The Indian adaptation of Who Wants To Be A millionaire, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), is known to change the fortunes of the person on the Hot Seat. But the show also provides an opportunity to be heard by all, thus making it a potential megaphone to bring about a larger change.

Idea: KBC provides an opportunity to win much more than just money and change many more lives than just of an individual.

Background: People from the North-eastern part of India have been facing racial discrimination due to their distinct oriental facial features. They are often made to feel like foreigners in their own country and are subjected to crimes. In early 2014, these crimes reached a new low with murders, rapes and public humiliations. Due to the sensitive nature of the problem, neither the political system nor the media was willing to address it.

In this scenario, Sony Entertainment Television’s KBC campaign decided to become the mouthpiece for social change by addressing the simmering racism issue on national television via an ad film. In the ad, featuring Superstar Amitabh Bachchan, a girl from the north-east shows the mirror to the society by using the gameshow's ‘Public Poll’ lifeline and asking an uncomfortable question.

The ad evoked strong reactions, forcing the media to address the problem, making racism against north-eastern's a national issue. With the headlines and on-air debates that the ad generated, we managed to put pressure on politicians and policy-makers to take steps towards improving the situation.

The Uncomfortable Question

The 'Kohima' television commercial of Kaun Banega Crorepati showed a girl from the north-eastern part of the country and the game show host, Superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Her first question in the game is a simple one - Which country does 'Kohima' (a prominent city in north-east India) belong to? To everyone's surprise, she opts for 'public poll', a lifeline in the game show. She gets a unanimous answer as 'India', to which she poses the uncomfortable question - Everyone knows the answer, but how many acknowledge it?

The ad got everyone to rethink their behavior towards the north-eastern community and got the social media buzzing. We fueled the conversation further with a social media influencer program consisting of various celebrities, including Superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

We arranged for on-air debates, guest articles and as a fitting finale, got North-eastern community's Shillong Chamber Choir to perform on national television.

With more than 800 thousand views, the KBC 'Kohima' ad garnered a huge popularity. It became a talking point and was discussed on social media via more than 20,000 tweets and posts across various platforms. We managed to generated over 1 million dollars worth of free media impressions, in the form of debates, discussions and coverage. We drove public opinion to pressurize the political system and caused a debate in the Indian Parliament.

The eight season of Kaun Banega Crorepati opened with a TRP of 4.5, a 21% increase from the last year and was the number 1 show on Indian television in it's time slot.

But more importantly, the north-eastern community found support in their struggle against racism. The policy-makers were pressurized to give the issue of racism its due importance and treat crimes against North-eastern way more strictly.