As we all are gearing up for the season 14 finale tomorrow (21st February 2021), I thought of writing a tribute of sorts for all the fans of the biggest reality show in India, Bigg Boss. Each year the show locks up dozens of celebrities (also some non-celebrities in few seasons) in a house with camera surveillance, for 100 odd days and leaves them at the mercy of the rules of Bigg Boss and audience votes.
One housemate is eliminated each week and the last one standing takes home the winning prize and the trophy. This year Aly Goni, Nikki Tamboli, Rahul Vaidya, Rakhi Sawant and Rubina Dilaik are the 5 finalists, audiences are voting for, to make their favorite the winner of season 14 (Winner updated below). As a fan of the show and the format and for nostalgia sake, in retrospect, let us see, over the years, how the contestants have fared in the show and also, who became the ultimate champions of each season below.
Bigg Boss (Season 1)
The first season started in 2006 and was broadcasted on Sony Entertainment Television. It had a variety of celebrities from diverse genres of entertainment, from the has been superstar Rahul Roy to the queen of item songs Rakhi Sawant, from Bhojpuri Superstar Ravi Kisan to Bollywood actress and dancer Kashmera Shah. It also starred three super models Aryan Vaid, Anupama Varma and Carol Gracias. The show was a run away hit and grabbed a lot of eyeballs. It was shot in Lonavla and was hosted by Arshad Warsi. The current TV Superstar Rupali Ganguly (of Anupama fame) was also a part of the show and reached the Top 6. Ragini Shetty was the only non celebrity on the show.
Winner : Rahul Roy | Scene Stealer : Rakhi Sawant | Surprise Package : Carol Gracias
Bigg Boss (Season 2)
The second season aired on the then new General Entertainment Channel (GEC), Colors, which has been the broadcaster ever since. It too featured a mix of celebrities which included the likes of Ashutosh Kaushik (Reality Show Roadies Winner), Zulfi Syed (Super Model), Raja Chaudhary (Ex-Husband of Shweta Tiwari), and Sambhavna Seth (Dancer) and Payal Rohatgi (Actress). Rahul Mahajan, the son of politician Pramod Mahajan was also part of the show and started his reality show stint with Bigg Boss. The show was hosted by Bollywood Actress and former Big Brother UK winner, Shilpa Shetty.
Winner : Ashutosh Kaushik | Scene Stealer : Rahul Mahajan | Surprise Package : Rahul Mahajan
Bigg Boss (Season 3)
In its third season, the show became grander and was hosted by the Bollywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan. It too had a varied mix of controversial names like Sherlyn Chopra (Actress), Kamaal R Khan (KRK) and Vinod Kambli (Cricketer/Actor). It also was the first season to feature a married couple Tanaaz and Bakhtiyar. KRK became the first housemate to be ejected, due to violence (throwing a bottle on designer Rohit Verma) from the show. The has been Bollywood superstar Poonam Dhillon also participated and reached the top 3.
Winner : Vindu Dara Singh | Scene Stealer : Vindu Dara Singh | Surprise Package : Pravesh Rana
Bigg Boss (Season 4)
The show reached a new high in the fourth season when the then Bollywood Superstar Salman Khan took the responsibility of hosting the show. Popular TV faces like Shweta Tiwari (Kasauti Zindagi Kay fame) and Sana Khan (Bidaai Fame) took part in the show. Like other seasons it too had controversial names like Dolly Bindra, Veena Malik and Ashmit Patel on the show. Bhojpuri Superstar Manoj Tiwary and Supermodels Hrishant Goswami and Aanchal Khurana also contested for a prize money of 1 crore. The show grabbed a lot of eyeballs when WWE Superstar The Great Khali entered as a wildcard contestant and Hollywood Actress Pamela Anderson became a house guest. The show hosted a wedding for the first time when Sara Khan tied the knots with Ali Merchant in the show.
Winner : Shweta Tiwari | Scene Stealer : Shweta Tiwari/Dolly Bindra | Surprise Package : Ashmit Patel/Veena Malik
Bigg Boss (Season 5)
Season 5 started with a unique theme of one male contestant locked up with 13 female contestants in the house. Shakti Kapoor was the chosen male and actress like Juhi Parmar, Pooja Bedi, Mehak Chahal entered the show with him. Later Amar Upadhyay, Akashdeep Sehgal and Siddharth Bharadwaj too, joined them in the coming weeks. Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt hosted the show. The show made headlines when then adult film actress Sunny Leone entered the show as a wild card contestant.
Winner : Juhi Parmar | Scene Stealer : Pooja Missra | Surprise Package : Pooja Missra
Bigg Boss (Season 6)
Season 6 was different in the sense that it was telecasted at prime time (9 pm) and was presented as a family show. It too, starred big names like Urvashi Dholakia and Navjot Singh Sidhu and Salman Khan returned as the solo host. The show had few eccentric names like Sampat Pal, Sapna Bhavnani and Imam Siddiqui, who added the much needed zing to a rather dull season. For the first time a divorced couple Delnaz Irani and Rajev Paul participated together in the show. The show was better received in terms of ratings than the previous season 5.
Winner : Urvashi Dholakia | Scene Stealer : Imam Siddiqui | Surprise Package : Sana Khan
Bigg Boss (Season 7)
Season 7 started with the unique theme of heaven vs hell where housemates were divided into two groups (heaven and hell). The season starred Gauahar Khan, Tanisha Mukerji, Kushal Tandon, Kamya Punjabi, Pratyusha Banerjee and others. Apurva Agnihotri and Shilpa Saklani participated as a married couple. The show was hosted by Salman Khan.
Winner : Gauahar Khan | Scene Stealer : Gauahar Khan | Surprise Package : Tanisha Mukerji
Bigg Boss (Season 8)
The theme for season 8 was initially, of an airplane crashed in the Bigg Boss house. Celebrities like Karishma Tanna, Deepshikha, Upen Patel, Punit Issar, Sukirti Kandpal, Minisha Lamba, Diandra Soares and RJ Pritam participated in the show. The season became the first season to be extended and five contestants of the past seasons were added to the Top 5 contestants of the 8th season (for an additional one month). Salman Khan hosted the main season and Farah Khan filled for him during the extended duration.
Winner : Gautam Gulati | Scene Stealer : Shonali Raut/Diandra Soares | Surprise Package : Gautam Gulati
Bigg Boss (Season 9)
This year too they had a theme – two contestants were tied to each other with a rope and performed as a pair for the initial weeks. Aman Verma, Roopal Tyagi, Digangana Suryavanshi and Rimi Sen were the big names who participated in the show. Two real life couples Keith Sequeira & Rochelle Rao and Kishwer Merchant & Suyyash Rai contested for the title. Nora Fatehi also was wild card contestant on the show.
Winner : Prince Narula | Scene Stealer : Mandan Karimi | Surprise Package : Rochelle Rao
Bigg Boss (Season 10)
Season 10 was special because for the first time the show held auditions for the common man of India and consequently, non celebrities were invited to be a part of the show. Rahul Dev, Gaurav Chopra, Banj J, Karan Mehra, Mona Lisa and Rohan Mehra were the celebrities who participated. Manu Punjabi, Manveer Gujar, Nitibha Kaul and Om Swami were the selected commoners. Salman Khan hosted the show. Two contestants (Om Swami and Priyanka Jagga), on two separate occasions respectively, were ejected out of the show due to abusive and indecent behavior.
Winner : Manveer Gujar | Scene Stealer : Om Swami/Manu Punjabi | Surprise Package : Mona Lisa/Lopa Mudra
Bigg Boss (Season 11)
Bigg Boss 11 was the only season to have started with only 6 known names out of which only 3 could be called legit celebrities, namely, Hiten Tejwani, Shilpa Shinde and Hina Khan. But ironically it was the most successful season of the franchise and was so entertaining with its initial cast that it only had one wild card entry Dhinchak Pooja for entire season. Arshi Khan, Vikas Gupta, Akash Dadlani, Puneesh Sharma and Luv Tyagi became house hold names after the show. Puneesh Sharma and Bandgi Kalra who started the show as fake lovers ended up falling for one another in the later weeks. There was a Padosi theme as well initially, which did not work and was scrapped after two weeks. Salman Khan returned as the host of the show.
P.S.-This is also my favorite season of the lot.
Winner : Shilpa Shinde | Scene Stealer : Shilpa Shinde/Arshi Khan/ Akash Dadlani | Surprise Package : Vikas Gupta
Bigg Boss (Season 12)
Season 12 was a bummer to be honest and did not excite me to watch it in entirety. Almost all contestants were boring. The show had cricketer S Sreesanth, TV Actress Dipika Kakkar, TV Actor Karanvir Bohra and singer Anup Jalota headlining the cast. Salman Khan returned as the host. This was also the last season to feature commoners as housemates.
Winner : Dipika Kakkar | Scene Stealer : Sreesanth, Anup Jalota | Surprise Package : Dipika Kakkar
Bigg Boss (Season 13)
The show returned to celebrities only theme with this season. Also this along with the next season was quite lenient with house rules and evictions. A number of people were exempted from evictions through various twists by the makers. But due to an interesting mix of contestants in the cast the season was successful and was also extended for a month. The show had celebrity names like Rashami Desai, Sidharth Shukla, Paras Chabra, Aarti Singh and Devoleena Bhattacharji as contestants. Not so well known names like Asim Riaz and Shehnaaz Gill became household names with the show. The show also for the second time after season 8 had two finales. Salman Khan returned as the host.
Winner : Sidharth Shukla | Scene Stealer : Shehnaaz Gill | Surprise Package : Asim Riaz
Bigg Boss (Season 14)
The show turned out to be the most confused season ever with themes changing every week. The show started with a line of 11 contestants headlined by Rubina Dilaik and Abhinav Shukla who entered as a married couple, Pavitra Punia, Eijaz Khan, Jasmin Bhasin and Nishant Malkani. The show initially started with a theme of seniors and juniors with ex contestants Sidharth Shukla, Hina Khan and Gauahar Khan returning as Seniors. But soon the theme was changed to Heaven vs Hell (similar to season 7) when the seniors exited after two weeks. The theme was further changed to contestants vs challengers (similar to season 8) after two months and ex housemates Rakhi Sawant, Manu Punjabi, Arshi Khan, Kashmera Shah, Vikas Gupta and Rahul Mahajan entered the show. The show will also be remembered for multiple wild card entries and re-entries.
Whims and Quirks 