After star sprinter Hima Das and filmmaker Rima Das of Village Rockstars fame, Binita Jain of Guwahati has created history by becoming the first crorepati of Assam in Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), a TV reality show.
Apart from being the first from Assam to win the coveted seven-figure prize, the 1972-born is also the first to win Rs 1 crore in the ongoing season 10 of the reality show hosted by Amitabh Bachchan and aired by Sony Entertainment Television on Tuesday.
Like Hima and Rima, Binita has triumphed after many challenges. She was shaken by her husband's sudden disappearance on a business trip to Meghalaya in 2003. After a year of fruitless search for him - he was suspected kidnapped - she decided to take life head on.
Binita, born in Dibrugarh, started out by giving tuitions at home with seven students. She then taught Social Studies and English at a coaching centre. She also resumed her education, which she had stopped after her marriage in 1991 and the birth of her son Rohit and daughter Kavya. She is now a post-graduate with a BEd degree.
Although her husband has been declared legally “dead”, Binita still hopes he will return some day. Her father Kamal Jain told this correspondent “Binita’s husband Rajesh Jain is suspected to have been kidnapped in 2003 while on a business trip. After seven years of his disappearance, the court gave a verdict of ‘presumed dead’. My grandchildren Rohit and Kavya were small when the incident happened. Rohit is now pursuing a masters degree in dental surgery in Bangalore and Kavya has also joined a job there after completing her graduation in English from Delhi University.”
She crossed the Rs 1 crore milestone by correctly answering a question related to the Supreme Court from Big B. Binita shed tears of joy as her family members turned emotional. However, she chose to quit before answering the jackpot question which would have fetched her Rs 7 crore. When she was asked to guess , she chose the correct one.
Big B was gifted an Assamese gamosa and a packet of the most expensive Assam tea while she received a Mahindra Marazzo. She was on a whirlwind trip to Guwahati on Tuesday, but returned to Mumbai on Wednesday. Binita has been barred from divulging any information by the TV channel management.