As Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan gears up to return to television with Kaun Banega Crorepati on August 12, 2024, Sony TV has already begun sharing promos for the upcoming season. In anticipation of the new season, let’s revisit the tragic life story of Sushil Kumar, the winner of KBC 5. Sushil, hailing from Bihar, won Rs 5 crore in 2011, but unfortunately, he was unable to safeguard his fortune and went bankrupt within a few months. In 2020, Sushil shared his heartbreaking story through a Facebook post that has since gone viral.
In the post, Sushil revealed how, after his KBC win, he was taken advantage of by many people. He also mentioned that after winning the money, he began doing charitable work but was deceived by those around him.
"After KBC, I became a philanthropist, who was addicted to 'secret donations' and would attend about 50 thousand events in a month. Due to this, a lot of times, people cheated on me, which I got to know only later after the donations were made. Due to this, my relationship with my wife was slowly worsening. She would often say that I don't know how to differentiate between the right and wrong people and that I wasn't concerned about the future. We would often fight over this," Sushil wrote.
He further added that once the news of his bankruptcy became public, people who once sought his company stopped reaching out. "And now, how did I become bankrupt...? You will find the story a little 'filmy.' While I was strolling one day, a journalist from an English newspaper called me. While everything was going fine, suddenly he asked me something which left me irritated, so I randomly told him that all my money was exhausted and I had two cows and was surviving by selling milk and earning some money off it. And after that, all of you must be aware of the impact of that news. Soon after, all those who I was surrounded with, cornered themselves. I wasn't invited to events and that's when I got some time to think about what should I do next," he wrote.
Sushil also shared how he struggled with feelings of inadequacy, especially after interacting with students and artists from institutions like Jamia Millia, IIMC, and JNU. "Due to the nature of my business, I came in contact with a few boys studying media in Jamia Millia, those studying at IIMC, their seniors and also a few others who were studying research in JNU. I also got introduced to some theatre artists. However, when these students and artists would talk about a subject, I would feel intimidated and realised that I didn't know much about other topics or subjects. Slowly, I got addicted to alcohol and smoking, in addition to other addictions. Whenever I stayed in Delhi for a week, I indulged in drinking and smoking with seven different groups. I found their talks attractive. In their company, I started taking media very lightly," he said.
Today, Sushil Kumar works as a teacher. He once went to Mumbai to try his hand at acting but was unsuccessful in making a breakthrough.
