Once upon a time, Kaun Banega Crorepati used to be one of the most interesting shows on Indian television. Every evening the country used to wait for Amitabh Bachchan to greet them in his signature baritone and watch him make a simple game show so interesting. But now the market has become over-saturated. And that has increased the shows’ need to hog the audience’s attention by any means possible, thereby affecting its quality.
Twitter user @odshek posted a photo from the 2014 edition of Kaun Banega Crorepati which featured one of the most ridiculous questions ever and the show-runners faced a lot of flak after it went viral.
https://twitter.com/odshek/status/1038525696673566720
Believe it or not, Kaun Banega Crorepati used to be the barometer of one’s general knowledge. Additionally, it used to educate people about a lot of facts we didn’t know. And keeping count of how many stars has Alia Bhatt kissed certainly doesn’t fulfill either of those categories.
Just in case anyone was worried that the post was fake and was an attempt to malign the show or the superstar, he reassured that it was 100% real. His claim was confirmed by news reports from 2014 that had addressed the absurdity of the question.
https://twitter.com/odshek/status/1038718961859420160
Netizens who saw this were obviously angry, but most importantly they were sad that KBC had stooped to this level of questioning.
1. Because it’s unnecessary.
Aise questions competitive exams main kyu. Nahi ata ðŸ˜
— harshit (@hegde_harshit) September 9, 2018
2. Ouch!
KBC Standard jab itna hi baar gaya tab ye bhi pooch lijiye …
Q : Panama paper me konsa Bollywood superstar ka naam aaya?
— NEVER MIND (@J__bhatt) September 9, 2018
3. Naysayers be naysaying.
https://twitter.com/odshek/status/1038735593012961287
4. Truth hurts.
Audience and TRP ke liye ache khase show ko bhi kya kya karna padta hai.
— Rajeev Singh (@rajeevsingh007) September 9, 2018
5. Tell me about it.
This is absolutely disgusting 😑👎 https://t.co/8Po0Er6DE7
— Khushi 🌈 (@Khushilovesaloo) September 10, 2018
6. It’s shameful.
There was a time when my parents used to say KBC dekhne se GK badhega…
to
This. https://t.co/NJoWmElMDP
— Himanshu (@ByeWomanSocks) September 9, 2018
7. Is it though?
Man quizzing is hard. https://t.co/qLOxifQYdh
— Prthamesh (@prat0s) September 9, 2018
8. Aur yeh sahi jawab!
in-depth academic knowledge required to answer this one https://t.co/5JTZxyXHqK
— umair saleemi (@umsaleemi) September 9, 2018
9. Aptly put.
Seriously? This is a legit question for KBC? Wonder if Amitabh ji would be ok if they replaced Alia with Aishwarya.This is a quiz show but clearly it's become something else. Poverty porn mixed with gossip. I don't even know what is going on in this country's pop culture anymore pic.twitter.com/Ih7BfIwEJN
— Sanjay (@_TweetSanjay_) September 9, 2018
10. Shooting two birds with one stone, I see.
Amitabh Bachchan after reading Chetan Bhagat's novel. #KBC pic.twitter.com/w7ayNkZxeu
— Swapnil (@swapnil_bs) September 9, 2018
It’s unclear if this question was meant to be a joke or if it was indeed a serious question. Either way, it was one in poor taste. Somebody of Amitabh Bachchan’s stature should’ve realised that and stopped it from being finalised as one of the questions that will go on air.