Bigg Boss

Bigg Boss is a Hindi (Bollywood) adaption of Big Brother created in Netherlands by John de Mol Jr., largely based on the Celebrity Big Brother model owned by the Endemol Shine Group. The show was named Bigg Boss and a house was constructed for the purpose of the show at Lonavla in Maharashtra (Season 1 to 4 and 6 to 12), in Karjat (Season 5), in Goregaon (Season 13) . Bigg Boss debuted on television in 2006 through Sony Entertainment Television with Arshad Warsi as the host. The show gained popularity after Shilpa Shetty emerged as the winner[3] in Celebrity Big Brother 5 (UK) and replaced Warsi as the host in the second season of Bigg Boss. From the second season, the show has moved to Viacom 18's Colors.

The show's acceptance and success among the Indian audience paved way for its expansion into other Indian languages.[4] After the sixth season was completed in Hindi in 2013, Kannada[5] and Bengali adaptions were created by Endemol through ETV Network with the same house and resources with Sudeep[6] and Mithun Chakraborty as hosts respectively. While the Kannada version became an instant hit,[7] Bengali version did not turn out to be very successful. The Kannada version saw its subsequent seasons annually, similar to Hindi while Bengali version has completed only 2 seasons in 6 years.

Upon completion of 10 seasons in Hindi, 4 seasons in Kannada and 2 seasons in Bengali, Endemol extended its presence in South India by creating Tamil and Telugu versions of the show with Star India in 2017 and roped in Kamal Haasan[8] and Jr NTR[9] as hosts respectively. In 2018, the show has been adapted to Marathi with Viacom 18 and hosted by Mahesh Manjrekar,[10] and in Malayalam as Bigg Boss with Star India and Mohanlal as the host.[11][12]

Bigg Boss is the Hindi version of the show[13] and the first version of the franchise. The first season premiered in 2006 on Sony Entertainment Television[14] with Arshad Warsi as the host[15] with. ₹1 crore (US$140,000)[16] as the prize money. The license for Bigg Boss was acquired by Viacom 18 and the next season was aired on Colors with Shilpa Shetty as the show's host.[17] Veteran actor Amithabh Bachchan was roped in to play host[18] for the third season while Salman Khan appeared as the host in the fourth season.[19] The fifth season was jointly hosted[20] by Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan while Salman alone continues to host the show consecutively since sixth season[21] till date.[22][23][24] A lavish purpose-built house (with annual modifications) at Lonavala, Mumbai was used for the show[25] in the first five seasons while a new house was built house at Big ND Studios in Karjat, Pune for the fifth season.[26] The house at Lonavala was rebuilt and used from the sixth season.[27] The prize has been reduced to ₹50 lakh (US$70,000)[28] from the fifth season. A spin off show — Bigg Boss: Halla Bol — was launched and merged into the eighth season with 5 finalists ('Champions') from eighth season and 5 previous runners-up ('Challengers') which was hosted by Farah Khan.[29]

Though the show has largely been a celebrity-only show, it opened the doors for participation by the common people from the tenth season.

Atul Kapoor has been the 'voice' of Bigg Boss since the first season.[30]

The winners of each season are Rahul Roy,[31] Ashutosh Kaushik,[32] Vindu Dara Singh,[33] Shweta Tiwari,[34] Juhi Parmar,[35] Urvashi Dholakia,[36] Gauhar Khan,[37] Gautam Gulati,[38] Prince Narula,[39] Manveer Gurjar,[40]Shilpa Shinde,[41] Dipika Kakar and Sidharth Shukla

Bigg Boss Kannada is the Kannada version of the show[42] was the first south Indian adaption[43][44] of Bigg Boss. Actor Sudeep was roped in by ETV Kannada[5] to play the host[45] of the show for the first season in 2013. Star India acquired the license for the show and the second season was aired on Suvarna[46] with Sudeep continuing his role as the host of the show. The same house at Lonavala, Pune which was used for the Hindi version was used for the first two seasons of Bigg Boss Kannada. A new and bigger house was constructed at Innovative Film City in Bidadi, Bengaluru and is being used since the third season.[47][48] Sudeep's contract to host the show was extended[49] to 5 seasons starting with the third season which returned[50] to Viacom 18's Colors Kannada. The fifth season moved[51] to Colors Super, a sister channel of Colors Kannada. It is notable that the Kannada version is the only adaption where the host, Sudeep alone would be hosting the show for seven consecutive seasons. All the seasons so far have had ₹50 lakh (US$70,000)[52] as the prize money. Commoners were allowed to be a part of the show from the fifth season through auditions.[53] 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.

Vijay Raghavendra,[54] Akul Balaji,[55] Shruti,[56] Pratham,[57] Chandan Shetty[58] and Shashi Kumar have been the winners of the first six seasons of the show respectively. Shine Shetty is the winner of season 7.

Bigg Boss Bangla is the Bengali version of the show[59] which was produced by ETV Bangla with Mithun Chakraborty as the host[60] while the first season of the Kannada version was wrapping up in 2013. The second season was aired on Colors Bangla in 2016 and was hosted by Bengali actor Jeet.[61] The Lonavala house used for Hindi version was used[62] in both seasons and the prize money for the show has been lesser than the other adaptions with ₹20 lakh (US$28,000)[63] and ₹35 lakh (US$49,000)[64] 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.

Aneek Dhar[65] and Joyjit Banerjee[66] have been the winners of the first and second season of the show respectively.

Bigg Boss Tamil is the Tamil version[67] of the show and the second south Indian adaption of Bigg Boss. Star India produced the show in 2017 with Kamal Hassan as the host[68] on Star Vijay.[69] This has been the only version to have none of its seasons shot at Lonavala. The house for Bigg Boss Tamil was constructed at EVP Film City, Chennai and is being used since the first season.[70] All the three seasons so far have had ₹50 lakh (US$70,000)[71] as the prize money. The winners of the show's seasons were Aarav,[72] Riythvika[73] and Mugen Rao.[74]

Bigg Boss Telugu is the Telugu version of the Bigg Boss reality TV show and telecasted by Star Maa. 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 is being hosted by Nani and a newly built house was constructed at Annapurna Studios, Hyderabad is being used for the show and premiered on 10 June 2018. The third season is being hosted by Akkineni Nagarjuna and premiered on 21 July 2019 .Ramya Krishnan was the guest host in week 6 of season three and for this season, house was continued at Annapurna Studios, Hyderabad. The Three Seasons so far have had ₹50 lakh (US$70,000) as the prize money. Siva Balaji, Kaushal Manda and Rahul Sipligunj are the winners of the first, second and third seasons of the show.The fourth season is planned to launch on last week of June 2020 but delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic and it is postponed to August 2020.

Bigg Boss Marathi is the Marathi version of the show and the first season is being aired on Viacom 18's Colors Marathi.[75] The Lonavala house is being used[76] for this version and Mahesh Manjrekar is playing the host.[77][78] 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 ₹50 lakh (US$70,000). Megha Dhade emerged as the winner of First season while Pushkar Jog emerged as the first runner up of the show and the 2nd Season's winner was Shiv Thakre. 3rd Season was scheduled to launch in May 2020 but delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic

Bigg Boss is the Malayalam adaption for Bigg Boss which is produced by Star India and aired on Asianet.[79] Veteran actor Mohanlal has been roped in to host the show[80] and the Lonavala house is being used.The voice of big boss is still a mystery[81] for the first season. The prize money is announced to be ₹1 crore(US$140,000). All the episodes of the show are available[82] on the OTT platform Hotstar.Some new elements called 'Unseen', 'Spicy specials' and 'Bigg Boss Plus' was introduced by way of unseen and extra footage's uploaded on Hotstar. Bigg Boss Plus is aired on Asianet Plus and shows part of the day that weren't included in the episode. Sabumon Abdusamad was declared winner of Bigg Boss season 1 while Pearle Maaney was the first runner up.

The second season launched on 5 January 2020 with Mohanlal returning as host and the house situated at EVP Film City in Chennai. 17 contestants entered the house on Day 1 and later joined by 5 wildcard contestants. However, due to the Corona scare, EdmolShine India had to stop all shows and season 2 had stopped at the 75th day.