Amitabh Bachchan apologises for KBC controversy

Actor Amitabh Bachchan and show-runner Siddhartha Basu have apologised for the recent controversy surrounding Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on Kaun Banega Crorepati. While asking a question, Bachchan addressed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as 'Shivaji'. The option on screen also read "Shivaji".

Siddhartha Basu tweeted a new picture from the episode, with corrections made to the name on screen. "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," he wrote. Amitabh retweeted him and wrote, "No disrespect meant at all .. apologies if it has hurt sentiments." He even added a folded hands emoji.

The controversy sparked after Bachchan asked this question on a recent episode: Which of these rulers was a contemporary of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb? A) Maharana Pratap B) Rana Sanga C) Maharaja Ranjit Singh D) Shivaji. A section of Kaun Banega Crorepati viewers on social media, along with BJP leader Nitesh Rane and Shri Rajput Karni Sena, raised protest over a KBC question where the Maratha warrior ruler was simply referred to as Shivaji. As #Boycott_KBC_SonyTv started trending on social media, Sony TV -- which airs the show -- came out to publicly admit mistake.

Soon, many viewers started alleging that the channel authorities and Amitabh have shown disrespect towards the great Maratha ruler and demanded an apology from Bachchan as well as the channel. The issue continued to be a talking point on social media, and the hashtag #Boycott_KBC_SonyTv continued trending on Friday morning.

A user tweeted: "#Boycott_KBC_SonyTv This is painful.... and shameful too. This is what we are lacking, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj did so much and we cant even respect his work, what coming generation going to learn from this?"

Finally, the channel authorities admitted their mistake. On Thursday evening's episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati, the channel authorities ran a ticker, which read: "There was an inaccurate reference to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj during yesterday's episode, due to inadvertence. We deeply regret the same."