Amitabh Bachchan’s Heartwarming Gesture Towards IRS Officer Ashutosh Pandey On KBC 17 Wins the Internet
In KBC's 17th season, host Amitabh Bachchan's interaction with IRS officer Ashutosh Pandey, a contestant, gained attention.
“Kaun Banega Crorepati” has entered its 17th edition, with Amitabh Bacchan returning as the host of the iconic show. The program often narrates inspiring and unique journey of contestants, but the special interaction between Amitabh Bachchan and a contestant Ashutosh Pandey, during the first two episodes of the ongoing season, caught everyone’s attention and is being widely discussed. Ashutosh Kumar Pandey is an IRS officer posted as Deputy Commissioner of Income-tax in Agra.
The episode began with the Fastest Fingers First, in which the top 2 contestants competed in Jaldi 5. When Amitabh Bacchan asked for the basic introduction of both candidates, Ashutosh shared that he was native to Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, currently posted as Deputy Commissioner of Income-tax. On listening to this, Amitabh Bacchan appeared visibly bewildered. In an unconventional gesture, Amitabh Bacchan moved ahead to touch the feet of the IRS officer, after shaking hands, remarking that he would always like to present himself before the Income Tax Department like this.
He added that he would plead for mercy, in case of any of his matters going before the department. The wit of the legendary actor made the whole atmosphere very lively, well appreciated by the audience alike. The video snippets of the incident are being shared widely on the social media.
In the contest, Ashutosh Pandey emerged victorious in Jaldi 5, to proceed to the hot seat. Amitabh Bacchan again remarked that he usually escorted only female contestants to the hot seat, but this case was different, therefore, he escorted Ashutosh Pandey to hot seat, out of sheer respect as he was Deputy Commissioner of Income-tax. Incidentally, the first question asked to Ashutosh was related to the Raid movie, where Ajay Devgan portrayed as an IRS officer.
Amitabh Bacchan had a detailed conversation with the officer regarding the Raids conducted by the department. Ashutosh mentions that Raids are technically called “Search and Seizure”, with him being part of 20-25 raids, in a career of 4 years. He has also supervised the assessment of search cases, in central charges, leading to detection of tax evasion of more than 1500-2000 crores, contributing to the public exchequer. He also adds that since Raid is the most extreme step at the disposal of the department, therefore, abundant caution is exercised, with a Raid being consequence of detailed background enquiries spanning multiple months.
In another widely discussed moment of the show, Ashutosh Pandey narrated few lines from a poem of Shri Harivansh Rai Bacchan, in front of the legendary actor. The context and narration were well reciprocated by Amitabh Bacchan, who repeated the lines after Ashutosh. The theme of the poem was “Jo Beet Gyi So Baat Gyi”, where Ashutosh stressed that the poem had been a landmark and inspiration for him during his academic and professional journey.
It is noteworthy that Ashutosh has very strong academic foundations and successful sprint across multiple All-India competition examinations. He has cleared the most prestigious UPSC Civil Services Examination, in 2017 and 2019, being an officer of 2018 Batch of Indian Revenue Service (IRS). Previously, he held the distinction of clearing medical and engineering entrance examinations simultaneously, acing IIT, AIIMS, BITS, AIPMT and AFMC exams, in parallel. He had initially joined the MBBS program of AFMC Pune, only to be subsequently withdrawn, to join Computer Science Engineering in BITS Pilani. He has previously worked as Senior Research Engineer in Samsung Research, before joining the Civil Services.
Ashutosh was accompanied by his mother Asha Pandey and wife Arpita Dubey on the show. His wife works in a private organization after pursuing education from IIM Ahmedabad. Ashutosh is the eldest of his siblings, with his sister Priya Pandey being an IIT-Guwahati alumnus and younger sister pursuing MBBS. On speaking with his father Ajay Kumar Pandey, he remarked about persistent dedication and commitment of Ashutosh, since childhood.
Ashutosh shares the vision of furthering educational opportunities and career guidance for the underprivileged, specially from his hometown. He is seen engaging with students on various public forums, planning to use the prize money won in KBC in the same direction. He already runs a YouTube channel to offer free guidance to aspirants of UPSC and other competitive examinations. His success is being widely celebrated in his hometown, Ballia, having represented the town on the big stage.
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