Turn on your telly on Friday, August 30, night for a special episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati with Big B and a very familiar face for the state, S.N. Pradhan (1988 batch, Jharkhand cadre IPS officer), who is now director-general of the National Disaster Response Force.
The popular game show is currently running its Karmveer series, on achievers in various fields. Pradhan, one of the Karmveers, as well as the NDRF impressed show host Amitabh Bachchan so much that he posted a blog on the experience in the wee hours of Sunday, 12.46am to be precise.
Contacted, Pradhan told The Telegraph on Sunday that the shooting was done on the sets of KBC on Saturday.
Asked how it felt to be a contestant on the hot seat of one of India’s best-loved game shows, Pradhan said he couldn’t “share any details at this stage with the media” as the episode had not been aired yet.
The cop, who is as efficient in chasing criminals and rebels across tough terrain as he is in holding a mic and belting out a Mohammad Rafi or Neil Diamond number, did not say if he sang before Bachchan.
Prodded how his day went with the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, Pradhan only said: “A wonderful, wonderful experience.”
The actor, on the other hand, was more eloquent on his blog, Bachchan Bol (https://srbachchan.tumblr.com/) that he wrote on “Day 4188” from Jalsa, Mumbai.
Showering praise on the NRDF personnel — some more besides Pradhan had come on the sets to demonstrate certain life-saving techniques — Bachchan called them Karmveers who were a “self-sacrificing force of efficient, trained and brave soldiers who risk life to save another of us in distress. They are NDRF and spending time with them has been a most invigorating and learning experience”.
Bachchan also wrote about Pradhan and his colleagues who “came to our KBC today” and said that it was “an honour for us to welcome them, know of them and to honour the great services they do for the nation”.
“It was a moment of greatest pride,” Bachchan wrote, adding how impressed he was with some “elementary homemade devices” that can save lives in times of emergency”.
The celebrity actor also cited an instance of what he learnt on the show, of “dried coconut shells tied together that serve the same job as a floating life jacket” and others such as matki (pitcher), cans and water bottles.
The NDRF often hits the news when there is a disaster. They rescued scores of people during recent floods in the Assam, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra and were also involved in rescuing trapped passengers of the Kolhapur-bound Mahalaxmi Express in Thane district of Maharashtra last month.
Bachchan probably gave the best tribute to NDRF when he wrote on his blog: “…not just by painting our faces with the best ‘choona’….does it anyway come near to the value of them that we have just met…the NDRF.”
