Kaun Banega Crorepati (), or simply KBC, is an Indian Hindi-language television game show. It is the official Hindi version of the British game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. It is presented by actor Amitabh Bachchan, who has hosted the show for its entire run except for its third season, during which another actor, Shah Rukh Khan, replaced Bachchan. The programme aired on Star Plus for its first three seasons from 2000 to 2007, and was commissioned by the programming team of Sameer Nair. In 2010, it started airing on Sony Entertainment Television and was produced by BIG Synergy (under various names over periods of time) from season 1 till season 10. Afterwards, the credited production companies co-producing are Studio NEXT since season 10 and Tree of Knowledge (Digi TOK) since season 11 respectively.
The format is similar to other shows in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise: contestants are asked multiple choice questions and must select the correct answer from four possible choices, and are provided with lifelines that may be used if they are uncertain. Starting in season 7 in 2013, the top prize was ₹7 crore and was increased to ₹7.5 crore in Season 14 in 2022 to celebrate 75 years of India's Independence.
Season overview Season Episodes Originally aired First aired Last aired13153 July 200031 December 20012615 August 200513 January 200635322 January 200719 April 200743611 October 20109 December 201055615 August 201117 November 20116587 September 201226 January 20137396 September 20131 December 201385018 August 201416 November 201495228 August 20177 November 201710613 September 201826 November 2018117519 August 201929 November 2019128528 September 202022 January 2021138523 August 202117 December 2021141067 August 202230 December 20221510014 August 202329 December 20231615212 August 202411 March 20251710511 August 20252 January 2026184010 August 2026TBA
Season 1: 2000–2001 KBC premiered on 3 July 2000 and was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, his first appearance on Indian television & has subsequently hosted all the following seasons, except season three. KBC initially offered contestants the chance to win Rs. 1 crore. The declining ratings of KBC paved way for reformatting the series immediately as Junior KBC with kids as contestants which started airing from 6 May 2001. The season ended on 31 December 2001. The show was well received in its premiere season. It is the longest season of the show.
Season 2: 2005–2006 On 5 August 2005, the show was restarted after a four-year hiatus, and renamed Kaun Banega Crorepati Dwitiya or KBC 2. During this season, the top prize amount was doubled to Rs. 2 crore. It was abruptly ended by STAR Plus after Amitabh Bachchan fell ill in 2006 after he shot his last episode on 13 January 2006. Bachchan had shot 61 of the 85 scheduled episodes when he fell ill. He announced he would return after he recovered, but when his health prevented him from filming the remaining 24 episodes, Star TV took the decision to stop production.
Season 3: 2007 Star Television recruited Shah Rukh Khan to host the third season of the show when Bachchan declined. The grand prize remained Rs. 2 crore. The third season of the show began airing on 22 January 2007 with the first contestant as Prasenjit Sarkar who was the last contestant dropped from season two midway owing to Bachchan's health. The show started well but the show's ratings dropped significantly due to the change of the host. The season ended on 19 April 2007 with a special finale.
Season 4: 2010 The show was restarted after a three-year and half hiatus. The fourth season (called Tez Theeka Tabarthor: Kaun Banega Crorepati or KBC 4) was hosted by the returning Amitabh Bachchan and started on 11 October 2010. This season was telecast four days a week, Monday through Thursday evenings. The tagline of the season was "Koi Bhi Sawaal Chota Nahi Hota" (; literally: No question is small). The show moved from STAR Plus to Sony TV. The new logo designed for the fourth season incorporated the new Indian Rupee symbol, which was unveiled earlier in the year. The contestant tryout for the fourth season opened on 2 August 2010 at 9 PM IST. The total prize money for this season was ₹1 crore, and a jackpot question for ₹5 crore. The fourth season of the show was highly successful due to the return of former host Amitabh Bachchan. The season ended on 9 December 2010.
During this season, much like its international counterparts, there were various rule changes made to the show. The number of questions was reduced from 15 to 13 and, as in the United States version of the show, a timer was added to each question. There was a 30-second time limit for questions 1 and 2, and a 45-second time limit for questions 3 to 7. Questions 8 to 13 were not timed. Any time not used was voided and not banked (unlike the United States version which banked the time for the final question). Much like other countries' version of the game, the clock stops whenever a lifeline is used and if the time limit expired, the contestant was forced to walk away with their current winnings. This season introduced the "Double Dip" and "Ask the Expert" lifelines (similar to the United States counterpart from the Millionaire clock format). Also from this season onwards, Fastest Finger First Contestants earlier who used to come for one episode has now been allowed to stay for one week.
Hot Seat This Hot Seat version was started at the Diwali time from 1 to 4 November 2010. All contestants were celebrities on this version. This version was just like Millionaire Hot Seat. For questions 1–5, 30 seconds were available. For questions 6–10, 45 seconds were available. For questions 11–15, 60 seconds were available. It had only one lifeline, named Pass.
Season 5: 2011
Amitabh Bachchan returned to host the fifth season which premiered on 15 August 2011 on Indian Independence Day and ended on 17 November 2011. It was again aired four days a week. Compared to the previous season, there was only one major gameplay change: there was only a single milestone (the Padao) that the contestant chose. The tagline used for the season was "Koi Bhi Insaan Chota Nahi Hota" ( Literally: No person is inferior). This season was generally viewed as the most popular show on Indian television in 2011.
This season introduced a play at home segment called "Ghar Baithe Jeeto Jackpot". This contest allowed home viewers to send an answer to a question via SMS during the show, with 1 Lakh Rupees going to the randomly picked winner, who can double or triple this amount by correctly answering a jackpot question.
Season 6: 2012–2013 The registration (contestant tryout) for the season started on 28 May 2012. This sixth season (labeled as KBC 6) was also hosted by Amitabh Bachchan and premiered on 7 September 2012. It aired from Friday to Sunday evenings on Sony TV. The season ended on 26 January 2013. The tagline used for the season was "Sirf Gyaan Hi Aapko Aapka Haq Dilata Hai" (It is only knowledge that gives you your right). This season retained the 13 question format of the previous season.
This season, KBC started a new tradition of giving an advantage to socially excluded people, known as "Dusra Mauka" (Second Chance). Sonali Mukherjee, a victim of acid throwing, appeared along Lara Dutta in the first such special. On 13 January 2013, another special aired in which Manoj Kumar, a Mahadalit was accompanied by Indian actor Manoj Bajpayee. The winner of season 6 was Sunmeet Kaur.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:
Season 7: 2013 Rehearsals for the show began on 26 June 2013. Registration started from 8:30p.m. on 27 May 2013.
The seventh season (called KBC 7) was also hosted by Bachchan entitled "Seekhna Bandh Toh Jeetna Bandh" ( or simply: Learn to Win) was used as the tagline for the season. The total prize money was increased to 7 crore, and the number of questions increased from 13 to 15. The season was commenced on 6 September 2013.
The season had a few changes, including a new lifeline called Power Paplu. This lifeline allowed the contestant to reuse a lifeline that was already used on a previous question (but not one that was used by the contestant in attempting to answer the current question). Double Dip and Ask the Expert were discontinued while 50:50 and Flip the Question (also known as "Switch" or "Switch the Question") were revived. The Phone-a-Friend was extended to 45 seconds. The prize for the jackpot question was increased to 7 crore. The Kaun Banega Crorepati 2013 set was a 360-degree multimedia stage. The final four questions were a part of Sapta Koti Sandook (). The system of Fastest Finger First was also altered. Instead of playing one question, the winner of the leader board formed at the end of three questions sits on the Hot Seat. (i.e. the player who answered the most questions correctly in the shortest amount of time).
Season 8: 2014 The highest winning prize of this season was also 7 crore. The registrations of KBC 8 were commenced on 22 July 2014 and the shooting started on 2 August 2014. Shooting of some episodes was held in Raipur and other in Gujarat, Surat at The Surat International Exhibition and Convention Centre (SIECC) in Sarsana, photography was done by Ashvin Borad. This was the first time that KBC was shot outside Mumbai. The format underwent minor changes for the season, with the number of questions reduced to 14, the Double Dip replacing the 50:50, as well as the Flip being replaced by the Triguni (Three Wise Men) lifeline. The Phone-a-Friend was shortened down to 30 seconds and the original Fastest Finger First system (as used for seasons 1 to 6) was reinstated.
The grand premiere episode of the series premiered on 17 August 2014 (Sunday) at 8:30 PM IST for 3 hours. The season aired from Monday through Thursday evenings. Initially running for 1.5 hours, the program reduced to an hour. The season ended on 6 November 2014 and aired its two grand finale episodes on 9 November and on 16 November 2014. The tagline for the season was "Yahan Sirf Paise Nahi, Dil Bhi Jeete Jate Hain" (). Special guests appeared in the grand premiere episode: television comedian, Kapil Sharma from Colors TV's television series Comedy Nights with Kapil; Shivaji Satam, Dayanand Shetty and Aditya Shrivastava from Sony TV's television series CID; and finally Rajput hero, Maharana Pratap a.k.a. Faisal Khan from Sony TV's television series Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap gave a stellar dance performance. Among others the Shillong Chamber Choir led by Neil Nongkynrih performed a medley of evergreen songs of Bollywood followed by a patriotic song at the opening ceremony of KBC8.
Season 9: 2017 After a gap of 2 years, KBC returned to the air with Bachchan resuming hosting duties as it premiered on 28 August 2017 airing on Sony TV. The tagline of this season was "Jawaab dene ka Waqt aa Gaya Hai" (). The show aired from Monday to Friday at 9:00 pm and the Friday episode has been titled as Nayi Chaah Nayi Raah . The season introduced a 16 question format, where the first 10 questions are timed (45 seconds for the first five questions and 60 seconds for the following five questions). The 50:50 lifeline was restored replaced Double Dip and the Three Wise Men lifeline was replaced by the Plus One (from the United States version). Phone-a-Friend (now sponsored by Jio) introduced video calls. In case the contestant reaches the 16th question (Jio Jackpot Question), then the contestant cannot use the remaining lifelines. The last episode of the show was aired on 7 November 2017 titled as Abhinandan Aabhar.
Season 10: 2018 The show started registration on 6 June 2018 and started airing on Sony TV from 3 September 2018. The tagline for the tenth season is Kab Tak Rokoge (). In this particular season, the Phone-a-friend lifeline was replaced with the Ask The Expert lifeline.
Season 11: 2019