What is the ₹40,000 KBC question that made a contestant use all his lifelines?

Mumbai: A sports-related question left a Kaun Banega Crorepati contestant stumped, forcing him to exhaust his lifelines and quit the show shortly afterwards. The contestant left the show, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, with Rs 40000.

Koshlendra Singh Tomar, from Madhya Pradesh, was left scratching his head at the question ‘Who is the only Indian woman to win a silver medal in the Summer Olympics?’. His options were PV Sindhu, Mary Kom, Karnam Malleshwari, and Sakshi Malik. The correct answer is PV Sindhu.

Tomar first used the Video a Friend lifeline, but didn’t get a satisfactory answer. He then chose to use his 50-50 lifeline, but even that didn’t solve his problem, as the second option was another Olympic medal winner, Karnam Malleswari. He then used the Ask the Expert lifeline, which finally helped him answer the question.

But he hit a stumbling block in the very next question, and was forced to quit the game after having exhausted his lifelines.

Tomar wasn’t able to answer the question ‘The book - The Indian War of Independence, 1857 - was written by which of the following authors?’. His options were Winston Churchill, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Rabindranath Tagore.

During the episode, Tomar also joked that he’d buy his wife plastic surgery with his prize money. A surprised Amitabh asked him: “Plastic surgery but why?” To that, Tomar said, “15 saal se ek he chehra dekh ke bore hogaya hoon (I am tired of seeing the same face for the past 15 years).” Amitabh laughed, but told his wife to not listen to him.

This season, the Audience Poll lifeline has been scrapped for the first time in the history of the show, since Covid-19 guidelines do not allow a live audience in the studio. This year marks two decades of Amitabh’s association with KBC, with which he made his television debut in 2000. He has hosted every season so far, except the third season, which was hosted by Shah Rukh Khan.