One of the most prominent and widely renowned Indian television game shows, KBC has been a household name for almost two decades. The show is presented by none other than the leading figure of Bollywood, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, and a total of 14 seasons have already been aired on national television. It has been a massive hit ever since it started airing and the huge prize money has inspired millions of people from the middle-class section to sit in the hot seat themselves. The show has played a crucial role in transforming the lives of numerous contestants that came from humble backgrounds with significant hardships.
The show’s format is based on the multiple-choice questions and the contestants sitting in the hot seat are supposed to choose the right option to advance to the next question. Now, the question ‘How to win KBC’ might come to your mind and it is quite natural that such questions take a hold of your thought process. It happens especially when you see other contestants trying their best to remain seated in the hot seat till the last question on the roster.
KBC Official Website
Now the answer lies in the holistic preparation for the vast question bank of KBC. Here are some favorite & standard question areas of KBC:
- Nobel Prizes – Visit the KBC official website to learn about the facts and prominent personalities
- Facts related to the Indian art and culture
- Symbols of paramilitary & armed forces
- Space programs and solar system
- Science-related facts at the high school level
- Famous writers & poets, Hindi Idioms (Indian Hindi writers must be stressed upon)
- Mythology and Religion: Jainism, Buddhism, Mahabharata, Ramayana
- Flora & Fauna: More focus on recognizing the animal species
- History of the armed forces: Awardees, Martyrs, Major Wars, etc.
- Indian History: Preparation from NCERT is recommended and it is available for free online
- Bollywood: Award-winning actors and movies must be the main focus
- Names of food dishes (Hindi), popular festivals
- Latest records set in the sports
- Current affairs (Local as well as national newspapers)
- Careful study of Indian map and geography
- Knowledge of politics and computer science is also required
- Theatre personalities, dance forms, major monuments, etc.
- All kinds of prestigious awards in the country and prominent international awards
Winning KBC can only be achieved through a consistent reading and careful analysis of the newspaper and it means that from first all the way to the last. It will allow you to develop a significant grip on current affairs as you will always see a good number of questions being asked repeatedly from current affairs. Hence, being aware of your surroundings and keeping a regular track of everything that happens in the mainstream is of pivotal importance.
It is also advisable to learn all the details about the identity of the country, its emblem, symbols, famous pilgrim centers, famous and non-famous historical battles, national buildings, etc. There are great chances that the questions you see on your screen will always revolve around your life. Everything that you told about your life to the KBC team at the time of registration will be treated as the foundation of the set of questions that you will eventually be asked.
In addition to preparing some of the common areas of the KBC question bank as mentioned above, it is advisable to practice sufficient practice tests and quizzes to sharpen the preparation. It helps you to identify your weak areas that can be improved with a structured preparation. The quizzes of the practice sets are exclusively designed on the pattern of questions that have been asked in KBC over the years.
Taxes on KBC prize money
The game shows such as KBC offers a huge chunk of the prize, i.e., 1 Crore & 7 Crore to the candidates that make it to the final set of questions. The income that is earned by the candidates in this form is taxable and a predefined TDS is deducted from the final amount won by the contestant. According to the section 56(2) (ib), any income that is generated or won in the form of below-mentioned sources will be taxable under the “Income from other sources”:
- Card games
- Game shows
- Horse races
- Lotteries
- Crossword puzzles
- Gambling, betting, etc.
The money prize that contestants win in every season is taxable at the rate of 31.20%. Furthermore, the advantage of the income tax slab rate & basic exemption limit is also not applicable to this income.
Here are some important details to be aware of:
- A TDS of 31.20% (Section 194B) is applied to any prize money that exceeds the mark of Rs. 10,000/-.
- The prize distributor will always be liable to deduct the necessary tax during the time of payment regardless of the fact that the income is taxable or not.
- According to Section 58(4), if any taxpayer earns income in the form of lotteries, races, online games, gambling, card games, crossword puzzles, etc., then no deduction in relation to any allowance or expenditure in connection with that income, shall be allowed at the time of computing the final amount.
In other words, all the income that is generated from such winnings, without any allowance or expenditure, will always be taxable.
What is KBC Lottery
KBC lottery is a way to allow millions of people to test their chances of winning heavy prizes without having to feel the heat of the hot seat. But, it is not true as it is nothing but a disguise for scammers to claim their next victim and rob them of their money without moving a muscle. Considering the pace at which cybercrime has escalated in the last decade, it is only obvious that the gaming shows always remain on the radars of scammers & fraudsters. The desperate candidates that dream of winning huge prizes usually end up becoming victims of such scams that are conducted on a large scale across the country.
Fraudsters use social media platforms like WhatsApp where they send messages to their unsuspecting victims. These messages are usually sent from an unknown number and the majority of such numbers have the ISD code of Pakistan which starts with +92. The messages try to trick the readers into believing that their mobile number won a heavy prize or lottery which was jointly organized by KBC & Reliance Jio. The fake prize money ranges between 20 to 40 Lakhs and the claim of such a fake amount can be done by contacting the person (Scammer) whose number is mentioned in the WhatsApp messages.
Now, this is where things get a lot more sensitive when the victim calls the given number to claim his/her amount or fake KBC prize money. The fraudster tells the victim to pay a fixed refundable amount which is usually treated as the processing fees and the GST. Things start escalating when the victim falls for this trap and makes the payment. These fraudsters continue to ask for more processing fees in one context or the other and stress on maintaining the contact through WhatsApp only.
Fraudsters gain the trust of the victims and convince them to deposit money in several bank accounts on multiple occasions and this type of fraud can continue uninterrupted for several weeks, and in some cases, even months. Victims continue to comply as they get told that the KBC prize money has doubled or tripled to Rs. 75 lakhs which keeps them actively engaged and do not suspect anything fishy at any point.
Finally, when the victim holds his/her ground to get the KBC prize money and refuses to pay any more processing fees, fraudsters see it as the wrap and they cut all kinds of connections with them and discontinue the fake number that they had on the WhatsApp.
KBC Lottery Fake Call Complaint
According to the advisory released by the Delhi Police, fraudsters make promises of transferring a substantial amount of money into the victim’s account in return for a commission or processing fees. They break all the connections once the victim transfers the requested amount into the mentioned bank account.
There are increased incidences of such fraud cases that are being conducted successfully on a significantly large scale. Such fake call complaints have increased in frequency and people end up losing a larger share of money in just a blink of an eye. Now, it must not be overlooked and any messages that come from unknown sources on WhatsApp must be carefully inspected before engaging in a conversation, let alone a conversation about winning Rs.25 lakhs.
KBC lottery has become more of a downside to the reputation of this extremely successful game show as fraudsters use it as their primary means of luring their victims. Therefore, users are repeatedly advised by the central authorities to steer clear of such scams and refrain from sharing any type of personal information. No sensitive information should be shared on any platform (Calls, emails, messages, etc.) should there be such prompts of your number winning the KBC lottery out of nowhere.