Kaun Banega Crorepati marks two decades as India’s favourite quiz show

Mumbai, 7th July 2026: Twenty-plus years in, and Kaun Banega Crorepati still has India glued to the sofa. What began as a quiz show has long since graduated to full-blown cultural institution, and its staying power comes down to a handful of ingredients that no rival has quite managed to bottle.

Chief among them is Amitabh Bachchan, who remains far more than a host. His warmth, wit and knack for connecting with contestants, whether coaxing out a nervous answer or sharing a life lesson with an entire family watching at home, have turned him into the show’s emotional core. His catchphrase, asking whether the computer should lock in an answer, has long since escaped the studio and entered everyday Indian speech.

The show’s real trick, though, is proving that knowledge can rewrite a life. Contestants from small towns and big cities alike get an identical shot at the hot seat, and the show has clocked up two decades of contestants turning preparation and grit into genuine financial transformation, evidence, if any were needed, that ambition in India respects no postcode.

Every contestant arrives with a story worth telling. Teachers, farmers, doctors, homemakers, police officers, entrepreneurs and students have all taken their turn in the chair, and for plenty of them, meeting Bachchan in person carries as much weight as the prize money itself. It is precisely this blend of the personal and the aspirational that keeps viewers hooked long after the credits roll.

Few shows manage to pull three generations onto the same sofa, but KBC does it weekly. Actor Ananya Panday, appearing on the show’s seventeenth season, described how her grandparents’ visits from Delhi turn into a full family ritual, with everyone gathering on weeknights to watch together, a small but telling sign of how deeply the show has burrowed into Indian domestic life.

Beyond the money, and there is plenty of it, winnings have funded children’s education, cleared debts, built homes and launched businesses over the years. Star-studded special episodes, featuring the likes of Jaya Bachchan, Javed Akhtar and Aamir Khan, have added a philanthropic streak to the format, mixing entertainment with charitable causes in some of the show’s most talked-about instalments.

Two decades on, the formula hasn’t dated a day. Kaun Banega Crorepati remains proof that a quiz show, done right, can outlast fashion, outlast format fatigue, and keep an entire country’s living rooms in its grip.