Varun Dhawan recently made an appearance on the game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati 16’. The actor, who is gearing up for the release of his web series ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’, attended the show on Wednesday with directors Raj and DK. During the episode, Amitabh Bachchan posed a question to Varun Dhawan and DK: “Which actress tragically passed away in a plane crash along with her husband, Maharaja Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur?” The options were, “Sulochana, Mumtaz, Nadira, and Zubeida.”
This question kept the pair confused for a while, eventually making them use two of their three lifelines.
“Zubeida,” the pair answered after calling Sita Menon, the writer of ‘Honey Bunny’.
Post this, Mr Bachchan explained the back story. “The King met his fate when he was campaigning for the first-ever elections of independent India. Meanwhile, Zubeida was the actress who had worked in the first ever Indian Talkie film, Alam Ara. Later, her life inspired a film titled Zubeida.” To this, Mr Dhawan added, “Karisma Kapoor, I think worked in it.” Mr Bachchan then said, “It also starred Manoj Bajpayee.”
However, after the show, several social media users pointed out that Hanwant Singh’s wife Zubeida is different from the actress Zubeida. This gaffe also caught the attention of Zubeida’s son Khalid Mohammed, who slammed the makers of the TV show.
“kaunbanegacrorepati…. Whoever calls the shots may I request for a clarification on KBC.
Zubeida (Dhanragir) was renowned actress who featured in Alam Ara. Not my maa Zubeida, did wish to act, wasn’t permitted by her strict father. How cld your research team make such a gaffe?” he wrote.
Meanwhile, in the same episode, Varun Dhawan recalled a childhood incident when he was intimidated by Amitabh Bachchan. “Jab main chota tha aapne ghar pe bulaya tha bhojan ke liye, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan ke waqt. Main khane ke liye ja raha tha par aap aise hi baith ke mujhe ghoor rahe the. Mujhe laga main khana khau ya nahi, maine kuch galat kar liya cutlery ke sath. Phir Jaya ji (Jaya Bachchan) ne bola ki vo aise hi karte hain. Vo tumhe nahi dekh rahe, vo kuch or soch rahe hai. Tum khana khao. (When I was young, you had invited me over for a meal during Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. I was about to start eating, but you were just sitting there, staring at me. I didn’t know whether to eat or not. I thought I might have done something wrong with the cutlery. Then Jaya ji said, ‘That’s just how he is.