Priyanka Chopra Once Replaced Akshay Kumar As Khatron Ke Khiladi Host!(Photo Credit –Instagram/Facebook)
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Khatron Ke Khiladi is one of the best stunt-based reality shows in India. The show started in the year 2008, and it kicked off as Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi, with Akshay Kumar hosting the season. For the first two seasons, only female contestants participated in the show. However, it was in the third season that Priyanka Chopra replaced Khiladi Kumar as the host of the show.
The third season was projected as Ek Haseena and 13 Khiladi, and it featured contestants in pairs. Shabir Ahluwalia won the season with Sushma Gupta, while Ritwik Bhattacharya, a squash player with Avni, finished second. Dino Morea and Madhurima Tuli finished 3rd. The season also saw Milind Soman, Manjot Singh, Abhishek Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Terence Lewis, Karan Singh Grover, Cyrus Broacha, Rahul Dev, Angad Bedi, Armaan Ebrahim and Madhura Naik.
When Akshay Kumar was out, and Priyanka Chopra was in for the stunt-based reality show, it was a shocking turn of events. However, later, it was reported that Priyanka, with her fame and glamour, brought much more to the table than her Aitraaz co-star, who was charging very high per episode.
While the channel was struggling with sponsors for Khatron Ke Khiladi, PeeCee, with her oomph, brought a 100 crore worth deal for the show! This was 20% more than what Akshay Kumar brought to the table. While this was Color’s costliest show, Akshay’s name brought the main sponsor against 10 crore. However, with Priyanka’s entry, Garnier Men deodorant shelled out 12 crores to bag the title sponsorship. Other sponsors were charged 4 crore each. The associate sponsors included Micromax mobile, CEAT, Mahindra Scorpio, Tic Tac, Vodafone, Sony Bravia, Streax, and TVS Star City.
Priyanka Chopra’s Season TRP
However, while Priyanka brought the initial business, she could not bring the TRPs as compared to the previous season. While Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 2 opened with a rating of 2.9 for its premiere episode, Priyanka’s season opened with a rating of 2.4.
The Major Setback
The show was initially planned with 13 IPL cricketers who backed out at the last minute, and replacements were filled in immediately. While this cost a lot, along with Priyanka’s fee, production of every episode went over 2 crore. The show was shot in Coorg over 16 episodes.
Finally, after low TRPs, Akshay Kumar was roped in again as the season’s host. We guess you don’t do a Khatron Ke Khiladi without the OG Khiladi right?
