Calcutta, Feb. 12 :
Calcutta, Feb. 12:
He became Indian television's highest jackpot winner, by all of Re 1. Narendra Verma won Rs 10,000,001 on the sets of Govinda's gameshow on Sony, squeezing past Harshvardhan Nawate who had won the first crore on STAR's Kaun Banega Crorepati?
But had Verma held his nerve, he could have doubled his winnings. He chose safe over sorry at the Rs 2-crore question, though, as it turned out later, he did know the right answer.
The 40-year-old civil engineer from Delhi left the Mumbai Film City sets this evening after shooting for the Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke episode with Rs 10,000,001, a car, an air-conditioner and a PC. He seems to have truly cashed in on the 'unlimited knowledge, unlimited paisa' promise of the month-old JCPK.
Verma fielded four questions from Govinda to reach Rs 25,001, before he went 'shopping'. With Re 1, Verma chose an AC, before answering four more teasers to get to the Rs 2,00,001 mark. This time, he 'bought' a computer for Re 1. Four more correct answers left him with Rs 12,00,001. His next shopping bout got him a Santro.
From Rs 12,00,001 to Rs 10,000,001 with just three questions. 'Which of these is not part of Bharatnatyam?' came the question, followed by four options. But Verma, who had been 'cool' till then, had too much to lose. A wrong answer, and it would be back to Rs 12,00,001.
There are no lifelines in Jeeto - a show conceived by Calcutta's Derek O'Brien, whose company KQscore.com provides the questions - but 'Dosts'. Having used the two others, Verma just had 'Sahi Ya Galat' left. He called for his final Dost.
Moksha is a part of Bharatnatyam, True or False? Verma tossed a mental coin. But he took Govindaji's advice - Better safe than sorry.
Verma hung up his gloves. 'What would your final answer have been?' asked Hero No. 1. 'False,' came the reply. Right, but his time was up.
Had Verma been in time, he would have had Rs 20,000,001 in the bank and could have gone 'shopping' for questions, not gifts, with the Re 1. If he had tripped at the Rs 3 crore question, he would have just lost Re 1, the cost price. But if he were right, he would have won Rs 1 crore more and gone on, with every correct answer bringing in Rs 1 crore. There's no ceiling to the final amount - one can keep going forever.
Handing over the check for 1 crore to the man in the hotseat, Govinda called Verma's wife on stage from the audience. He handed her the 'shagun' of Re 1, took her hand, and danced an ecstatic dance to the show's theme song.





