MUMBAI: Superstar Amitabh Bachchan's sudden illness has finally cast its shadow over the popular KBC2, the second edition of the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
The game show, which not only turned around Star India's fortune the first time it ran in 2000, also proved umeed se dugna (double the expectation) in popularity in its second innings.
The reason is obvious: anchor Bachchan, originally committed to shoot 85 episodes, is unable to continue shooting after his recent illness.
"Next week KBC2 airs its 61st episode, on Friday 13 January, which brings us to the end of our current bank of episodes," an official communication from Star India said today.
So, what next? "We are planning out things. Presently, I have no comments to offer. We will get back to you soon with our decision," Star India COO Sameer Nair told Indiantelevision.com.
The official Star communication quoted Star India EVP content Deepak Segal as saying, "We have devised a mix of fresh KBC2 episodes and Hero Honda 12th Annual Star Screen Awards to provide complete entertainment for the next two weekends. Post that we are working things out and will have our plan in place by early next week."
So, here is the plan for the next two weeks. Star Plus will telecast the 60th episode --- the second last episode that Bachchan shot before he was indisposed --- on Friday 6 January. Star Screen Awards will take over for Saturday, 7 January, when the channel will showcase Star Screen Awards - Best of Part 2.
The Red Carpet of Star Screen Awards will be aired at 9 pm on Saturday 14 January with the main event following on Sunday (15 January) from 7 pm onwards. In short, viewers will get to watch the remaining fresh episodes of KBC2 on 6 and 13 January.
Star India had re-scheduled its popular game show following Bachchan's illness to twice a week (Friday & Saturday) instead of the original thrice a week run with effect from 2 December. In between, the channel also re-ran celebrity episodes.
But "don't worry," consoles the official Star release, "Star Plus will be back with Umeed Se Dugna."

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Amitabh effect: 'KBC 2' to air twice a week