharma from Colors
TV's television series Comedy Nights with Kapil, Dayanand Shetty and Aditya Shrivastava from
Sony TV's television series CID, and finally Rajput hero,
Maharana Pratap a.k.a. Faisal Khan from Sony TV's television series Bharat Ka Veer Putra –
Maharana Pratapgave a stellar dance performance.[16] Among others
the Shillong Chamber Choir led
by Neil Nongkynrih performed
a medley of evergreen songs of Bollywood followed by a patriotic song at the
opening ceremony of KBC8.[17]
Season 9: 2017
KBC returned to air with Bachchan resuming
hosting duties as it premiered on 28 August 2017 airing on Sony TV. The tagline
of this season was "Jawaab dene ka Waqt aa gaya hai"
(English: The time has come to answer). The show aired from Monday to
Friday at 9:00 pm. The season introduced a 16 question format, where the first
10 questions are timed (45 seconds for the first five questions and 60 seconds
for the following five questions). The 50:50 lifeline replaced Double Dip and
the Three Wise Men lifeline was replaced by the Plus One (from the United
States version). Phone-a-Friend (now sponsored by Jio) introduced video
calls. In case the contestant reaches the 16th question (Jio Jackpot Question),
then the contestant cannot use the remaining lifelines. The last episode of the
show was aired on 7 November 2017. Reportedly, with 19.8 million registrations,
the show stood at the top of TRP ratings for the Indian television industry.
Season 10:
2018
The show started registration on 6 June 2018 and
started airing on Sony TV from 3
September 2018. The tagline for the tenth season is Kab Tak
Rokoge (English: How long will you stop).[18] In this
particular season, the Phone-a-friend lifeline was replaced with the Ask The
Expert lifeline.
Season 11: 2019-2020
KBC returned to air with Bachchan resuming hosting duties as it premiered on 19 August 2019 airing on Sony TV.[19][20] In this season the show's tagline was Ade Raho (English- Keep Standing). The show aired from Monday to Friday from 9 to 10:30 pm IST (Special episodes named 'Karamveer Special' aired every Friday till 11 pm IST).[21][22] The show entered it's. The show witnessed Sudha Murthy on their last episode of 'Karamveer Special' on 29 November 2019. The show was Replaced by Beyhadh 2 from 2 December 2019 and Continue to 2020.
Unfortunately, After Season 8, Nobody Has Won the Jackpot Prize of Rs. 7 Crore.
Gameplay
Qualification
Similar to the original airing in Great Britain,
members of the public completed a qualification quiz which opened at the start
of each season at various times in the year (also known as "registration
period"). Would-be contestants would sent a premium-rate SMS to a
designated number and answer a question by responding. Contestants would
complete a series of interviews before being randomly selected from a pool of
other hopeful contestants and appearing on the stage in Fastest Finger First.
In order to be eligible, contestants must be residents and citizens of India
and at least 18 years of age.
Fastest Finger
First
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 play the main
game.
Main gameplay
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.
To help them along the way, much like it's counterparts,
the contestant had a set of lifelines available for them to use. Which
lifelines were available were dependent on the format being used.
·
Audience
Poll (Ask The Audience): The studio audience would dial into a keypad what
they believed was the correct answer to the question. The results of the poll
are shown to the contestant.
·
50:50: The
computer would remove two wrong answers from the game leaving the contestant
one right and one wrong answer.
·
Phone-A-Friend:
The contestant could call a pre-selected friend or family member of their
choosing to aid them in answering the question. Once connected, the aiding
party and the contestant had 30 seconds (45 in Season 7) to talk it out among
themselves. In 2017, this became a video call instead of a voice call. For
season 10, this lifeline was removed in favor of reinstating Ask the Expert.[19]
·
Flip The
Question (Switch The Question/Switch): The current question would be
thrown-out and replaced with a new question. Any lifelines expended on the
original question remained expended. It was introduced in the 2nd season,
removed after the 3rd season and reinstated for the 7th season. During seasons
2 and 3 it could only be used after the 5th question, while it was available
from the beginning in season 7.
·
Double Dip: As
featured on the US "Super Millionaire", this granted the contestant
two chances to answer the question. However, invoking this lifeline removed the
ability to walk away from the question. The contestant must answer twice with
no further usage of lifelines. (They may use other lifelines before invoking
Double Dip but not during the resolution of the lifeline.) In the event of a
clocked game, the timer would stop for the first guess only. After that, if the
first guess was wrong, the timer resumed counting down. If the contestant did
not make their second guess before the time limit or if it was wrong, the
contestant would walk away from the game with the lower threshold amount, if
any.
·
Expert
Advice (Ask the Expert): In season 4, the "Expert Advice"
lifeline was added to the pool of lifelines available. The producers would
invite certain general knowledge expert to come to the studio to aid the
contestant. This lifeline was restored for season 10 in 2018.[20]
·
Power Paplu:
Introduced in the 7th season, this lifeline allowed the contestant to reuse a
lifeline that was previously used on another question. It could not be a
lifeline that was used on the current question.
·
Triguni (त्रिą¤ुणी, Three Wise Men): Similar to its US
counterpart, the producers would invite certain general knowledge experts or
celebrities to come to the studio to aid the contestant. When invoked, the
"Three Wise Men" were granted 30 seconds to discuss the question and
the possible choices among themselves to come up with a consensus answer to
relay back to the contestant who was often in earshot of the conversation. Once
the time expired, the "Three Wise Men" were instructed to stop
discussing the question and play resumed as normal.
·
Jodidaar (ą¤ोऔीदार, lit. Partner): Similar to the United States' Plus
One lifeline, in addition to having 3 Phone-a-Friends, the contestant can
also bring a designated family member or friend in to aid them in answering the
question. (This person is designated by the contestant prior to the show.)
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). 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), questions were
un-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 available in the
game changed. 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.
In the fifth and sixth season, the contestants
had to select a threshold or "Padao" themselves. They were allowed to
choose any one question on the tree and designate that as a threshold amount.
Meaning that if they cross the threshold, they were guaranteed that amount of
cash winnings. Getting a question wrong before the Padao is reached would
result in zero winnings.