Kaun Banega Crorepati: When someone slashed first winner Harshvardhan Nawathe's palm with a blade

Harshvardhan Nawathe created history by becoming the first person to win Rs 1 crore on popular quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati in 2000. The 13th season of the popular show hosted by Amitabh Bachchan went on air few days ago.

According to Harshvardhan, his victory on KBC made him a permanent fixture on page three of tabloids and he signed 'millions of autographs'.

But Harshvardhan said that not all his fans were good. "I was attending an event where there was a huge crowd and my friends (who were also my bodyguards on days) were stuck somewhere and I was somewhere else, so when I was getting down from the stage I couldn't find my friends and got mobbed. Everyone was trying to touch me and shake hands with me and later I found my hand sticky. I pulled my hand and found it bleeding. So, someone had slashed my palm with a blade. You know that thin cut that you don't realise but it bleeds. So, these kinds of incidents have also happened to me. But mostly things have been positive with me and people have been kind," he told a leading daily in 2020.

But Harshvardhan said that the next day he met the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who noticed the cut on his hand and asked about it. "He in his own humorous style which he is known for, folded his hands and said 'Harshvardhan this has to be your greeting from now on'. This is something that I will always remember that out of that negative incident also came out a very positive thing. He told me you should always do a namaste and stop shaking hands and I followed it to the extent I could," he said

Harshvardhan also tried his best to keep Amitabh Bachchan's advice in mind, and not let the fame and attention get to his head. Until last year, he was working with the Mahindra Group.