Kaun Banega Crorepati: Prashant Batar
Those of whom who watched Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) would have seen a guy coming from a Rs. 1 crore prize money to Rs. 3.2 lakhs in a jiffy!
It is an amazing story of luck vs. skill. I keep telling this to my class – if you are standing in the Melbourne pitch with a bat in your hand, and Brett Lee bowls to you, it is possible that the ball hits the bat and goes to the fence for a four. However for the next ball also to go to the fence, you need talent. Luck cannot take the second ball to the fence!
I only have a ‘heard’ view of KBC – I was on facebook in a different room. My daughter’s version (and substantiated by another girl in the office) was Prashant Batar was behaving like a…well…not very smart guy during the whole process of playing the game. Even what he spoke to Deepika Padukone was stupid..and she was good enough to laugh it off.
This guy through a combination of fluke, luck, guts, …had reached a figure of Rs. 100 lakhs (Rs. 1 crore)..and then he came to a question where he had no clue as to what to do. At this stage did he consider the odds? Did he even ponder to think what he could have done? Should he have taken the ‘risk’…well we can keep debating with hind sight.
However his father, Mr. Amitabh Bachhan, Mr. Ajit Ranade….all advised him against this hara kiri…but he did succumb..and took home Rs. 3.2 lakhs instead of Rs. 1 crore!…hmmm
Reminds me of the ‘man in the green room’ or ‘man in the green towel’ Las Vegas story on risk…heard this story of a man on his honeymoon?
If no…we will hear it ..on another day…
Manish
Another point which this whole incident tells us is that even though the expected value of paying Rs 5 crore questions is more than 1 crore (prob of winning * 5 crore – prob of loosing * 1 crore) . Still it does not make sense to go for it incase he is totall clueless
Because its just 1 instance , If he had got 1000 chances of playing the same 5 crore game where he can give 2 answers , he can go on playing on and on and luck would take care that he becomes wealthy enough .
In the same way a lot of people take this similar kind of risk in stock trading where life does not give them enough chances to survive , just one bad play and they are on roads 🙂
manish
subra
Sanjeev Khemani This incident will probably haunt him for the rest of his life. He may probably never make 1 cr again. This guy will lose all respect for money. Because for 10 minutes he was a crorepati and now left with peanuts. Reason..Greed, Greed, Greed..just like traders in stock market..Just do not know when to quit.
subra
Ramprasad….
Well he is one from the background of a person who trades in the stock market- a trader and that speaks of the whole debacle.
Sanjeev and Ramprasad’s comments have come on face book…I have done a cut n paste…
shrinivasan
It is found money ! Whether 3.2 lakhs or 1 crore,I have noticed that people have no respect for found money.
Once my wife came by some inheritance money (50k), she lost all of it in trading.
They play with it, he was so lucky to have come thus far, he thought he could press his luck further !
subra
Suresh Vishwanthan on facebook
And to attempt such an answer where even guess work cannot really work. I am sure none of us knew this birth in the Antartica of an Argentinian. It was a typical 5 crore question of Sidharth Basu and the guy fell for it. He did not even take the experts advice leave alone his parents. Greed I agree Ramprasad. And Shyam will agree such traders want to punt despite expert advice.
raag
We are always wise in hindsight. So, won’t berate that guy too much. Actually, there are two kind of questions – one whose answer you can work out by logic/elimination and another kind where there is no logic involved, it just has to be memorized (“ratta marana” in desi slang) – the 5 cr question (first person to be born in Antarctica) was the latter kind. One can’t work that out with any logic – you either remember it by some chance or just don’t. So, there was no point trying one’s luck with that kind of question – any good quizzer will tell you that. On the contrary, the 1 cr question (who was the first president of his/her country) was a question one can work out logically by elimination – could not have been Chandrika Kumaratunga since we remember another Pres Premadasa since Rajeev Gandhi’s IPKF days. Not Begum Khaleeda Zia since Haseena preceeded her. Not Karzai since one can remember Burhanuddin Rabbani before the taliban (Yeah, i know i sound like a neanderthal) overtook.
subra
Venkat on FB:
On a question like this there is no chance of knowing or not knowing. If there was a question like ‘who is the most successful test captain of India’ I may be confident BUT ABSOLUTELY Wrong…in a question like this….the probability is so low..no clue why people attempt it. However remember he had to make the decision…we are just the commentators…
Ravinder Makhaik
Prashant Batar – the Riches to Rags guy, would need to slog it for the rest of his life for falling prey to greed by evoking the name of Ganpati Baba rather than heeding sane advice.
Sarang
Are we so sure that Prashant Batar would never make it to 1 Crore in rest fo his life?
The way he was taking it, and the kind of answers he gave when he mentioned about BMW car after winning 25 lakh, he did not look like a person who has dearth of money for any of his basic needs/wants.
That was not the case of the next participant who followed Prashant and we may say she played sensibly and was satisfied with 12.5 lakh. The answer she gave for a question for 25 lakh after quitting was also correct. But she was not confident and could not afford losing 12.5 lakh.
That is what we call risk apatite. To me Prashant had better risk appetite which enabled him to take higher risk.
Mount Everest was unconquerable until it was conquered first! We all see it was not worth taking such a high risk on 5 Crore question. But should we be so certain? Should we write-off skills and judgement of Prashant for even rest of his life? I think we are being a little too harsh.
Madhusudan Thakkar
Everything on the show is scripted.It is for TRPs.Drama,fights,romance is all that audience wants to see…..
and that’s all that channel wants to show.Most of the reality shows are “fixed” like Singing contests,Big Boss,Rahul Mahajan ka Swayamber,Dance India Dance,Khatro ke Khiladi,Desi girl etc..In my opinion some of those who are doing NAUTANKI on the show are thoroughly briefed.
How else can on explain behavior of Prashant?.Ajit Ranade and his Father had clearly explained him peril.
bahroos
Whatever say, with a double dib left, the probability that he could have answered (even without any knowledge about the answer) that was still 50%.In hindsight we can easily blame him and call him stupid. But I guess he did make a calculated risk. What if he would have snatched the jackpot, then we would have called him a brave guy, isn’t it?
So is life. Taking calculated risk is important.Probably Prashant got a little bit more braver considering the situation in which he was.
Be it TRP or be it true, it was well played with little luck!
S.p. Singh
Sir apke mobile no.send karo plz.muje kbc ke rull ki jankari leni thi.Registration ke liye apne khud ke nam ka phone ya sim card hona jaruri.plz batyo sir.