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'Kaun Banega Crorepati' schedules affected with Amitabh ill
By Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service

Mumbai, Dec 3 (IANS) The show, they say, must go on. But can the hugely popular television game show "Kaun Banega Crorepati" (KBC) actually do so now when its lynchpin and anchor Amitabh Bachchan is temporarily out of bounds?

While the delay in Amitabh's films can be easily coped with, "KBC" with its tight round-the-clock schedules seems to be in trouble. 

In fact more episodes for the three-day weekend game show were to be recorded for STAR Plus earlier this week. The Big B's illness has stalled "KBC"'s plans.

The superstar was hospitalised on Monday after he complained of acute stomach ache. He was operated upon in Mumbai's Lilavati hospital and has been advised rest for about a month.

Says STAR's chief operating officer Samir Nair, "What can we do? Such situations cannot be helped. We'll wait for Mr Bachchan to recover. We've already recorded episodes to be telecast until Dec 24. We'll just space them out to cover a larger area than originally intended."

What STAR plans to do is to turn the three-day schedule for KBC into a two-day affair until AB is back on his feet.

"That's right," reveals Samir. "We'll be telecasting KBC on two days during the weekend, on Fridays and Saturdays, instead of three days. On Sundays we'll be telecasting a series of Mr Bachchan's films until he gets well and we can record the pending 'KBC' episodes. Then we'll immediately revert to the three-day weekend for the show."

In the meanwhile, viewers will have to make do seeing their favourite anchor just twice instead of thrice a week in their homes. 

Plans for "KBC Tritiya" (third) are on. "Mr Bachchan has agreed to do the third innings of 'KBC', and we see no reason why it won't happen," says Samir.