Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Amitabh Bachchan has gone from being a successful Indian franchise of its popular western counterpart, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” to a show that has literally changed the fortunes and shaped the dreams of a common man who is lucky enought to make it to the famed ‘hotseat.’
The quiz show was aired for the first time in 2000 and promised a prize money of winning Rs 1 crore. The prize money in the current season is Rs 7 crore.
While the contestants that have won a crore have grown in number and do not elicit the kind of excitement the first winners did, die-hard fans of the show have always been curious about how much ‘dhan-raashi’ the big winners take home.
Did you know the contestant does not actually technically become a ‘crorepati’ as they do not take home the entire prize amount? The dramatic transferring of the money to the account by the host is just for effect, as handsome amount is deducted for the taxman.
Let’s take the example of someone who has won 50 lakhs after answering some real toughies and exhausting all their lifelines, forcing them to quit at the big final question.
How much would that person take home?
Suppose the prize money of the contestants is Rs 50 lakh, then 30 percent of it goes in the form of taxes i.e. Rs 12 lakh has to be paid as tax.
At the same time, there is a 10 percent surcharge on the tax, which is Rs 13,125 and an additional cess that is 4 per cent which is Rs. 5,250. So if in total, a contestant wins Rs 50 lakh in Kaun Banega Crorepati, then he has to pay a total of Rs 13.30 lakh as tax after which the contestant gets t o take home more than Rs 35 lakh. Still not a bad chunk of change.
So, even if a contestant cracks the jackpot of Rs 7 crore, at most he may take home just under 5 crore for getting it all right on the hotseat.
Not bad for a day’s work. Now getting to the hotseat, that’s the ‘sawaal dus crore ka’
Note:
All figures are approximations and should not be taken as official numbers
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