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Abstract
The phenomenal success of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), the Indian franchise of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, underlines not only the successful adaptation of a global format show, but also its role in reinforcing and reiterating the nation's transition from a socialist ethos to a consumerist ontology. For millennial India, grappling with the contentious issues of tradition and modernity in a rapidly globalizing milieu, the show's ‘aspirational consumerism’ offered its viewers a new value system – an espousal that was further reaffirmed by its host, Bollywood legend, Amitabh Bachchan. Bachchan's professional reincarnation, from a fading film star to a transmedia celebrity, and the subsequent reinvention of his star image, from a socialist icon to a capitalist endorser, embodied the new ideology of consumerism. This article examines the unique meanings engendered by the format show in the Indian context, and consequently, enumerates the cultural currency of the Bollywood star as a site of mediation and articulation. Incorporating a detailed discussion of KBC's production history and reception, and Amitabh Bachchan's star text, it engages with both the recent shifts in the Indian mediascape and contemporary discourses of Hindi film stardom.
Notes
1. Though I do make occasional references to KBC 4, my analysis primarily focuses on the first two seasons (2001 and 2005), partly due to the scope of this article and also since it is the first two seasons which illustrate the reinvention of Amitabh Bachchan's star text more explicitly.
2. Bachchan had earlier hosted the show during its first two seasons (2001 and 2005), but ill-health had forced him to withdraw from the second season prematurely, and during its third season (2007), KBC was hosted by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.
3. ‘Sony Earmarks Rs 120 mn for Marketing KBC4’.
4. Though the antecedents of this new consumption-oriented ontology can be traced back to the government's aggressive encouragement of consumer goods and electronic appliances in the 1980s, it was the introduction of the economic liberalization policies in the early 1990s by the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh coupled with the advent of private cable and satellite broadcasting in 1991, which accelerated the shift from socialist values to consumerist aspirations.
5. For the Indian television audience, quiz shows had traditionally comprised a ‘school teacher’ host asking students questions that tested their scholarly and academic knowledge. Often conducted in English and showcasing some of the country's best educational institutions, these early quiz shows catered primarily to urbane, middle-class school and college students, thus, reaffirming Doordarshan's educational agenda as a public service broadcaster.
6. Mazzarella, Shoveling Smoke, 5.
7. It is important to keep in mind that the 1990s economic liberalization and its impact is not only an ongoing process, but also a rather contentious one. Critics argue that the beneficiaries of the liberalization policies have been primarily the upper- and middle-class inhabitants of urban India, which has only resulted in further widening the chasm between the urban rich and the rural poor. The criticism levelled at the right-wing Bhartiya Janata Party's 2004 electoral campaign, ‘India Shining’, which attempted to highlight the country's economic progress, also underlines the problematic discourse of India's socio-economic dynamics in the post-liberalization period.
8. For a more detailed discussion of how media texts and images functioned to reiterate and reinforce the notion of ‘aspirational consumerism’ in contemporary India, see William Mazzarella's work on Indian advertising and globalization. (Mazzarella, Shoveling Smoke).
9. Amitabh Bachchan's rise to stardom in the 1970s–1980s was marked by a slew of action films, where the actor would often portray angry, working-class protagonists venting their frustration and discontent at the establishment. Both Bachchan's star image as well as popular Hindi cinema during this period were, to a large extent, defined by his ‘Angry Young Man’ screen persona. For a detailed discussion on Amitabh Bachchan and ‘The Angry Young Man’, see Chakravarty, National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema, 1947–1987; Sharma, ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’; Gehlot, ‘Stars Call the Shots’; Prasad, Ideology of the Hindi Film; Nandy, ‘Indian Popular Cinema as a Slum's Eye View of Politics’; Kazmi, ‘How Angry is the Angry Young Man?’, Politics of India's Conventional Cinema; Vachani, ‘Bachan-Alias’; Mishra, Bollywood Cinema; Mazumdar, ‘From Subjectification to Schizophrenia’, Bombay Cinema; and Virdi, Cinematic ImagiNation; ‘Deewar/Wall’. In this article, I employ the term, ‘The Benevolent Patriarch’ with reference to his star text in recent years.
10. Fiske, ‘Quizzical Pleasures’, Hoerschelman, 2006.
11. Hoerschelmann, 2006, 6.
12. Ibid., 13.
13. Mankekar, Screening Culture, Viewing Politics.
14. Saksena, Television in India, 12–13.
15. Kumar, ‘Indian Personality for Television?’
16. Quizzing is a popular sport in India and remains till date, a regular feature of inter-school and inter-collegiate festivals. Quiz shows like Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest, a popular 1972 radio quiz show, which later transitioned successfully to television in the 1990s, enjoy an iconic stature and attract students from some of the nation's most prestigious and elite academic institutions.
17. Ray and Payal, ‘Too Many Questions’.
18. Ibid.
19. Aiyar and Chopra, ‘Great Gamble’.
20. Aiyar, ‘This Is Not about Money’.
21. Aiyar and Chopra, ‘Great Gamble’.
22. Boddy, ‘The Quiz Show (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?)’.
23. Ibid.
24. Rajghatta, ‘Mother of Crorepati Celebrates a Year of Couch Potato Coup’.
25. Keane et al., New Television, Globalisation, and the East Asian Cultural Imagination, 101.
26. Waisbord, ‘McTV’.
27. Khalil, ‘Blending in’.
28. Keane et al., New Television, Globalisation, and the East Asian Cultural Imagination.
29. Moorti, ‘Fashioning a Cosmopolitan Tamil Identity’; and Kumar, ‘Innovation, Imitation, and Hybridity in Indian Television’.
30. Ibid., 97.
31. Ibid., 110–11.
32. Ibid., 112.
33. Varma, Great Indian Middle Class.
34. Fernandes, India's New Middle Class, 40.
35. Mazzarella, Shoveling Smoke, 13.
36. Ibid., 98.
37. Ibid., 88.
38. ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ (‘Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer’) was a slogan popularized by Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1965, when the country had to deal with the 1965 India–Pakistan war and also a cute food grain shortage, to pay homage to both Indian soldiers and farmers.
39. Rajagopal, ‘Thinking about the New Indian Middle Class’.
40. Varma, Great Indian Middle Class, 177.
41. ‘Manmohanomics’ was a term coined by the media to refer to the economic reforms initiated by the then Finance Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in 1991.
42. Fernandes, India's New Middle Class.
43. Rajagopal, ‘Thinking about the New Indian Middle Class’, 78.
44. Ibid., 60.
45. Fernandes, India's New Middle Class, 32.
46. Ibid.
47. As the producer and host of some of the most popular Doordarshan quiz shows like Quiz Time and India Quiz, Siddharth Basu was a familiar face for the Indian television viewer. Basu's production house, Synergy Communications, also produced the Indian versions of BBC Mastermind, The Weakest Link (Kamzor Kadi Kaun) and Dancing with the Stars (Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa). Currently, Basu has teamed up with Ad Films, a Bombay-based media production company, and has diversified into other television genres, like fiction.
48. Aiyar and Chopra, ‘Great Gamble’.
49. Aiyar and Chopra, ‘It's Really Frightening’.
50. However, considering that KBC debuted in 2000, barely a decade after the launch of private satellite and cable networks like Zee TV and STAR TV, when cable and satellite penetration was still primarily restricted to the urban areas, it can be argued that the show's ‘imagined’ and ‘ideal’ audience was still the urban, middle class viewer.
51. INR 100,00,000 is equivalent to USD 200,000
52. Akhtar and Joseph, ‘Great Gambler’.
53. Ray, ‘Bettor Nationality’.
54. ‘What the Critics Say’.
55. Thomas, ‘25 Women Who Matter’.
56. Ibid.
57. Joshi, ‘Cash and Carnations’.
58. Ibid.
59. Akhtar et al. ‘Zero Sum Game’.
60. Ibid.
61. Bhatia, ‘Bringing the Roof Down’.
62. Kumar, ‘Innovation, Imitation, and Hybridity in Indian Television’.
63. Pinto, ‘Trouble with Being Reborn’.
64. Filmfare 38, no. 6 (June 1986). Cited in Chakravarty, National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema, 1947–1987, 230.
65. Quote by filmmaker Gurinder Chadha. Perry, ‘Big B’.
66. Mishra, Bollywood Cinema, 127.
67. Chakravarty, National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema, 1947–1987 and Virdi, ‘Deewar/Wall’.
68. Though Bachchan made his debut in 1969 as a shy, soft-spoken poet in K.A. Abbas's Saat Hindustani (Seven Indians), it was only in 1973, with the action film Zanjeer (Chains, dir. Prakash Mehra), that he achieved commercial success and stardom. Zanjeer’s brooding, angry protagonist, Vijay, not only marked a crucial shift in the portrayal of Hindi film heroes, but also immortalized ‘The Angry Young Man’, which would become a hallmark of most Bachchan films during the 1970s and 1980s.
69. Virdi, ‘Deewar/Wall’, 107.
70. Ibid.
71. Prasad, Ideology of the Hindi Film, 131.
72. Gehlot, ‘Stars Call the Shots’, 234 and Kazmi, ‘How Angry Is the Angry Young Man?’, 143.
73. Mishra, Bollywood Cinema, 136.
74. Prasad, Ideology of the Hindi Film, 133.
75. Interview of Amitabh Bachchan in Movie (September 1983: 41). Cited in Mishra, Bollywood Cinema, 128.
76. Prasad, Ideology of the Hindi Film, 141.
77. Menezes, ‘Aby Baby Is Now Aby Maybe’.
78. Perry, ‘Big B’.
79. Ibid.
80. Mayne, Cinema and Spectatorship, 138.
81. Becker, It's the Pictures That Got Smaller.
82. Ibid., 45.
83. Murray, Hitch Your Antenna to the Stars.
84. Ellis, Visible Fictions.
85. Langer, ‘Television's Personality System’.
86. Murray, Hitch Your Antenna to the Stars; Jermyn, ‘Bringing Out the Star in You’; Becker, It's the Pictures That Got Smaller; and Bennett, ‘Television Personality System’.
87. Becker, It's the Pictures That Got Smaller.
88. Bachchan, ‘God in First Person’.
89. Aiyar and Chopra. ‘It's Really Frightening’.
90. Bachchan, ‘God in First Person’.
91. Ibid.
92. Ibid.
93. Kumar, ‘Innovation, Imitation and Hybridity in Indian Television’.
94. The sutradhar, which literally translated means ‘the holder of strings’, was an important aspect of Indian theatrical tradition. Distinct from a narrator, the sutradhar functioned primarily to link the performance and performer with the audience, often interjecting the play with commentary that helped the audience understand the narrative more effectively.
95. Ibid., 331.
96. ‘Here Comes the Hotstepper – KBC 2’.
97. Ibid.
98. Hinglish is a blend of English and Hindi, with the two languages often combined to form words. Mostly spoken in urban and semi-urban areas, and popular among the youth, Hinglish is often regarded as a cultural consequence of increasing globalization and the proliferation of satellite and cable television.
99. Adesara, ‘Max, Lola Kutty, KBC 2 … and the Creators Describe How They Did It’.
100. ‘KBC-4 on Sony to See Amitabh Bachchan Back as Host’.
101. Shah, ‘He's Back’.
102. The ‘Joint Entrance Exam’ (JEE) refers to annual centralized tests conducted for admission to undergraduate science and technology educational institutions. Due to its difficulty level and also because it is often the sole criterion for admission to elite institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), clearing the JEE is considered not only a Herculean task, but also the passport to a successful career.
103. ‘Over 5M People Participate in “KBC 4” Auditions’.
104. Hoerschelmann, 2006, 6.
105. ‘Increasingly Affluent Middle India Is Harder to Ignore’.
106. Mehra, ‘Dhoni Effect’.
107. Thomas and Kumar, ‘Copied from Without and Cloned from Within’ and Kumar, ‘Innovation, Imitation and Hybridity in Indian Television’.
108. ‘KBC-4 on Sony to See Amitabh Bachchan Back as Host’.
