KBC 18: SSC aspirant's Rs 25 lakh win brings dream of buying a home closer
Ruchita Adhalrao won Rs 25 lakh on Kaun Banega Crorepati 18, bringing her closer to her dream of buying a home for her family in Dharavi. The SSC aspirant will return on Friday to attempt the Rs 1 crore question with two lifelines remaining.
SSC aspirant Ruchita Adhalrao from Dharavi won Rs 25 lakh on the latest episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati 18, enough to bring her closer to buying a home for her family. The Amitabh Bachchan-hosted show ended with the Mumbai contestant securing the amount after using only two lifelines, while the preview showed that she would return on Friday to face the Rs 1 crore question.
During the episode, Ruchita spoke about her family’s financial struggles and said they live in a 10-by-10-foot rented room in Dharavi. She said her father works as a patient caretaker and earns Rs 600 a day, making it difficult for the family to pay rent on time. Earlier in the episode, she had said they might be able to afford a home if she won Rs 25 lakh.
Ruchita reached the 13th question and answered it correctly after using the 50:50 lifeline. The question was: “Fort William in Kolkata, now renamed Vijay Durg, was originally named after which ruler?” The options were William of Orange, William Rufus, William the Conqueror and William the Silent.
She first guessed that the answer was William of Orange. Moments before locking it, she chose the 50:50 lifeline. After two wrong answers were removed, she went ahead with her original choice, William of Orange, and it turned out to be correct.
William of Orange was the King of England from 1689 to 1702. The fort named after him was built in Kolkata in 1696 by the British East India Company, and permission for it was granted by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
At present, Fort William is the property of the Indian Army. A war memorial there displays artefacts from the 1971 India-Pakistan war. The fort was renamed Vijay Durg in 2025.
The preview for Friday’s episode showed that Ruchita will attempt the Rs 1 crore question. She still has two lifelines left: MahaFlip and Sanket Suchak.
Ruchita’s story on the show
Ruchita said she believes a government job is the only way she can pull her family out of poverty. As visuals from her home were shown, she said she has never slept on a bed because their house is too small to keep one, and that sleeping on a bed is one of her dreams. She also shared that one of her mother’s dreams is to own a refrigerator. The family home is shared by Ruchita, her parents and her brother.
She also said the family has never celebrated birthdays because they could never afford to buy a cake. They do not celebrate festivals either because of their limited income. For her SSC preparation, she cannot afford coaching classes or books, so she downloads YouTube videos using public Wi-Fi and studies from them at home.
Her father, who was also on the show, said she has always been a sincere student and would walk to college to save bus fare.
Earlier on the show
On the August 19 episode, IIT Bombay topper and UPSC aspirant Yogesh Sahu had stopped at Rs 50 lakh after deciding not to attempt the Rs 1 crore question. After leaving the game, he said, “This was the one I was eliminating,” when Amitabh Bachchan revealed the correct answer.
Season 18 of Kaun Banega Crorepati premiered on August 10, has 16 questions and a top prize of Rs 7 crore.