''Bigg Boss'' is an Indian reality television game show franchise based on the Dutch reality show ''

Big Brother Big Brother may refer to: * Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' ** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control ** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...

''. It is produced by

Endemol Shine India Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...

through Viacom18 and Disney Star. Subsequently, the various versions of the show are made internationally available through

OTT Ott, OTT or O.T.T. may refer to: Entertainment * OTT (group), a pop band from the late 1990s * Ott (record producer), British record producer and musician * "O.T.T" (song), a song by Fugative * ''O.T.T.'' (television series), a UK TV programme f ...

platforms

Voot Voot is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, owned by Viacom18. Launched in March 2016, it is Viacom18's advertising-led video-on-demand platform that is available as an app for iOS, KaiOS (JioPhone) ...

and

Disney+ Hotstar Disney+ Hotstar (also known as Hotstar) is an Indian brand of subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Novi Digital Entertainment of Disney Star and operated by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, both ...

. ''Bigg Boss'' was originally started in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

language and has been extended into seven languages spoken in the Indian sub-continent, including

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the ...

, Tamil,

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

Overview

There have been seven versions of the show in different languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent. The first show of the franchise was '' Big Boss'' in

which debuted in 2006 through

Sony TV Sony Television, Sony TV, or Sony HD may refer to any of the following television-related products from Japanese conglomerate Sony: * Television sets designed and manufactured by Sony Corporation in Japan ** Trinitron, television hardware brand (19 ...

and from season two onwards it moved to and continues on

Colors TV Colors TV is an Indian general entertainment broadcast network owned by Viacom18. The network's programming consists of family dramas, comedies, youth-oriented reality shows, shows on crime and television films. History It was launched on ...

. In 2013, the franchise extended its presence in

through Colors Kannada and

through ETV Bangla, later rebranded into

Colors Bangla Colors Bangla, previously known as ETV Bangla, is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel broadcasting in Bengali language. It was launched in 2000 as ETV Bangla, owned by the Hyderabad-based ETV Network. It was later sold to T ...

. In 2017, it extend its presence in Tamil through

Star Vijay Star Vijay is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly Star India), a subsidiary of Asianet Star Communications. The channel's headquarters is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Star Vijay chan ...

and in

through

Star Maa Star Maa (formerly Maa TV) is an Indian Telugu language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. The channel telecasts Telugu language programmes such as serials, real ...

. In 2018, it ventured into

through Colors Marathi and in

through Asianet. Though only celebrities were selected to be as housemates in the initial seasons, members of the general public have been chosen to be on the show in the latest seasons of

, and

versions of the show.

Synopsis

Contestants called "housemates" live together in a specially constructed house that is isolated from the outside world. Housemates are voted out, usually on a weekly basis, until only one remains and wins the cash prize. During their stay in the house, contestants are continuously monitored by live television cameras as well as personal audio microphones. The program relies on techniques such as a scripted back-to-basic environment, evictions, weekly tasks, competitions set by ''Bigg Boss'', and the “confession room” where housemates converse with ''Bigg Boss'' and nominate the housemates they wish to evict from the house. The housemates with the most nominations are then announced, and viewers are given the opportunity to vote via

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

or online through social media and smartphone applications for the nominee they wish to save from eviction. The last person standing is declared the winner. The contestants are required to indulge in housework and are assigned tasks by the omnipresent authority figure known to them as ''Bigg Boss''. The tasks are designed to test teamwork abilities and community spirit of the housemates. The luxury budget is a weekly allowance to buy luxury food items other than the supplied essentials which depend on the outcome of assigned tasks.

History

Creation

''Bigg Boss'' is a Hindi language adaptation of ''

'' created in

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

John de Mol Jr. Johannes Hendrikus Hubert "John" de Mol Jr. (born 24 April 1955) is a Dutch media tycoon. De Mol is one of the men behind production companies Endemol and Talpa. He created the reality television formats ''Big Brother'', ''Fear Factor'' and'' ...

, largely based on the ''

Celebrity Big Brother ''Big Brother VIP'', is an adaptation of the ''Big Brother'' reality television series. It is the celebrity version of its parent franchise ''Big Brother'', the celebrity version airs in several countries, however, the housemates or houseguests ...

'' model owned by the Endemol Shine Group. The show was named ''Bigg Boss'' and a house was constructed for the show at

Lonavla Lonavala ( ISO: Loṇāvaḷā) is a hill station town and a Municipal Council in the Pune district, Maharashtra, India. It is about west of Pune and to the east of Mumbai. It is known for its production of the hard candy '' chikki'' and is al ...

for season one to four and six to twelve, in

Karjat Karjat (Pronunciation: əɾd͡zət̪ is a city administered under a Municipal Council in Raigad district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is served by Karjat railway station. Karjat forms a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Karj ...

for season five and in

Goregaon Goregaon (Help:IPA/Marathi, �oːɾeɡaːʋ is a suburb of Mumbai city, in the Mumbai Suburban district of India. It has a Goregaon railway station, railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Line (Mumbai Suburban Railwa ...

from season thirteen onwards. ''Bigg Boss'' debuted on television in 2006 through

with

Arshad Warsi Arshad Warsi (born 19 April 1968) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several awards including a Filmfare Award from five nominations and is noted for acting in varied film genres. Before making his acting de ...

as the host. The show gained popularity after

Shilpa Shetty Shilpa Shetty Kundra (born Ashwini Shetty; Née Shetty; 8 June 1975) is an Indian actress who works mainly in Hindi-language films. Shetty made her screen debut in the thriller '' Baazigar'' (1993) which garnered her nominations for two Filmfar ...

emerged as the winner in '' Big Brother 5'' and replaced Warsi as the host in the second season of ''Bigg Boss''. From the second season, the show's broadcast moved to Viacom 18's

. For third season

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Shrivastav; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the most succe ...

hosted the show respectively and Salman Khan continued as a host from fourth season onwards, while

Sanjay Dutt Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 100 films, ranging from romance to comedy genres, though ...

also hosted for fifth season along with Salman Khan. Farah Khan hosted the spin off season of eighth season in absence of main host Salman Khan.

Expansion

The show's acceptance and success among the Indian audience paved way for its expansion into other Indian languages. After the sixth season wrapped in 2013, ''

'' and ''

'' adaptions were created by

Endemol Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...

through

ETV Network ETV Network is a network of Telugu language news and entertainment satellite television channels in India. It is based in Hyderabad. It also had some non Telugu language satellite television channels. All non-Telugu language satellite telev ...

Sudeep Sudeep Sanjeev (born 2 September 1971), also known as Sudeepa, is an Indian actor, director, producer, screenwriter, television presenter and singer, who primarily works in Kannada films. He has also worked in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. He ...

hosted Kannada version.

Mithun Chakraborty Mithun Chakraborty (born Gouranga Chakraborty; 16 June 1950) is an Indian actor, producer and politician who predominantly worked in Hindi and Bengali language films. He is a former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. He is the recipient of three ...

and Jeet hosted Bengali version respectively. While the Kannada version continued with subsequent seasons annually, similar to Hindi, became an instant hit and the Bengali version completed only two seasons in six years and did not turn out to be as successful. In 2017, upon completion of ten seasons in Hindi, four seasons in Kannada and two seasons in Bengali,

extended its presence in

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and T ...

by creating Tamil and

versions of the show with

Star India Disney Star Private Limited is an Indian media conglomerate and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Disney Star network runs more than 70 TV channels in eight languages, rea ...

. The Tamil version was hosted by

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali f ...

. While the Telugu version started with Jr NTR as a host, later for second season Nani replaced the host and from third season onwards

Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...

continued as a host respectively. In 2018, the show was adapted into

under Viacom 18 and hosted by

Mahesh Manjrekar Mahesh Vaman Manjrekar (Marathi pronunciation: əɦeːʃ maːɲd͡zɾekəɾ born 16 August 1958) is an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer who works primarily in Hindi films, alongside Marathi, Telugu and Bhojpuri films. He ...

. The next language adaptation was

, which was produced by

and hosted by

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appe ...

. Later in 2021 another version was adopted called

Bigg Boss OTT ''Bigg Boss OTT'' (or ''Bigg Boss: Over-The-Top'') is a spin-off Indian Hindi-language reality digital series of the show '' Bigg Boss'' that airs exclusively on Viacom 18's streaming service platform Voot. The digital edition hosted by Kar ...

where its episodes were shown on

which is hosted by

Karan Johar Karan Johar (born Rahul Kumar Johar; 25 May 1972), often informally referred to as KJo in the Hindi Film Industry, is an Indian filmmaker and television personality, who primarily works in Hindi cinema. He has launched the careers of several su ...

Versions

: Currently airing – 4 : Upcoming for airing – 0 : Recently concluded – 2 : No longer airing – 1 Female Winners Male Winners

Summary

Bigg Boss Hindi

''Bigg Boss'' is the

and the first version of the franchise. The first season premiered in 2006 on

It was hosted by

. The prize money was The license for ''Bigg Boss'' was acquired by Viacom 18 and the next season was aired on

with

as the host. Veteran actor

was roped in to play host for the third season while Salman Khan appeared as the host in the fourth season. The fifth season was jointly hosted by

and Salman Khan while Khan alone continues to host the show consecutively since sixth season until present. A lavish purpose-built house, with annual modifications was built in

Lonavala Lonavala (ISO: Loṇāvaḷā) is a hill station town and a Municipal Council in the Pune district, Maharashtra, India. It is about west of Pune and to the east of Mumbai. It is known for its production of the hard candy ''chikki'' and is also ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

for the show. A new house was built at ND Studios in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

for the fifth season. The house at Lonavala was rebuilt and used again from the sixth season. The prize was reduced to since the fifth season. A spin off series, '' Bigg Boss: Halla Bol'' was launched and merged into the eighth season with five finalists from the eighth season and five previous runner ups which was hosted by Farah Khan. Atul Kapoor has been the voice of ''Bigg Boss'' since the first season. Bigg Boss OTT (or Bigg Boss: Over-The-Top), a spin-off Indian Hindi-language reality digital series of the show Bigg Boss that aired exclusively on Viacom 18's streaming service platform Voot. The digital edition hosted by Karan Johar and the show premiered its first season on 8 August 2021.

Bigg Boss Kannada

Bigg Boss Kannada is the Kannada version of the Bigg Boss reality TV show and it was the first south Indian adaption of ''Bigg Boss''. Actor

was roped in by ETV Kannada to play the host of the show for the first season in 2013 and for second season

acquired the license of the show and aired on Suvarna with

continuing his role as the host of the show. The Bigg Boss house at

which was used for the Hindi version was also used for the first two seasons of Bigg Boss Kannada. A new and bigger house was constructed at Innovative Film City in Bidadi,

Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

and is being used since the third season. Sudeep's contract to host the show was extended to five seasons starting with the third season which returned to Viacom 18's Colors Kannada. The fifth season moved to Colors Super, a sister channel of Colors Kannada. It is notable that the Kannada version is the only adaption where the host,

alone would be hosting the show for seven consecutive seasons. All the seasons so far have had as the prize money. Commoners were allowed to be a part of the show from the fifth season through auditions. Three artists have been the 'voice' of ''Bigg Boss'' as of fifth season - Amit Bhargav for the first two, B M Venkatesh for the third and Srinivas Prasad since the fourth season. From third season onwards, the show is going to air from October month onwards on every year but the eight season get delayed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

and it is likely to launch from mid February 2021 onwards.

Bigg Boss Bangla

Bigg Boss Bangla is the Bengali version of the show which was produced by ETV Bangla with

as the host while the first season of the Kannada version was wrapping up in 2013. The second season was aired on

in 2016 and was hosted by Bengali actor Jeet. The Lonavala house used for Hindi version was used in both seasons and the prize money for the show has been lesser than the other adaptions with and respectively for the first and second seasons. This is the only adaption of the show that does not follow the annual format and the seasons have been produced once in 3 years. The reality show however has been discontinued after season 2 but a leading Bengali TV channel is planning to launch its new season and discussion about copyright issues is still on and show makers are yet to finalise it.

Bigg Boss Tamil

Bigg Boss Tamil is the Tamil version of the show and the second south Indian adaption of ''Bigg Boss''.

produced the show in 2017 with

as the host on

. This has been the only version to have none of its seasons shot at

. The house was constructed at EVP Film City,

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

and is being used since the first season. All the three seasons so far have had as the prize money. The fourth season was planned to launch in June 2020 but delayed due to the

. The season eye logo tile revealed on 27 August 2020 and launching on 4 October 2020 onwards and finished on 17 January 2021. The fifth season telecast will be from 3 October as per latest promo released on 20 September. Half way through season 5, the main host actor

fell ill and was replaced by actress

Ramya Krishnan Ramya Krishnan (born 15 September 1970), also credited as Ramya Krishna (in the Telugu and Kannada film industries) is an Indian actress. She has appeared in over 260 films in five languages: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. Ramy ...

to host the show until he recovered.

Bigg Boss Telugu

Bigg Boss Telugu is the Telugu version of the Bigg Boss reality TV show and telecasted by

. The first season Jr NTR is being hosted the show and the Lonavala house was used for the show and premiered on 16 July 2017. The second season was hosted by Nani and premiered on 10 June 2018. From third season onwards

continued as a host for the show. The third season premiered on 21 July 2019. The fourth season is planned to launch in July 2020 but delayed due to the

and launching begin from 6 September 2020.

and

Samantha Akkineni Samantha Ruth Prabhu (formerly: Samantha Akkineni; born 28 April 1987) is an Indian actress who mainly works in Telugu and Tamil film industries. She is a recipient of several awards, including four South Filmfare Awards, six South Indian I ...

appeared as a guest host in Season 3 and Season 4 respectively in the absence of main host.From second season onwards a newly built house was constructed at Annapurna Studios,

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

is being used for the show. The Three Seasons so far have had as the prize money. the upcoming fifth season of the show planned to launch in June 2021 but it delayed due to second wave of

and launching begins from 5 September 2021 onwards.

Bigg Boss Marathi

Bigg Boss Marathi is the Marathi version of the show and the first season is being aired on Viacom 18's Colors Marathi. The

house is being used for this version and

is playing the host. From the 2nd season onwards house is made in

flimcity,

.This is the first and only adaption of ''Bigg Boss'' so far to have its language affiliation in the show's official name. The prize money is announced to be . The third Season was scheduled to launch in May 2020 but due to the

the show was cancelled for a year. On 21 June 2021, the makers had officially launched the season 3 promo. On 26 August 2021, the makers officially announced that the launch of season 3 will be on 19 September 2021 onwards.

Bigg Boss Malayalam

Bigg Boss Malayalam is the Malayalam adaptation of Bigg Boss, produced by

and broadcast on Asianet. Veteran actor Mohanlal has been roped to host the show and the

house was used for the first season. The prize money for the first season was announced to be ₹ 1 crore (US$140,000). All episodes of the show are available on the ott Disney+ Hotstar digital platform. The second season premiered on January 5, 2020, with Mohanlal returning as host and home located at EVP Film City in Chennai and due to the COVID-19 scare, Endemol Shine India suspended season 2 on the 75th day and all the contestants were sent home. On February 14, 2021, the third season was released with Mohanlal returning as host for the third time and the house used for the second season was continued. All contestants entered the house following a 14-day period of quarantine and testing for COVID-19. The fourth season of the series will be launched on March 27, 2022 and will return to the house located in Lonavala with

who is also still hosting the season.

References

{{Big Brother Indian reality television series Endemol Shine Group franchises Indian television series based on non-Indian television series