There's no denying that Amitabh Bachchan loves his extended family — Twitter Familia Extendum, as he calls it — and almost all his announcements happen either on his Blog or his Twitter page. He wishes members of his extended family whenever needed and lets them in on his daughter-in-law's pregnancy and his granddaughter's arrival! “This has to be a personal decision, one that must be taken individually. I cannot say that I've been entirely open on this platform, nor can I say the others have not. Most of those who connect with me through my Blog or Twitter or the Vog (yes, he has a voice blog too!) I treat as my extended family. They are personal to me. Sharing something personal with them is akin to sharing something with family. I like that,” says the 69-year-old actor.
E-family aside, the Bachchans are rejoicing over the arrival of Aishwarya and Abhishek's daughter (fondly being called Beti B till the time the infant is officially named) and the veteran, who says the little one is keeping the entire household occupied, has announced that another season of the popular Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), the sixth in the series, will be hosted by him. After a tiny pause this year, next year will be choc-a-bloc for the new granddad as there are three films — one each with Shirish Kunder, Ashutosh Gowariker and Prakash Jha — coming up.
Creating history
KBC, in fact, has always been a TRP winner for the channel and this season, with the contestants from rural India getting not only shy in the hot seat but also winning sizeable prize money, including one jackpot of Rs. 5 crore, the show has created history. Ask him what keeps the show high on the popularity charts, and he says, “It is difficult to place a finger on any one reason for the success of KBC over such a long period of time. It runs in 80 other countries too and for the same number of seasons. The success of the Indian version, however, has been unmatched by the other nations. On many occasions, producers from different parts of the world have visited our sets to assess the reason.”
While you may want to add that it could be the Bachchan magic that does the trick, he says, “In my limited capacity I have always felt that the construct of the game show is unique. It involves knowledge, skill of operation, strength of decision-making and character, and finally, of course, the delight at winning a life-changing sum of money. That these qualities are dreamt of by a billion people, hopeful of getting that coveted opportunity is, to me, a massive attraction not just for the contestants but for the viewers as well.”
Bachchan says to learn that some of the contestants were from the poorest strata of society moved him immensely, as he could sense what the prize money meant to them. “Even though I was merely conducting a predetermined format of the show, the plight and the circumstances of the contestants who came from small towns and villages, made me hope that they would play sensibly and win large amounts of money in order that their condition would improve.”
Moving experience
While the dramatisation of the contestants' life story was a tool to connect with the television audience, the senior B says he was moved. “It has been a revelation to discover what the ‘real India' is all about, for, I believe that we who live and function in affluent urban centres have no idea how and in what circumstances our countrymen live and survive. It has been a painful experience, bordering almost on a sense of guilt, to hear from these contestants their personal stories of grave hardship. So when they, through their exceptional skills succeeded, there was a feeling of gratification, a feeling you were in some abstract way part of their effort to win.”
Besides giving his consent to another season of KBC, Bachchan is reportedly considering other small screen offers. Quizzed about it, the response is a succinct ‘Yes'. Probably a more detailed answer would be up on his social media connect shortly! Elaborating on his comfort level with social media platforms and his ability to accept the bad and the good, he says, “Yes, the sharing has the ability to get shared with the rest of the airwave world too, which is fine. You cannot have everything going your way in life! But the connection has given rise to such important and knowledgeable inputs that apart from sharing, it has become an exercise in learning for me. Most of those who follow or respond to me are better-educated and better-skilled than me. Their inputs are constructive. There is abuse too, of a most vicious nature. But one must be prepared to take it all in — learn to sift the good from the bad. Many a time, I have corrected my conduct and opinion because of the comments from my ‘extended family'. This I would not have been able to achieve if I was not open with them.”
Bag of Goodies
* KBC 6 (To be shot in July-August 2012)
* Ashutosh Gowariker's next (reportedly playing a detective, shoot begins mid-2012)
* Prakash Jha's “Satyagraha” (reportedly playing a character close to Anna Hazare, shoot begins early next year)
* Shirish Kunder's “Common Man” (playing a common man, shoot reported to start around March 2012)
