Here's a look at Amitabh Bachchan's successful TV career as a host of reality shows and his stint in fiction show Yudh.
Amitabh Bachchan, the megastar of Indian cinema, celebrates his 80th birthday on October 11. The legendary actor was born in 1942 in Allahabad to the famous poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and his social activist wife Teji Bachchan. The superstar, often called Big B and Star of the Millennium, has spent more than five decades in the Indian entertainment industry.
Apart from starring in over two hundred films across languages such as Hindi, English, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Malayalam, and Telugu among others, Amitabh Bachchan has had a successful television career too. The actor has hosted thirteen seasons of the quizzing-based game show Kaun Banega Crorepati in the last twenty-two years.
In early 2000, Big B was approached to host the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the British television game show Since the actor was struggling in his film career at that point, the makers took him to London to convince him and see the original game show. Bachchan spent a full day in Elstree Studios on the sets of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, which was being hosted by Chris Tarrant.
The popular quizmaster Siddhartha Basu, who has been often called the brains behind Kaun Banega Crorepati, has said that after seeing the live recording, Big B had just one condition before agreeing to be part of the show that the Indian version should replicate the game and the discipline exactly like the British version.
On July 3, 2000, the first episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati was aired and the show continues to run successfully on national television to this date as Amitabh is currently hosting the fourteenth season of the game show. It was only in 2007 when Shah Rukh Khan hosted the third season of KBC, the rest thirteen seasons have been hosted by Big B himself.
READ | Uunchai: Amitabh Bachchan unveils his character poster from Sooraj Barjatya's film, Dharmendra reacts
In 2009, Amitabh also hosted the controversial reality show Bigg Boss in its third season after its first two seasons were hosted by Arshad Warsi and Shilpa Shetty. The season became quite popular since it featured celebrities such as Kamal Rashid Khan, late comedian Raju Srivastav, Poonam Dhillon, Shamita Shetty, and Sherlyn Chopra among others. Vindu Dara Singh, son of famous actor and wrestler Dara Singh, emerged as the winner. Since the fourth season up to the ongoing Bigg Boss 16, the show has been hosted by Salman Khan.
Apart from these two reality shows, Amitabh also made his debut in fiction programming with the Sony TV show Yudh in 2014. The megastar played Yudhisthir Sikarwar, a businessman suffering from the neuropsychological disorder Huntington's disease, in the underrated show. The filmmaker Anurag Kashyap served as the creative director and producer of the psychological thriller miniseries which had twenty episodes in total. Apart from the Sholay star, Sarika, Aahana Kumra, Avinash Tiwary, Pavail Gulati, Kay Kay Menon, and Tigmanshu Dhulia played pivotal roles with Nawazuddin Siddiqui seen in a crucial cameo.
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 "Amitabh Bachchan/File photo")
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