Some of us wait for our birthdays, some for anniversaries and some for the new year to let our hair down and to let our inner crazy out! Not me, though.
Judge me, but I belong to the mad tribe that loves and adores Bigg Boss.
The Preparation
So this is how a Bigg Boss junkie’s preparation to watch the season premiere begins – the poison of your choice, beer for me (all chilled and ready), snacks planned and served followed by my favourite dinner and my own WhatsApp group of like-minded Bigg Boss crazy friends that’s already buzzing in anticipation!
However, the most important part of the prep is to get the inner feline in you to glide out like a diva, claws sharpened in all their gossipy, sarcastically, bitchy and voyeuristic glory.
The Contestants
How else would you observe and update with the speed of lightening that the poor man’s Princess Elsa, Digangana needs to practice walking (leave along dancing) on those heels! Or how Roopal evokes our favourite college term ‘BTM’ or ‘behenji turned mod’! Or Kishwar’s over-coolness when she says that her boyfriend and co-participant Suyash should choose the hottest girl as his double-trouble team mate. And Aman Verma whose cute-boy image challenged by a sting operation remains tarnished despite his enthusiastic selling of Harpic! Sigh.
And Rimi Sen, did she, didn’t she? Ok, let me just go ahead and say it, ‘how much’ surgery did she get done? The girl still has many a Dhoom’s tucked up her sleeve, that’s for sure! Vikas Bhalla – well, why exactly is he here? He is so normal (read yawningly boring) and Rochelle Rao tittering about her boyfriend, also a co-participant Keith Sequeira. And Mandana Karimi who just upped her glam-quotient and how. And we know she is the token ‘I don’t know Hindi and I love it (sarcasm) when everyone is snobbish about it, girl’, this year.
Also, the Roadies champion, Prince, who no one picked initially to be their partner and is now mighty pissed and we all our rubbed our hands gleefully knowing ‘Ab to yeh sab ki band bajaayega… wheee… what fun!’. The Gujarati singer Arvind in his interesting attire paired with Ankit Gera, whose Casanova image precedes his er… acting talent.
The Potential
And so it starts. The ‘Double Trouble’ theme – two people are bound together literally and have to live like that in the house. All these contestants, will be pitched together and made to fight for food, cleanliness duties. We get a flash of a sneak peek into things to come as Kishwar airs her biggest concern – if Aman wakes up to pee at night, her sleep would be disturbed too. Damn!
India isn’t the US of A, but all these first world problems will come alive, crackling with the potential of many tantrums and fights. Yes! And Ankit Gera with his three exes, trapped in the same house – ooh all that dirty laundry, infinite potential cat-fights and pseudo ‘I am so over you babe!’ dramas. Yes again! Give us more and the TRP gods will always shower glitter in dhinchak hues on you, dear Colors!
The Extras
What was with those senior news guys posing as psychoanalysts on the telly last night? My guess is they were there to provide some “respectability” to the show. But they just earned a ‘Naah… don’t even…’ from us. Get real, ignore the show if you must, but let’s embrace our gossip loving self tightly and warmly. Yes?
And Salman Khan
And lastly and most importantly, whether you call him Sallu, Bhaijaan or Salmaaaan (extra A’s to reflect your lust /love for him), we will all update our moralistic status updates on his numerous ‘ court cases’ some other day, but for now HE IS BACK. In his sometimes warm elder brother like protectiveness, sometimes his deliciously no holds barred bitchiness and his sometimes fully fed-up yelling. Salman Khan is ever delightful, never stale and always welcome.
So guys, as the clock struck 9 on Sunday night, I did yell - ‘Bigg Boss ke ghar ka mere ghar ke TV screen pe swagat hai’, and that’s how it’s going to be till the season ends. What about you all?
(Nandini Arora is a film and TV writer)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)