Mumbai, August 2: Way back in 2017, while talking to the entertainment industry website Bollywood Dhamaka, Bollywood PR guru Dale Bhagwagar had suggested that Bigg Boss “will do itself a lot of good if it splits into two seasons in a year.”
At that time, not many seemed to comprehend this suggestion. Until a few days ago when we heard that Bigg Boss is actually going to have two seasons this year, one being Bigg Boss OTT hosted by Karan Johar and streamed on Voot, and the other being the Bigg Boss hosted by Salman Khan on Colors.
In the website article four years ago, the entertainment publicist had noted that Bigg Boss is the biggest reality television brand in India. Apart from its Hindi show, it has already diversified into regional language editions. Along with ‘celebrities’, it has already brought in ‘commoners’ not only from Mumbai but from all over the country, thereby increasing its publicity and spice value.
“The next logical step could be to split it into two seasons a year — one for ‘commoners’ and the other for ‘celebrities’. If that happens, the makers may be able to generate double the business on the BB branding,” the Bollywood publicist had stated.
It can be noted here that, Dale’s words on Bigg Boss have always been taken seriously because he is termed as a Bigg Boss PR specialist in the media for many years. Apart from having handled the personal PR for top Bollywood names such as Hrithik Roshan, Shilpa Shetty, Priyanka Chopra, and films like the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Don and Farhan Akhtar-starrer Rock On, the Bollywood PR has looked after the publicity and crisis management for a full 20 names who have been on Bigg Boss.
Dale has earlier also handled the PR for Shilpa Shetty, who went on to become a global icon against racism when she boldly faced onslaughts on Celebrity Big Brother in the United Kingdom, going on to win the show.
The celebrity publicist had also informed that the UK has had two seasons of Big Brother for a long time. “Not many are aware that Jade Goody, who confronted Shilpa Shetty on the international reality show was actually the winner of Big Brother having commoners.”
“After winning that, she entered Celebrity Big Brother. Not realizing that the tactics that she used on Big Brother may not work with the classier people she faced on Celebrity Big Brother, Jade began applying a similar tormenting strategy on CBB. It backfired big time when Shilpa decided to stand up to Jade,” explained Dale.
Now it has been reported that Bigg Boss OTT will have a mix of influencers, social media stars, and some celebs as contestants. It is said that a few of the top performers will also get a chance to be on the main show Bigg Boss 15 that will air on Colors, with Salman Khan as the host.