Casually ask around in your group of college friends or office colleagues if they watch Bigg Boss, and pat comes to the reply “Please yaaa, I have better things to do!”. Or “I only watch English series these days, I don’t like such crass shows.” However just mention Dolly Bindra’s screaming or Sunny Leone’s pole dance and wait for opinions to come pouring in.
TRPs, like Shakira’s hips, don’t lie.
So why have all of us turned this mediocre standard reality show into one of our secret guilty pleasures? What is it about Bigg Boss that makes us enjoy it, even if grudgingly so? I’ve tried to list a few and honestly, I know that in your heart, you agree.
1) Dashing Bhaijaan
Duh. Of course, he’s at the top of the list. How can one not love him for the way he rolls his sleeves up and squints at the contestants while simultaneously displaying his righteousness? So what if he killed a few blackbucks and slapped a few girlfriends?
Mind you, his moral compass is in perfect working order (Of course he wasn’t behind the wheel, bro). Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Sultan were great movies with amazing social messages even if they were a little misogynistic, okay?
2) The Love Stories
It is the perfect game plan! There were Keith and Rochelle, Karishma Tanna and Upen Patel and my personal favorite, Arman Kohli and Tanisha Mukherji (Of the Neal and Nikki fame), Veena Mailk and Asshmit. The hand holding, the sneaky kisses, and all of the Shona- Babu- Baby- Doll- Main Sone-di got the attention of everybody. What’s not to louuve?
3) Them Firangan Starlets
Go on. Judge me. But you know it’s true. They’re a quintessential ingredient in the whole hot pot, and there’s at least one in each season. Again, the episode is incomplete till Salman Khan has flirted with them or commented on their Hindi.
As the episodes progress, they will also wear saris and learn to sing Hindi songs just like Elli Avram, Claudia Ciesla and many others did. The trump card, of course, was when they managed to bring in Pamela Anderson for two days. Don’t you just love it when they talk in that heavily accented Hindi? I have never felt more patriotic.
4) The Trouble Maker
Loud, brash, and always ready for a fight. They’re the ones who feel they are solely responsible for providing all the content on the show and never shy away from their duty. There was Dolly Bindra, who was ready to cut a person into pieces at a drop of a hat, or Ali Quli Mirza (its okay, no one really knows him anyway) who would put Shakuni Mama to shame.
5) The Tasks
I mean what is a reality show without a little competition? Legend has it that people have performed various unimaginable feats, from defecating inside cardboard boxes to rubbing garbage on each other’s faces, from eating red chili powder to shaving their heads and eyebrows- you name it and our champions have done it.
There’s something secretly satisfying about seeing these stars do menial housework and odd jobs around the house.
The list doesn’t end here. There are hundred-odd reasons why we secretly wait for the clock to chime at half-past ten. However, there is one simple reason underlying all of those- we enjoy watching others suffer. The bigger the celebrity, the better.
We laugh at their petty fights and gloat at their tears. We love to see them fight, cry, wash dishes, and scrub floors because we feel they aren’t much better off than we are. Secretly, in our own twisted ways, we feel better about our own monotonous lives.
To be able to believe that all these people with all their fame and money, still go and indulge in such theatrics, for the sole reason of gaining more popularity makes us feel good inside. And yes, the makers of the show understand this perfectly and use it to their full advantage.
They appeal to the sadists inside us all, like five years old who laughs cheerfully and claps every time the joker stubs his toe and falls headfirst on the ground. So while the ancient Greeks had their fighting tournaments and the plantation workers had slave fights, we must content ourselves with only verbal spats, though thoroughly entertaining.
