KBC: When Sushil Kumar revealed how his life fell apart after winning ₹5 crore on the show

Sushil Kumar, who became the first person to win ₹5 crore on the popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, revealed in a Facebook post last year that his life fell apart after his overnight success. Kaun Banega Crorepati is gearing up for its 13th season, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.

Sushil Kumar, who found fame after his victory on KBC in 2011, wrote on Facebook last year that he was subsequently cheated by business partners, became an alcoholic, and that his relationship with his wife suffered because of this.

He titled the note ‘The worst time of my life was after I won KBC’. He wrote, “From 2015 to 2016, it was the most difficult time of my life and I could not figure out what to do.” He wrote that he'd be asked to attend events 15 days in a month after his win, and that he began investing in a few businesses just to have something to say to the journalists who'd ask to interview him.

When none of those businesses worked, his relationship with his wife suffered and he took to alcohol. He found salvation in films, and arrived in Mumbai to make it as a director, but was told to try his luck in TV first.

“Staying in all day and reading about things made me take an unbiased look at myself and I realised that I didn’t come to Mumbai to become a filmmaker but to run away from my own self. The true happiness is in doing what your heart wants to do. You can never calm down you ego. It’s a thousand times better to be a good human than a famous one,” he said.

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Sushil returned to Mumbai as a teacher, and quit drinking in 2016. He said that he stopped smoking in 2019.