I fell ill. I had surgery, and it took me a while to recover. Certain piquant situations arose as I left it in the middle. For KBC, each episode is planned two to three months in advance, as there's the whole thing about phoning in, competition that goes on and that's a structure one can't override.

I was unable to give an exact date on which I could resume. I thought I would resume in the middle of the year, but the process would have waited for eight months.

They couldn't do that or put on another show in between, as the graphics of commercial considerations goes berserk and one can't do it for a limited period. There were many problems. I didn't say anything, but then they said they wouldn't be able to do it, so...

Were you disappointed?

No. I am truly happy Shah Rukh Khan did it and he did a very fine job. I told him so when I met him in London. I thought I was perhaps getting stale. One can't change the format.

All one can change is your initial talk to the audience and many people I met said that after what I say in the beginning they switched off the TV! It's just as well I was not there.

Were the comparisons with SRK irritating?

Not at all. They asked me several times, but he gave it a new dimension and looked at it in a more light-hearted manner. He did it perfectly well.

What about the rivalry between him and you?

It's not only boring to talk about, but embarrassing too. Everything is fine. I don'st know how this talk started.

Maybe because he was now doing your endorsements?

Just because someone does endorsements, are we going to start hating each other? Surely not. It's a wider and liberal world that we live in. There is great pleasure and delight to see a generation growing up in this manner.

It's remarkable to see what Shah Rukh has done as a human being and in his career, and continues to do. You can only feel happy about it. I was very touched by a letter to the editor in a paper, where there was a comparison of Rajnikanth and myself. In the end he wrote, why are we going on about this? Why aren't we proud of the fact that in one country we have two such people? It's a remarkable thought.

All the time we try to divide and antagonise each other, when we should appreciate the fact that there are such huge celebrities coming out of one country and industry. I wrote back to him, and said I applaud him for his thinking. This is what it should be.

Also Read: Amitabh loving it in the hills

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