A low-wage worker from an excessively poor neighborhood who took the $1 million prize on India's version of "Who Wants to Be A
Millionaire?"As India is cheering its own real-life 'Slumdog Millionaire'.
Like the protagonist in the 2008 Oscar-winning film, Sushil Kumar was reportedly dazzled and shocked after winning the top prize. "I never thought in my wildest dreams I could do this," he said, according to India Today. Kumar said he plans to buy a house with the money.
Shot in Mumbai, the episode's suspense builds as Kumar answers most of the questions and then saves his lifelines at the end. When he answers the final question correctly, the audience bursts into celebration.
"The pulsating excitement on the set and among the crew was unimaginable. It was as if they had won the biggest prize ever in the history of Indian television," host Amitabh Bachchan said, according to The Express Tribune.
The show was taped Tuesday and will air next week, The Washington Post reports.
Kumar's wife, Seema, was in the audience, reports said. The couple, who were recently married, started crying when Bachchan handed Kumar the big check.
"What a sensational day in the studios of 'KBC'! A young man from the interiors of Bihar, earning a meagre salary of just INR6,500 per month, coming from the most humblest of backgrounds, reaches the hot seat and cracks the ultimate prize — INR50 million! An incredible feat,".
Bachchan, known as Big B, hailed the win as a victory for "the common man," showing that he has "the strength, the ability and the acumen to prove to the world that he is the best."
