Amitabh Bachchan woke up Tuesday with newspapers informing him that his trend-setting game show "Kaun Banega Crorepati" (KBC) on Star Plus was all set to be revived, just one more instance of the press being misinformed as it turned out.

"That was really news to me," Amitabh laughed when contacted by IANS.

"KBC being revived? Hmmmm. Not a bad idea. But how come I haven't been told about it? The truth is, there has been no communication to this effect from Star Plus or the chief operating officer (COO) Samir Nair who's been coordinating about the matter from the time the show began," he said.

"Of course, I'm committed to Star Plus to do a certain number of episodes of KBC. But how when and where will depend on mutual convenience. They can't just announce the date. We'll have to sit down and work out the new schedules for KBC according to my film shootings," Bollywood's mega star added.

So is there any truth to the stories about KBC's revival? "Not as far as I know. Sure I'm committed to get back to KBC. But there have been no fresh talks, no headway and certainly no discussion on new schedules."

How the story of KBC's revival got out is a story in itself. Apparently, on Monday night at the launch event for Ekta Kapoor's new serial "Karm", the producer failed to make an appearance (Ekta said she's down with a bout of food poisoning).

With a fleet of press persons breathing down their necks, Star officials panicked and their spokespersons hit upon the KBC card to bail them out of the crisis.

"Just like KBC had once bailed us out," said a Star official laughing, referring to how the show catapulted the channel to the number one slot.

"Since Madame Kapoor didn't turn up we had no choice but to deflect attention from the crisis on hand by talking about KBC. As things stand, there have been no further developments on the revival of the game show nor any further talks with Mr Bachchan on the matter. This KBC-revival story is as legitimate as the periodical announcements of Ms. (Aishwarya) Rai going to Hollywood."

Fair enough. But how long is the press going to allow itself to be taken for a ride?