Sunidhi Chauhan Calls Amitabh Bachchan Her ‘First Crush’ on KBC 18; Big B’s Playful Reply Makes Her Blush

THE CELEBRITY HOUR

Sunidhi Chauhan turned an upcoming episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati 18 into a mix of nostalgia, music and playful banter when she told host Amitabh Bachchan that he had been her “first crush.”

The exchange appears in a promotional clip shared through SonyLIV’s official social-media presence ahead of Chauhan’s appearance on the quiz show. The acclaimed singer joins lyricist and poet Prasoon Joshi for the special episode.

What makes the moment work is Bachchan’s immediate comeback. Instead of simply accepting the compliment, the veteran actor teased Chauhan about why she had waited so long to tell him.

Sunidhi Chauhan tells Amitabh Bachchan: ‘You were my first crush’

In the KBC promo, Chauhan reflects on the different ways audiences have seen Bachchan over the decades before making the personal admission.

She tells him, “You are Santa Claus to me. You were my first crush.”

Bachchan quickly responds in Hindi: “Aapko humpe crush tha, yeh ab bata rahi hain aap, tab nahi bataya.”

Loosely translated, the actor jokingly asks why Chauhan is telling him about the crush only now instead of revealing it back then.

The reply visibly amuses the singer, who smiles and appears bashful during the exchange.

The conversation fits naturally into KBC’s long-running format, in which Bachchan frequently moves beyond quiz questions to engage guests and contestants in spontaneous personal conversations.

Sunidhi had already called appearing opposite Bachchan a ‘dream’

The latest promo also adds context to comments Chauhan made after shooting the episode.

Speaking after the KBC 18 recording earlier this month, the singer described sitting on the hot seat opposite Bachchan as a special experience.

She said that being on the KBC hot seat is a dream for many people and added that simply sitting in front of Bachchan was itself a major moment for her. She described herself as fortunate to have received the opportunity alongside Prasoon Joshi.

That earlier comment makes her crush confession in the promo feel less like an isolated piece of banter and more consistent with the admiration she had already expressed publicly after filming.

Sunidhi turns the KBC hot seat into a musical stage

The episode is not limited to conversation.

The promotional material also shows Chauhan performing “Yeh Mera Dil,” a song with a particularly fitting connection to Bachchan.

Chauhan recorded the recreated version for Farhan Akhtar’s 2006 Don, starring Shah Rukh Khan. The song itself originated in the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Don, where Asha Bhosle sang the original version.

During Chauhan’s rendition on KBC, Bachchan is seen listening and applauding her performance.

It creates an unusual full-circle moment: a singer performing a modern version of a song associated with one of Bachchan’s defining films while sitting opposite the actor himself.

This is not their first television encounter

Chauhan and Bachchan’s television paths have crossed before.

Back in 2010, Bachchan appeared at the Indian Idol 5 finale when Chauhan was one of the programme’s judges alongside Anu Malik and Salim Merchant.

Contemporary reporting from the finale recorded Bachchan interacting with the contestants, dancing to “Say Shava Shava” and presenting the winner’s trophy to Sreeram Chandra.

Chauhan was therefore already sharing a major television stage with Bachchan more than 15 years before this latest KBC appearance.

One wrinkle in the ‘first crush’ story

There is, however, an interesting piece of older footage that deserves acknowledgment.

A throwback video circulated publicly in 2024 showed Chauhan telling Sunny Deol that watching his 1983 debut film Betaab had made him her first crush. In that clip, she specifically praised Deol’s eyes and profile and said she continued to have a crush on him.

That earlier statement sits awkwardly beside the new KBC declaration that Bachchan was her first crush.

There are several harmless possible explanations — Chauhan may have been speaking playfully in one or both appearances, or using “first crush” colloquially rather than establishing a literal chronology — but she has not publicly clarified the difference in the material reviewed by The Celebrity Hour.

For accuracy, the new comment is therefore best reported exactly as it occurred: Sunidhi Chauhan told Amitabh Bachchan on KBC 18 that he was her first crush.

The Celebrity Hour Take

Celebrity television moments are often built around compliments, but this exchange has more context than a routine promotional clip.

Chauhan had already described appearing opposite Bachchan as a dream opportunity before the promo emerged. She then performs a song connected directly to his original Don, while the pair also share a television history stretching back to Indian Idol 5.

The older Sunny Deol clip adds an unexpected wrinkle. Rather than ignoring it, acknowledging the contradiction makes the story stronger and more transparent. The important fact is not establishing a definitive ranking of Chauhan’s childhood crushes; it is documenting what she told Bachchan on the KBC stage and how he responded.

Sources & Verification

This report was prepared by reviewing reporting based on SonyLIV’s official Kaun Banega Crorepati 18 promotional clip, Sunidhi Chauhan’s comments after filming the episode, and archival coverage of her previous television interactions with Amitabh Bachchan. The Celebrity Hour also checked an older publicly circulated video in which Chauhan described Sunny Deol as her first crush, and has therefore attributed the latest claim specifically to her KBC appearance rather than presenting it as an uncontested biographical fact.