KBC 14 contestant who brought girlfriend on show reveals family reaction
KBC 14 contestant Ayush Garg says his friends’ parents are now asking them to join dating apps after he brought his girlfriend to the Amitabh Bachchan show, and shared they had met through online dating. He also speaks about making it to Kaun Banega Crorepati on his first attempt.
Amitabh Bachchan was curious to find out how couples meet and fall in love in the 21st century as he asked Kaun Banega Crorepati contestant Ayush Garg about online dating in a recent episode of the popular quiz show. In August, Ayush, who took home ₹75 lakh as the prize money, was joined by his girlfriend Arushi Sharma on the show hosted by the veteran actor.
On KBC 14, Ayush had opened up about meeting his girlfriend not through friends, colleagues or acquaintances, but via an online dating app. Now, in an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Ayush has spoken about life after KBC, and also revealed how his experience on the game show is changing the way people around him look at online dating.
On KBC 14, through their conversations, Amitabh Bachchan and Ayush highlighted how the nature of dating has been fundamentally transformed by online platforms. The IIT-Delhi and IIM-Ahmedabad graduate, who works as a strategy and operations manager with a tech start-up, said by sharing his personal experience he was able to shed light on why people go on online dating platforms and what they do there. When asked about his family and friends’ reaction to his appearance on KBC 14, Ayush said that more than anything else he’s made the prospect of online dating more appealing for his friends’ parents.
“Online dating comes very easily to us (the younger generation), almost everyone who is single is on these apps. But, most of our parent’s generation has never dated, so for them it is an unexplored territory. I was happy to share my experience with Amitabh Bachchan on KBC and in a way normalise meeting potential partners through online dating apps.
In fact, after the show aired, a lot of my peers and friends were being asked by their parents if they were on dating apps. Their parents want them to find partners in new ways now, and are telling them if they are not on these apps, then they should be. Something like this was a positive outcome that makes it (speaking about his relationship on television) worth it,” Ayush said.
While Ayush admitted that he did not expect any of what happened, it was something he was very comfortable with. Ayush said he’s seen nothing but benefits to his KBC 14 appearance, and doesn’t worry about being overwhelmed with the obligations of his newfound fame. When asked how he had the composure to explain the nitty-gritty of his relationship to Amitabh Bachchan on national television, Ayush said he was grateful for the exposure.
“I was glad I could be part of a conversation about something rarely discussed on KBC.” Ayush and Arushi have been dating since 2020. He added that their parents and family approve of their relationship and because they welcomed the idea of them meeting on a dating app with open arms, he felt confident about sharing their story on KBC. Ayush’s family was out of India for his sister’s convocation, when he filmed for KBC in Mumbai.
So, how did he land up on a show he’d ‘grown-up watching’ that his mother wanted him to apply to for years, and that too on his first attempt? Ayush said he applied to the game show without any expectation of success. Not only was he selected, he also won a big amount that he hopes to invest in his yet-to-be-decided start-up.
When the 28-year-old won the prize money, it was the culmination of days of highly specialised training. He studied carefully-curated lists of subjects, like Indian mythology, and prepared himself by watching previous KBC episodes to learn more about the kinds of questions he was likely to encounter on the quiz show. He also spent a lot of time catching up on current affairs.
Ayush said after his KBC episodes aired – he featured as a contestant on episode 7 on August 14 and as a rollover contestant on episode 8 on August 15 – his phone has been ringing. It was not really people trying to fund his future start-up — somehow that’s not happened yet, even though Amitabh Bachchan himself made a pitch for Ayush — but friends, family, acquaintances, and people he hasn’t seen in years offering their congratulations. The feeling of being recognised in public was nearly immediate.
