I Am Not Responsible For The Popularity Of KBC: Amitabh Bachchan

The seventh season of Amitabh Bachchan's hit show KBC will be showcased soon on TV. Viewers will notice many changes in this season including the overall setting on the show. Apart from that, the prize money on this season's KBC is a whooping Rs. 7 crore!

Moreover, the lifelines being offered has been increased from four to five. In order to make the show more interesting, the questions on Fastest Finger First (the part that will decide which of the participants will occupy the hot seat) have been increased from one to three. Crores of people watch Amitabh Bachchan's Kaun Banega Crorepati, but the megastar is of the belief that the show's popularity has nothing to do with his hosting the show. In an exclusive interview with Oneindia reporter Sonika Mishra, Amitabh Bachchan spoke about the changes that will be seen in KBC 7 as well as few of the experiences he had on the show.

From KBC 1 to KBC 7... What are the changes you have noticed in the show and how different is KBC 7 going to be from what it was in the earlier seasons?

KBC has a certain kind of format which has to be adhered to and cannot be changed. We ask questions to the contestants and on answering them correctly, we give them their prize money. However, we have always tried to do or add something new in every season. In the seventh episode of KBC, we have changed the sets to make it more impressive. I hope that people accept and love the changes that we have brought about in this season.

In KBC 7, in the Fastest Finger First round, there are three questions instead of one. Why is it so?

It was observed in the past six season that though few people are extremely smart and knowledgable, they are unable to make it to the hot seat since they are not fast enough with their fingers. We thought that this time, whoever answers correctly to all three questions in the minimum amount of time will get the chance to sit on the hot seat. Moreover, there will be more excitement among the audience.

There will be five lifelines offered to the contestants. The participants can use only four lifelines. The fifth one will be like a 'sanjeevani booti' which can be used once they exhaust all the four lifelines. The fifth one will help revive one of the four lifelines that has already been offered to them. In the earlier seasons, we gave 35 seconds time for the 'phone a friend' option; we have now increased it to 45 seconds.

Do you agree that Kaun Banega Crorepati's popularity is owing to you?

I am of the opinion that Kaun Banega Crorepati's popularity has to do with the show and not me in particular. I don't think I deserve the credit for the success of the show. The show as such is very different and special and hence is being liked by the audience. Besides, KBC invites people to come over to the show and test their luck and good fate.

Don't you feel that more than participating and winning the game, contestants are more excited to see and meet you?

Well, it's nice that they are able to meet me and at the same time are able to win some good amount through the show. The person who designed the show KBC made sure that people's interest in the show remains intact. I am just a medium through whom the show is made accessible to people.

KBC is becoming popular. How much has been your contribution as a host of the show?

KBC was initially made only in Hindi. But with time, it started being made in Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and even Telugu. The job of the anchor is only to read out the questions, but the fun and entertainment lies in the show.

Do you ever feel like sitting on the Hot Seat?

I often do that, but unfortunately whenever I have tried answering the questions stting there, I was unable to go beyond two!

Do you think that education inspires and influences people to an extent?

This entirely depends on each actor and each individual as well as his job. As far as actors are concerned, if a certain role needs a lot of research and study, then the actor should be fully prepared and only then he will be able to do justice to the role.

Most of the scripts are written in Roman Hindi and this I don't think is correct. I am unable to read Roman Hindi. If I have to express myself, I might not be able to do so in Devanagiri script. If I want to write Hindi in social networking sites like twitter, I will have to type Hindi in google translator, save it and then copy and post it on twitter. This will consume atleast 30 seconds of my valuable time. However, if you are literate and you have knowledge of the language, then you can do this very easily.

The tagline of KBC 7 says 'Seekhna Bandh tho Jeetna Band' (You stop winning when you stop learning). What all have you learnt in your life? Any particular lesson that you would like to share with us?

Life is a school in itself and we are learning something or the other every minute of our life. As far as personal life is concerned, it's better to keep it 'personal'! However, professionally...I constantly keep learning something different, especially from the younger generation of actors and they really surprise me with their potential.

How different do you think is the new generation of actors when you compare them to the older generation of stars?

Few of the younger generation actors surprise me because I feel that they are already such good actors and we people from the older generation are still in the process of learning. The younger lot prepare themselves well in advance. They are well informed and are also quite mature.