Amitabh Bachchan, the doyen of film industry who agreed to host the fourth season of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ on Sony, is all set to begin his latest innings as host from his birthday 11th October.

The fourth installment of Kaun Banega Crorepati is in the news for quite some time now. Preparations are being made for the fourth season of India’s biggest reality show. Sources say that the show might just start on Sony Entertainment Television on Amitabh Bachchan’s 68th birthday. Though there are expected to be last-minute change of plans because there might be programming and marketing changes.

Amitabh Bachchan has begun rehearsing for Kaun Banega Crorepati 4, which will go on air on Sony TV later this year.

Bachchan dubbed for the promo of the show, he wrote on his Twitter page. “Finished gym now at dub for promo for KBC. They should be out soon…,” he said.

Prior to beginning the rehearsals for the show, he wrote on his blog, “Tomorrow I start rehearsals for KBC… just getting the hang of things to come, the innovations and the formats. There is still time for its inception, but better to do it now and get acclimatized, than make mistakes later on.”

On his Twitter page, the actor added, “Rehearsals for KBC up and about! What nostalgia! Great to be back with familiar faces of crew. Was almost as though I had not left.”

Preity Zinta is super-excited about the new logo designed sometime ago. The pretty actress recently complimented Amitabh Bachchan for his creative inputs in the logo. Ms. Zinta also confirmed her presence soon in Kaun Banega Crorepati 4 on the micro-blogging site.

Soon after Big B spoke about the new logo by tweeting, “New logo for KBC! Note the Rupee symbol incorporated in the design. My suggestion!! Yeahhh!! Feeling good;” Preity remarked at Big B’s profile saying, “Looks super Amitji! I am looking forward to coming on the show soon .”

The famous KBC logo has got a makeover thanks to Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who has got the new symbol incorporated for the fourth season of the ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’.

The 67-year-old star, who returns as a host for the third time on the show, suggested Sony channel to make a new logo in order to incorporate the Indian currency symbol.

Though Amitabh Bachchan returns to the show this season in an all new look, there are lot more additions this time. Where the questions will be reduced in number, there will also be three experts live on the set to help the contestants. Sony Entertainment Television, the channel that has bought the rights for the show, is also all set with the new look of the logo of KBC. Don’t miss the new rupee symbol in the logo. It was in fact Mr. Bachchan’s idea as he enthusiastically put it on twitter. He tweets, “New logo for KBC! Note the Rupee symbol incorporated in the design. My suggestion!! Yeahhh !! Feeling good.”

Kaun Banega Crorepati is one most successful reality shows in Indian television history. Amitabh shouldered hosting duties for the show for seasons one and two, while his Bollywood peer Shah Rukh Khan took over as host for season three.

Now Amitabh is back in the host’s chair for the upcoming fourth season, phone entries for which open August 2.

So, what do you think of the new logo? Too cluttered? Stylish?

Sony Entertainment Television Asia is leaving no stone unturned this time around to ensure its latest acquisition of gameshow ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ takes a rocking start.

The channel is planning to launch the show around Monday 11th October to coincide with presenter, Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday.

KBC4 will run for 36 episodes. “The show is going to launch in October. We haven’t finalised the date of its debut airing,” According to Multi Screen Media president network sales, licensing and telephony Rohit Gupta.

The channel is hoping that the show will be able to change its fortunes just like it did for Star Plus in 2000 when it became leading Hindi TV channel across India and remained there for eight consecutive years.

During the first season, the show had average TV ratings (TVR) of 14.1, a feat that has not been repeated on Indian television, not even in the subsequent editions of the show.

But many disagree, saying while the first season of KBC ran for 270 episodes, the second had only 60. There has been a fall in average TVRs since the first season as the second edition got an average TVR of 11.1, according to data from TV audience monitoring agency TAM. The ratings worsened in the third season when Shah Rukh Khan hosted KBC. The show then managed average TVRs of just 6.8 over only 53 episodes.

Sony TV, sources say, has received good response from advertisers and has already sold 50 per cent of its advertisement inventory. “We will be signing in eight sponsors, half of which have already come on board,” says Rohit Gupta, president of Multi Screen Media. He says that ad slots for the show will be sold at a much higher premium.

There are more than three months to go before the first winner emerges from the fourth edition of Kaun Banega Crorepati, but Sony is winning the show hands down.

The channel has already roped in Cadburys India and Idea Cellular to play the presenting sponsor and telecom partner of the popular game show that is expected to fetch about Rs 100 crore.

Cadbury has paid around Rs 14 crore to Multi Screen Media (MSM) to become the presenting sponsor of the fourth edition of KBC to be hosted by Amitabh Bachchan. Idea shelled out Rs 18 crore to join the show.

Both the advertisers will get around 90 seconds each of commercial time for every episode of the programme that will go on air around Diwali.

Media buyers expect the quiz show to fetch the broadcaster Rs 80-90 crore through sponsors and spot advertisers and generate another Rs 10 crore through mobile messages and calls.

The previous three editions of the show were aired by Star Plus. While Bachchan hosted the first two editions, KBC 3 was hosted by Shah Rukh Khan.

With the return of Amitabh Bachchan in Kaun Banega Crorepati, this time on Sony, the greatest ever Indian quiz show is all set to add big brands with it.

Obviously, Sony will try to achieve an innovative distinction in its own way to telecast the show. In fact many strategies are under construction to be incorporated.

According to souce, “KBC has been tweaked quite a lot. It’s going to be faster. The number of questions has been reduced to 12 from 15. And now there is a timer for the first 7 – 30 seconds to answer or the clock stops you. There are some innovative options for phoning a friend for help. There will be three experts from various fields on call and you can talk to them as options for an answer. They will appear on TV live as opposed to a voice.”

With the return of Amitabh Bachchan in Kaun Banega Crorepati, this time on Sony, the greatest ever Indian quiz show is all set to add big brands with it. The leading telecom service provider Idea Cellular has been locked in as the telecom partner for KBC-4.

Viewers are impatiently waiting for the season 4 of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ and once again all will get to see Amitabh Bachchan live on the small screen.
The show that changed the fortunes of Star Plus is back on Sony in its fourth season with its original host and the same prize money of one crore.The first time it was launched in 2000, Kaun Banega Crorepati changed the fortunes of the channel it was aired on, i.e Star Plus as well as of its host, the redoubtable Amitabh Bachchan, who not only scaled new heights of popularity but also became a trendsetter.

The show is likely to be aired in October-November. Auditions for the show will start from the first week of August.

The popular quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) is returning with its original star—Amitabh Bachchan—but on a new channel, Sony.

The last season of KBC, which saw Shahrukh Khan stepping in as host, was not able to attract as many eyeballs as the first two seasons. Gradually, consensus emerged that Mr Bachchan did a better job.

“Mr Bachchan was our last and final choice for the host,” Ajit Thakur, Business Head of Sony Entertainment Television told a press conference on Wednesday.

“Our research showed that viewers wanted him back as the host.”

Bachchan, 67, hosted the first two seasons of the hugely popular Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”.