Bollywood News

Amitabh Bachchan thinks that it is the participative spirit of "Kaun Banega Crorepati" and not his presence that makes the show such a success.

Amitabh is a busy man. He's shooting round-the-clock for Ravi Chopra's "Babul". There's no time for him even to rejoice over the grand TRP-sweeping success of KBC's second innings.

But the Big B stops a while to ponder over its success.

"I had no expectations, or maybe I had low expectations... I don't know. When we re-started shooting for KBC, I was committed to shoot for 85 more episodes. There was no intention of sweeping the TRPs or anything like that. Success cannot be engineered in this way," Bachchan told.

And now everyone from Lata Mangeshkar to Sammir Dattani wants to be in the hot seat facing the superstar.

"Really?" he laughs. "It would be great fun to have Lataji as a celebrity contestant. She has such an innate sense of joie de vivre. I'd love to have her there.

"We had Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta on our Raksha Bandhan special. Actually my son Abhishek and daughter Shweta were supposed to be on the show. But they weren't too comfortable with the idea, so we got Saif and Preity instead."

Everyone is talking about how relaxed and at home Amitabh makes all his contestants feel.

"That's the Indian concept of hospitality. The 'ghar bulaya mehmaan' (guest) is supposed to be god. That's why I behave with every contestant and his/her companion as I would if I had a guest over.

"As for the relaxed demeanour and casual clothes, those were all decided by the channel. I had no say in it."

Amitabh stops to think about the impact of KBC.

"I'm really surprised at the way it has worked. I never really thought it would. That's because I'm never confident about my projects, as those around me seems to be. KBC is a learning process for me as well as the contestant.

"The other day, there was a contestant who had to identify one of the (state) capitals in the country. In trying to hit on the right answer, he actually went through the entire gamut of capital cities in the country loudly one by one. In that way he made his own process of discovery a journey for all to participate in."