Amitabh Bachchan didn’t want to wear glasses during KBC shoot despite facing trouble while reading, wrote script for first promo: Siddhartha Basu

In a recent interview, Siddhartha Basu spoke about shooting the first promo of Kaun Banega Crorepati in London and how Amitabh Bachchan wrote its script.

Amitabh Bachchan is hosting Kaun Banega Crorepati 15. (Photo: PR)

Listen to this article

00:00

1x 1.5x 1.8x

It’s been more than 23 years since Kaun Banega Crorepati launched on Indian television. An adaptation of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the quiz-based game show resurrected Amitabh Bachchan’s career, who stepped in as the host, and continues to be the face. Creator and former producer Siddhartha Basu recently sat down for an interview talking about helming the show and the challenges that came along. He shared how they had visited the original show’s set in London to get Big B to warm up to the format. Basu shared that they decided to shoot the first promo of KBC in the same studio, and as there were no writers around, the Bollywood icon wrote the script himself.

Speaking to Lallantop, Basu shared that since they were in the London studio, and Bachchan had said yes to the show, they decided to shoot the promo there. “He wrote the script which said ‘Aap waha, main yaha, beech mein 15 saawal aur aap ban sakte hai crorepati’. Since there was no one around, he had written the lines himself,” he disclosed.

The producer also joked about how the team was figuring out a studio like this back in India, when a crew member stepped in to say that with a voice like Amitabh Bachchan’s, they wouldn’t need a studio. After the promo was released, they worked on the show for almost three months prior it going live.

On on Express | Amitabh Bachchan put one condition before he said yes to Kaun Banega Crorepati: Siddhartha Basu

T 4715 – rehearsing again and again and again .. for KBC .. pic.twitter.com/AclJoTWBjQ

— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) July 23, 2023

Story continues below this ad

Talking about prepping up for the show, he also shared how Amitabh Bachchan did not want to wear glasses initially. “He was using teleprompter for the first time and he didn’t want to wear near and far-sighted glasses. So he was having difficulties reading the monitor and then the screen. He would ask if he could read the small and bigger texts through one eye each. We said we would adjust and use bigger texts; the first season had a huge monitor. That way he could read it and also the teleprompter screen,” he said.

Basu shared that the thespian is ‘pitch perfect’ and doesn’t like reading scripts once he is on the floor. Citing other stars who shoot in bits and parts and even get their reactions recorded separately, the KBC host believes in filming the episode in one go, keeping everything organic. “He has mastered the game,” the producer added.

Also Read | Are celebs asked simpler questions on KBC? Siddhartha Basu finally answers the million-dollar query

For the unversed, former VP, Star Plus Programming, Sameer Nair had suggested Amitabh Bachchan’s name as the host of the show. In an earlier interview with indianexpress.com, Siddhartha Basu shared, “No megastar had hosted a TV show in India, or anywhere else for that matter. The intention was to make the biggest bang possible. Amitabh Bachchan took some time to make up his mind about doing TV and was generally being counselled not to do so. However, he decided to see the recording of the original show in London before making up his mind. Once he saw it, he decided to do KBC with one rider that we replicate the conditions and discipline of that show. There was no looking back, and the scale and scope of shows on Indian TV expanded exponentially.”

Kaun Banega Crorepati 15 is set to soon launch on Sony TV. Big B recently shared a glimpse of him rehearsing on the set.

Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.

Jail term over 2 years or serious charges: MHA issues new grounds to cancel OCI cards

India27 min ago

The Indian government has announced that OCI cards, which allow foreign nationals of Indian origin to visit India without a visa, can be cancelled if the holder is sentenced to imprisonment for at least two years or is named in a charge sheet for an offence punishable by seven years or more. This new rule, effective since August 2005, adds to the existing grounds for revoking OCI status.

View all shorts

More Entertainment

Entertainment 'I had tussles with Salman on Tiger,' Kabir Khan recounts how he cast the superstar in Bajrangi Bhaijaan: 'Salman feels very strongly about secularism'