Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; October 17, 2014)

Amitabh Bachchan, who hosts the quiz programme, Kaun Banega Crorepati, had the entire star cast of Happy New Year come over for a special episode. However, it is learnt that though rules suggest none of the host’s relatives can be invited on the show, the makers made an exception as the film stars Big B’s son, Abhishek Bachchan.

A crew member says, “When the entire star cast was invited on the show, he obviously had to be present.
Never in the past has any of Amitabh Bachchan’s relatives come on the show. Therefore, this time, the production house and the channel had a bit of a discussion and decided to include his son, Abhishek Bachchan in the special episode.”

Shooting for the special episode is said to have started late because of a big star cast. “Abhishek not only played the game along with Shah Rukh Khan and pulled up a prank on his father besides shaking a leg with him. Shah Rukh asked Amit ji for some tips on handling children as he is a father of three kids,” adds a source.

While the channel spokesperson remained unavailable for comment, the show’s producer, Anita Basu denied the buzz about the rules being tweaked. She says, “Everything was legally vetted before that (the episode) and he (Abhishek) was anyway playing for charity.”

Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; February 5, 2014)

While promoting his latest film Jai Ho, Salman Khan had revealed his plans to do a new reality show that would talk about social causes. At that time, he didn’t say much except that it wouldn’t be similar to Aamir Khan’s show Satyamev Jayate. Buzz has it that Colors — that airs Bigg Boss and had initially approached Salman to add the new show to their programming — is now no longer keen to air it.

A source says, “The tentative title of the show is Paanch Ka Punch and it is a fun show that promises a lot of entertainment along with a strong social message.

Having liked the concept, Salman has already given it his nod. Accordingly, Siddharth Basu’s production house first approached the said channel.

But they have now turned it down as they felt that Salman hosting another show on their channel would amount to an overdose for their audiences.” The source adds that this will be a limited-episode show and that the actor has verbally agreed to allot bulk dates to the production house. “Salman is keen to do this show and the production house is in talks with other channels for this show. They have now approached rival entertainment channel Zee TV,” says the source. When contacted, official spokesperson for Colors said, “We don’t communicate on speculative articles. We aren’t aware of any such thing.”

Anita Basu, Siddharth Basu’s wife and a director with the production house, remained unavailable for comment.