As part of Big Boss 12 that premiered on September 16, 2018, there were 17 contestants who entered the house. For over 199 days, the participants will reside in a beach-themed house; and around 89 cameras will be recording their activities that will be televised for the audiences. This time around, there is a good mix of celebrities and non-celebrities – who will be the participants. Moreover, the theme is Singles vs Doubles; in Doubles, 2 contestants enter in Jodis or twos and are counted as one.
Vichitra Jodis
Next on the list are the ‘vichitra jodis’ who were, earlier, locked inside an outhouse and had to perform a series of tasks. The audiences had the opportunity of voting for the ‘Jodi’ of their choice via the Voot app. The 2 jodis are of former roadies, Surbhi Rana and Kriti Verma, and the friends-turned-foes, Mital Joshi and Roshmi Banik. But, Roshmi and Kriti scored the maximum number of votes and thus, were given the opportunity to become Big Boss’ newest contestants.
About Big Boss
Based on the US TV series ‘Big Brother’, the Big Boss show is an Indian reality show that broadcasts in India. The producer of the show’s franchise is Endemol India. Overall, there are 7 versions, pertaining to 7 languages, as part of the show’s franchise. During the year 2006, the first series In Hindi was released. Since then and until the year 2018, the franchise has featured shows in varied languages such as Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, and Tamil.
Initially, only celebrities were invited to be part of the show; but for the latest seasons, the general public has been invited to partake in the Telegu, Kannada, and Hindi versions.
As a show’s participant, the contestants or housemates have to reside in a specially-created house that is isolated from the outer world. Every week, one contestant is voted out, until only one of them remains in the house and who is then, proclaimed to be the winner of the show. As long as the contestants are inside the house, their actions are monitored via television cameras and personal audio microphones.
The Hindi version was the first one in the franchise that premiered in the year 2006 on Sony Entertainment Television. The host was Arshad Warsi and the cash prize amounted to 1 crore.
Then, Viacom 18 acquired the show’s license and the subsequent season was televised on Colors television: Shilpa Shetty hosted the show’s 2nd season. The host of the show’s third season was the veteran superstar, Amitabh Bachchan. For the 4th season, Salman Khan was roped in as the host. For the show’s 5th season, both Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt jointly co-hosted the show. Then, from the 6th season onwards till date, Salman Khan continues being the host.
From the 5th season onwards, the prize money was reduced to Rs 50 lakh. Also, from being a celebrity-based show, the show started to introduce common people from the 9th season onwards.
The latest 12th season is based on couples; also, Salman’s co-host is touted to be actress Katrina Kaif. Since the show’s 1st season, ‘Atul Kapoor’ has been the voice of ‘Big Boss’.
For the 1st 4 seasons, at Lonavala, an abode was specially-constructed to house the contestants. Then, for the 5th season, a set was built at Big ND Studios, Karjat, for housing the participants. Thereafter, from the 6th season onwards, the Lonavala house was rebuilt and used for the show.