Amitabh Bachchan's KBC in Tamil,Telugu,Malayalam and Kannada

Now, you could watch Amitabh Bachchan's Kaun Banega Crorepati in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada. Even before the show goes on air on Sony, talks have been initiated to dub the show in one or all these languages and run it on top broadcasting channels in the southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

NP Singh from Sony admits that the channel is considering the option, already tried and tested once before by Star, that broadcast KBC for three seasons: twice with Bachchan and once with Shah Rukh Khan as hosts.

"We're open to collaborating with some top South Indian broadcasters. But these deals take time to get finalised," adds Singh. Siddharth Basu of Big Synergy, the mastermind behind the show, seconds Singh. He informs that the actor, who dubbed for Bachchan during season two, has become a big name down south.

Hit show

"During the first season, there were many shows in the South that resembled KBC's format. Some of them did phenomenally well. During season two, Star group got Amitabh Bachchan's voice dubbed by an actor called Ravi and ran the show successfully on Star Vijay simultaneously. And that version broke several TRP records in the south. Mr Bachchan is very popular across the country; it's but natural to take the show to the south audience too," he asserts.

Only Big B

According to Sony's business head and executive vice president, Ajit Thakur, the channel had to fight stiff competition to acquire the broadcasting and other rights for the quiz show. He also clarifies that no other actor was considered as the host of KBC 4 that promises to make an individual a millionaire.

Thakur says, "Bachchan Sir was our first and only choice. We had a series of meetings with him and he finally gave us the go-ahead."