No more weekend ka vaar, ab prime-time nahi bekaar.
Bigg Boss10 returned on our TV screens with great fanfare and the junta’s favourite ‘Sultan’ of Bollywood. But unlike every year, this season, the makers added new tadka (Indiawalle vs celebs) to grab the audience’s attention and interest. But unfortunately, the tadka, instead of enhancing the flavour of the show, left a burnt odour for the viewers. BB10 became popular for all the wrong reasons and like Salman Khan said at the grand finale – FINALLY it’s over!
Manveer Gurjar, an aam aadmi lifted the trophy and made everyone proud (probably even Arvind Kejriwal). Bhai, it’s tough being in front of dozens of cameras 24x7, performing silly tasks. You deserved this win. *Slow clap*.
But what we don’t deserve is Season 10. So dear makers, we hope Season 11 is nothing like this year.
In three months BB10 had it all – fist-fights, love affair, scandals, marriage and suhag raat (thankfully without any cameras). Basically, a modern but short version of Ekta Kapoor’s melodramatic serials. It did have one of India’s favourite bahus Shweta Tiwari aka Prerna winning season four, which saw not just the highest average TRP of 5.15, but Bhaijaan also made debut.
So what really went wrong this season?
The reality show is like a Gujarati thali – an assortment of different dishes (people) placed in one plate (house). The greed for TRPs (season nine had an average TRP rating of 2.9, the highest that it saw) forced the makers to invite (eight) commoners into the house with seven celebs. A move that went horribly wrong for the show.
The show thrives on the contestants’ shameful, lewd behaviour. The self-styled godman Om (the man doesn’t deserve to be called a Swami) coloured the house yellow! He peed in a mug, threw his urine on fellow contestant Bani Judge and Rohan Mehra during a task, damaged Big Boss property, ogled Lopamudra Raut, stole products from the house, and happily ate non-veg while he claimed to be a vegetarian. Basically, he was the Terminator of the house, causing that kind of havoc that no other contestant from any season could.
But he wasn’t alone, his partner in crime was his so-called ‘beti’ Priyanka Jagga Muise. The woman spat abuses to family members (she didn’t spare Manu Punjabi’s deceased mother), made nasty comments to Monalisa, and even snapped at Bhai.
Everyone had their reasons for why the show turned out to be a damp squib. The celebs blamed the Indiawalla for their gawaar behaviour. The commoners blamed the father-daughter jodi for hogging camera time and giving Bigg Boss a bad name.
But the question is – is it fair to blame only Om or Priyanka for bringing the house down? The two did exactly what their predecessors did. In Season 9, both Priya Malik and Rishabh Sinha peed during a task on national TV. What Om did was to take it a step further.
The creepy Om was invited into the house by the makers despite knowing that he had a non-bailable warrant against him in a theft case. In an interview, Colors CEO Raj Nayak was asked about keeping such a contestant on the show, and all he said was:
It doesn’t matter if he has case against him. He is not a convict. So many people have cases against them. At the time of auditions, the content team looks at a contestant they think will be good for the show and takes him or her. Today he is our most popular contestant and who knows, he might come out as a changed person!Raj Nayak
During Weekend Ka Vaar, Bhai often called him the ‘next big entertainer’ and laughed at his actions, not realising that these very actions would hurt the show and its loyal viewers.
Celebs in BB10 were pieces of wooden furniture, doing absolutely nothing for the show. Like Jadoo needed dhoop, Bani needed food. But at least Jadoo used his powers, while Bani chose to stay out of the tasks. Lopamudra had her Ms India image to take care of. Gaurav Chopra was too lost in his ‘actor’ persona. Rahul Dev automatically got the senior citizen’s tag from his fellow contestants. Monalisa danced her way from one room to another. Rohan Mehra was dealing with celeb identity crises, and Karan Mehra missed his wife too much to participate in anything in the house.
With a bunch of disinterested celebs, you can’t blame Indiawallas for taking control over the steering of a sinking ship, making it a Titanic failure.
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