Next week, Minder in Mandarin

I was delighted to see that Britain is still having a colonial influence on the sub-continent. The other evening it was my pleasure to see the Indian version of “Who wants to be a greedy bastard”, which is called “2 Crorepati”. Let me expand on this.

The prize for getting the first question right in the Indian version is £12.50, rather feeble compared to the £100 offered by our pal Tarrant, but the 2 Crorepati of the title does not refer to a dish seldom seen at your local tandoori, but rather to an amount roughly equivalent to £2.5million. Thus far, to the best of my knowledge, no-one has won that amount, but someone won 1 crore rupees, something in excess of £1 million.

What was most interesting to me was to see my old friend Amitabh Bachchan hosting the programme. Amitabh is the most famous person in India, with the possible exception of the sainted Sachin. It is possible that there are no other famous people in India, and he has to perform all the duties which require fame, in the same way that Lata Mangeshkar is the only singer in India, and has to sing all of the songs.

Amitabh, who always looked vaguely odd to me, now resembles Rasputin, in much the same way that Mr Pacino has done, but with more conviction. He also makes the mistake that Tazza never does of affecting to be knowledgeable, and comes unstuck as a result.

I commend it to those wishing to expand their knowledge of Hindi. I have learnt the following phrases, listed below with their English equivalent, after watching only part of one episode:

Hot-seat Hot-seat

Confident? Confident?

Are you sure? Are you sure?

I expect that having only mildly criticised Mr Bachchan, I will get some abuse from his fans, should they be bothered to come over here. It’s a good job I didn’t say he was a talentless, third-rate actor who wouldn’t even get an audition for Crossroads then, isn’t it?

Hari Om Tat Sat.