Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has issued an extraordinary apology days after Twitterati threatened to boycott his popular Sony TV quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati for allegedly disrespecting Maratha ruler Shivaji during a recent episode.
Bachchan wrote on Twitter, “No disrespect meant at all .. apologies if it has hurt sentiments.”
No disrespect meant at all .. apologies if it has hurt sentiments .. ? https://t.co/ynPav4DYfO
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) November 8, 2019
This was after Siddharth Basu, one of the key persons behind KBC, also took to the microblogging site to issue a public apology. He wrote, “No insult or disrespect whatsoever was intended to the memory of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in a question on KBC 11. This season there have been a number of questions that have all used his name with the full title. Apologies for the inadvertent omission of title in the choice.”
No insult or disrespect whatsoever was intended to the memory of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in a question on KBC 11. This season there have been a number of questions which have all used his name with the full title. Apologies for the inadvertent omission of title in the choice pic.twitter.com/4iFYeLyfVd
— Siddhartha Basu (@babubasu) November 8, 2019
Earlier Sony TV too had apologised for not addressing Shivaji as ’emperor’ while using the same adjective for Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. Its apology had read, “There was an inaccurate reference to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj during Wednesday’s KBC episode, due to inadvertence. We deeply regret the same and being mindful of the sentiments of our viewers have carried a scroll expressing regret during our episode yesterday. #KBC11.”
Thousands of Twitter users had expressed their displeasure on the popular quiz show’s decision to refer to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as just Shivaji in one of the questions on the show while addressing Mughal ruler Aurangzeb as ’emperor.’ The controversial question had read, “Which of these rulers was the contemporary of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb?” The options were Maharana Pratap, Rana Sanga, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Shivaji.
Furious users had taken to Twitter demanding a boycott of Sony TV.
