DNA (May 5, 2014)

Post IPL, Amitabh Bachchan will be dominating the small screen. June will see him making his TV debut in a fiction show, and in September he will be back with the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati 8. Promos of KBC8 are already on air calling for entries. This time the show’s tagline is ‘Koi bhi iss manch se khali haath nahi jayega’. If not the prize money, the contestants will take home a picture of Big B or his signature as most people come on the show only to meet him!

Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; April 28, 2014)

With an unruly crowd gathering on a Chembur street to gawk at Amitabh Bachchan, the actor’s shoot on Friday night had to be cancelled. A disappointed Amitabh Bachchan tweeted on Friday, “The night shoot had to be abandoned without a single shot; too much of a crowd could not work. It was the streets. Despite an entire posse of security men and the police force, it became impossible to shoot a scene on the street (sic).”

The actor was shooting for Anurag Kashyap’s TV series; the shoot was slated to take place near Ashish Cinema in Chembur. A source close to the unit said, “ The police just couldn’t manage the crowd. Around 3,000 people had gathered to get a glimpse of Amitabh Bachchan. There was no way we could’ve shot at the location; we had to cancel the shoot.”

When contacted, Senior Police Inspector Dilip Yadav of RCF police station said, “Lots of people had gathered and as the location does not have an enclosure, it wasn’t easy to contain the crowds.”

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 19, 2014)

Amitabh Bachchan and Sarika have been shooting together at a suburban studio since the last few days. No, it’s not for a film but Anurag Kashyap’s finite television series.

Co-produced by Bachchan’s Saraswati Creations and Endemol, the 30-35 episode series is supposed to air by the year-end. So far, all that is known about this closely-guarded project is that the Big B plays a construction king in it. Now Mirror has learnt that his character trying to strike a balance between two families.

A source close to the development informs, “Bachchan’s character marries twice. He remains connected to his first wife through their daughter even after the marriage is over. Sarika plays the ex-wife.”

It remains to be seen who will play his other better half.

Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; April 7, 2014)

There seems to be finally some progress as far as Amitabh Bachchan’s first fictional TV show outing is concerned. The serial, which has been kept under wraps so far, will apparently air from June on a soon-to-be-launched Hindi entertainment channel.

Says a source, “The channel is a sister concern of an existing one. It is uncertain about whether they want to air it on the flagship channel or on the new one. This being Big B’s acting debut on the small screen, they are keen to gain maximum mileage from his show. They might want it to air on the new channel.” The show is produced by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap with Bachchan on board as a co-producer.

Adds the source, “Initially, it was supposed to air as soon as Kaun Banega Crorepati ended, but there has been no headway so far. The channel now planns to telecast it after the IPL cricket season ends in June.”

Directed by Ribhu Dasgupta, who was Anurag’s assistant on his film, Gulaal, the show has the Big B play a construction magnate. Incidentally, Ribhu had also directed the Kashyap production, Michael, that starred Naseeruddin Shah. The film was screened at the Toronto Film Festival in 2011, but it never saw the light of day.

The channel was unavailable for comment.