A portion of a recent episode of Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati, which depicted the unscientific practice of “mid-brain activation”, has been pulled down from several official platforms, including YouTube, after it was called out by rationalist Narendra Nayak. The questionable portion of the video, which has been pulled down by Sony Entertainment Television India, showed a young girl claiming to be able to read a book while being blindfolded, by merely “smelling” it.
Objecting to the depiction which was earlier aired as part of episode 62 of season 13 of the show, Narendra Nayak, President of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, noted that several organisations have exploited gullible parents in the past by making fraudulent claims of being able to “increase childrens’ brain power” by “activating their mid-brain.” In his complaint to Sony Entertainment Television, Nayak also pointed out that platforming such unscientific practices would bring down India’s reputation. “By giving publicity to such claims, you are bringing down the reputation of our nation and the world will laugh at us who are saying that children can see without light from the object falling on their retinas,” Nayak wrote.
Mid-brain activation is a programme that claims to train children to sense things without actually seeing them, and has been debunked several times. Rationalists like Narendra Nayak and scientists have objected to this technique and called it a scam. Nayak even offered to test the so-called “abilities” under fraud proof conditions, if the child’s parents allowed it. In the now deleted segment, the host of the show Amitabh Bachchan was seen playfully questioning the veracity of the young girl’s claims, asking if she had memorised the words in the book in advance so she could read them blindfolded.
Responding to Nayak’s complaint, a representative of Sony Entertainment Television said that the episode has been pulled down from all platforms and suitably edited. “Further, we have sensitized the team to be more vigilant and avoid such interactions for all future episodes … At Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), our endeavour at all times has been to ensure that the content is within the framework of the laws of India. SPNI is sensitive to the sentiments of our viewers. We place great emphasis on providing wholesome quality entertainment and we take care to ensure the sensibilities of our viewers are not affected,” the response said.