For Bollywood’s Amitabh Bachchan, who is joining television with Yudh, no proposition is safer. He says it’s a “gamble you have to take when you are in this field” and that “only the best content will succeed”.
In 2000, when the big-screen hero decided to descend on the small screen as the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati, people were doubtful about his decision. But his risk paid off and over the years the game show’s popularity hasn’t diminished.
Now, once again, his decision to do a fiction show for TV is raising questions.
When asked is it safe, Bachchan said: “Nothing is safe in this world. Whether you are doing little creativity or little performance on stage, or doing cinema or any kind of art, how would you know what the result is going to be?”
“We take sufficient precautions but at times we fail, at times we succeed. So this is a gamble that you have to take when you are in this field,” he added.
TV’s wide reach is well known and Bachchan says that comparatively, the turnover of the television industry is higher than in the movies.
“My knowledge on this is limited. But all I know is that the turnover of TV in India is three times more than cinema, so approximately if the turnover of cinema is Rs10,000 crore [Rs1 billion, Dh60.8 million].... in TV it’s about Rs30,000 crore.”
“The reach and the effect of TV in India have just about started. Everyone criticised us for being too excessively populated, but it is that very factor, which is beneficial to us.”
“It’s the people who are running it. You have 300 million people watching it and it’s an enormous figure. This is an incredible amount of channels in one country. It needs to be given more importance and taken more seriously because it is very challenging. The one that has the best content will succeed.”
Co-produced by Bachchan’s production company Saraswati Creations and Endemol India, the show is likely to go on air in July.
The show, which will see Bachchan as the owner of a construction company, also stars Sarika and Kay Kay Menon.
