HIDDEN FACTS OF KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI - A SMART BUSINESS

KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI or KBC is one of the most watched prime time show on Indian television. The Indian version of “Who wants to be a millionaire” has raked in much popularity not just for itself but its participants on the hot seat as well.

This weekend, for the first time I watched the show this season. At the risk of hurting popular sentiment, I have to tell you that I felt completely against this show. Stronger! I hated it.

And there are some reasons for that:

It is not the GyanKumbh as it is being touted as:

KBC is all about your ability to parrot out rote, memorized facts. It is not a test of Gyan, it is not a test of your life skills but a just a test of your MEMORY.

Kaun Banega Crorepati is the complete antithesis of Gyan (learning). What it is telling people is that memorising trivial insignificant facts is what is going to help you make your life significant.

Learning (gyan) is your ability to distinguish, to think critically, to be able to handle challenges of real life and not sit in a comfortable hot-seat, chit chat with a super star and take some lacs home, if you are lucky. KBC woefully falls flat on its face on this.

It is not “GyanKumbh” but “MemoryKumbh”.

It is just entertainment and a serious waste of time

The show is high on entertainment value and in bringing to light the real life plight of its hot seat participants. And while some of them are able to carry a few lacs home – not sure how much since the axe from the Income Tax department will reduce their prize money. And how many people in any case?

Let’s do some calculations:

As we are student of commerce, and we play with numbers take a look. Based on the current season, it is televised 3 days of the weekend. With 4 weeks in a month over 4 months, about 50 episodes get televised. I assume that on an average about 2 people make it to the hot seat every episode. So, in this season, just about 100 people got to take a shot on their luck with the hot seat.

A very insignificant number to the 1.2 billion population of India. And by my conservative estimates crores of people must be fighting for their chance on the hotseat. And they do it for years. As one of the participants declared proudly that she waited for 12 years to be on the show. What a royal waste of time?

How it’s a Smart Business..??

Idea is charging approx Rs. 5/- or 6/- per SMS sent for this contest. Assuming there are only 100 entries from say 10 cities of some 20 districts and 20states.

6 (Rs. per SMS) x 100 (entries) x 10 (cities) x 20 (districts) x 20 (states) i.e.

= 6 x 100 x 10 x20 x 20 = Rs.24,00,000.

RS. 24.00 LAKH IN JUST 20 MINUTES (from people trying for the Rs. 1 +1 Lakh cash prize- Ghar Baithe Jeeto Partiyogita). Imagine the scenario if 1000 entries try out from 100 cities? The figure simply grows by 2 more zeroes and yields a whopping Rs.24 crore!!!!! And it does not stop there. In practice, it couldbe another multiple of 100 or a multiple of 1000 on an average. In that case, it is 24 x 100 crore earnings in just 20 minutes on every episode!!! And the prize money: Rs. 7 crore!!!!! (and from whose pocket?????)

Smart Business By Siddharth Basu! And the best part of the above calculation is just the SMS earning!!!!!
A rough annual profit calculation goes like this (six month season): (2400 x 3 x 4) (episode/month) x 6 = Rs.1,87,200 crore.

Let even 50% get dissolved in taxes and other payments; still, you will be left with (which includes even the meager Rs. 504 crore of prize money, i.e., if every episode bags Rs. 7 crore prize) – Rs. 93,096 crore profit!!!!! (Only from SMS).

NOW, WHAT ABOUT THE AD MONEY AND PARTICIPATION SMS MONEY…..?????

On top of that, there is no real value add to participants

All that the participants expect to take from the show is cash (and sometimes popularity). Taking the example of the same lady who got in after 12 years, if she had spent that time learning a useful skill she would have earned far more money in all those years and would continue to for many more.

There are no life skills, no real learning, only trivial facts in this program. How does a question like “what is name of the instrument which converts AC into DC” add any kind of value to someone’s life.

Therefore, a Very Simple Question: "KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI" and your options are...

A) Sony TV

B) !dea

C) Amitabh Bachhan

D) Siddharth Basu

Computerji, iska jawab bataiye...

Answer: All FOUR..!!!!