Believe it or not! Sony Television is the new hosting channel for the 8 year old game show Kaun Banega Crorepati. We are all so used to watching the show on Star Plus, that it will be very difficult to break the association.
Reportedly, the Number 2 Channel, “Star Plus” decided against renewing the contract with Sony Pictures Television, the Japanese company that holds the rights to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Star India has made 3 seasons of the show with Amitabh Bachchan & Shahrukh Khan. A spokesperson for the channel comments, “”For us, it did not make sense to do a fourth season on KBC. We owned the rights for eight years but we feel that the market has moved on and the show is past its prime.”
Since the rights to the extremely popular show were up for grabs, Multi Screen Media, formerly Sony Entertainment Television, has bought them. An insider tells us that though the channel has bought rights to produce the show in India, the host has not been finalized yet.
Interestingly, Multi Screen Media has also bought the satellite television rights to the English and Hindi versions of Slumdog Millionnaire from Fox Star Studios India. It is being seen as a marketing plan to revive the channel’s sagging TRPs. The strategy of the channel purportedly is to first telecast the film “Slumdog millionaire”. Later, it will be followed up with the game show “Kaun Banega Crorepati”. Considering that the show was hosted by Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor in the film, there’s a good chance of Anil being roped in as the game show host.
Where SRK failed to revive the old show with his charisma, will Anil Kapoor or anyone else be able to do it? We will all find out…
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