India revives 'Millionaire' takeoff
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan looks on during an event in Bangalore, India, in this Sept. 17, 2006 file photo. Star Entertainment India television channel is reviving the most popular show in Indian history with top Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan as its new host, a news report said Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, File) |
NEW DELHI -- Star Entertainment India television channel is reviving the most popular show in Indian history with top Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan as its new host, a news report said Sunday.
"Kaun Banega Crorepati" - based on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" - was scrapped in January following its famous host Amitabh Bachchan's illness. The program drew millions of viewers.
The channel will start shooting the program next month and expects it to go on air by the end of January, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Samir Nair, chief executive officer of Star Entertainment India, as saying.
Khan is one of the biggest Bollywood heartthrobs of the past decade and one of the highest paid actors in the Indian movie industry. Khan said he was pleasantly surprised when the STAR network offered him the show.
"It is a huge act to follow, that of Bachchan ... But it also excites me that I am getting an opportunity to reach out (and) talk and interact with my audience through a medium where I began my career as an actor years ago," he said in a statement.
Bachchan had spent nearly three weeks in a hospital in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital, in December after having surgery for an intestinal ailment. He resumed work in Bollywood movies but didn't resume the television program.
DisplayOAS3 = '1' < = src="https://www.india-forums.com/ak/s/tools_plain.js" =text/>SRK walks the ramp
Monday, December 04, 2006 08:36:00 am
The day might have been about the polo matches, but a fashion show was the flavour of the season as the sun set over Delhi. It was designer Rohit Bal's show where the predictable whites surfaced again and even though there was a bit of enthusiasm about the stuff that Bal put on show, the evening was not about the clothes at all. But it's not right to reveal the punch line yet. Bal's clothes were technically all there - the whites were brilliant, but the inspiration seemed to have faded. The show had a strong sense of deja vu, what with the same gold embellishments on the same white flowing silhouettes. But as we said, the show was not really about the clothes. It was about Shahrukh Khan walking the ramp, and even though the pain from a recent shooting injury was visible, the show he put up was a veteran one, complete with negations about a prospective career change. "You need to be good-looking, tall and graceful for this (modelling) and I'm neither of those. I'm glad I didn't have to audition as a ramp model to be an actor, I'd have failed," quipped the King Khan. Next was a press conference about his upcoming stint on television. But for now, it was all about taking the right walk down the career lane. (By Sarthak Kaushik) |