I have always found it challenging to answer what my favourites are. Be it the favourite sweet, vegetable, fruit, serial, live, or reality show. However, it becomes easier when someone asks me to recommend a show. Here, I can pick and choose and, depending on the time of the year, recommend a show or two to watch. It is easy as choices and recommendations are always contextual and comparative; they are individual decisions and are too easy to defend. Best, they need not be defended- as this is it- this is my choice- you may agree or not. I am, in that case, only answerable to myself for my choice and no one else.
Here is a show I have watched and mostly followed since its inception more than a decade ago. The BIGG BOSS– Reality show ka Baap. However, in the recent few years, my addiction to the show has decreased a bit- this is one show that everyone can benefit from watching- if they watch it without their tinted glasses of preconceived notions.
There is no point hiding my addiction and love for BIGGBOSS.
It is a perfect voyeuristic peep-in into adventurous sports called life.
BIGG BOSS FORMAT.
The format is simple. The overpowering host commands unasked-for respect from participants. He tries to maintain house decorum and balance by questioning the participants’ actions, expressions and behaviour. The participants are locked in a house without access to the outside world. They are provided with the essential luxury of living and can earn other luxuries by performing few tasks. All this is under the scrutiny of some 100 cameras and daily telecasts. Every week, or most of the week, the audience votes out one of the participants who they believe is not competent enough, is inactive, or does not give them entertainment. There are multiple reasons, and a PR army of the participants works outside to ensure their representatives are not evicted.
CONSTANT EVOLUTION OF BIGG BOSS FORMAT.
As the format has been there for over a decade, a few conceptual frameworks are constantly revived with new twists and turns.
The host, one and only one Salman Khan, is super powerful in the Bollywood industry. Most participants from the industry or plan to be part of the industry are averse to taking Panga with the host. The weekend, when the host interacts with the participants and guides them, is the most entertaining part of the show.
LIFE IN BIGG BOSS HOUSE.
As the participants have to live independently, the housekeeping tasks are the prime source of conflict- irritation and fights among the group. The barter system of favours and obligation develops in no time. Teams form, groups get created and broken daily, and the alignments and friendships are transitory. Every possible emotion finds its expression in the house.
This set-up is ripe for the creation- sustenance and breaking of perceptions, biases, polarity, expectations and disappointment, triggering the staple diet of volatile interaction that most Bigg Boss followers wait and die for.
HOW TO ENJOY BIGG BOSS – THE SHOW.
The fun is playing the strategic game of human understanding. People in HR, Marketing, Strategy and direct people interaction should concentrate here. Most of the participants (called celebrities!) are known to Bollywood watchers – but in a few seasons, it also had a few lesser-known personalities and creators – who are called commoners! But that is hardly a reason for audience alignment, which changes with time and acts.
Watch it to understand human behaviour. Watch to know- how well do you know human groups? Learn negotiation and barter. Learn relationship creation, sustenance, breakups, flareups, and resolution. While you watch the participants living their closed cocooned life under the shape resolution of high-powered and easily managed cameras, ask yourself a few questions to make it interesting and exciting. Will you hire any one of them? If so, why? Which of them can be a perfect fit to be a friend- why? Who is a better negotiator- who is easily malleable- who is strict, and who is stupid? And analyse as and when your choices keep changing through the season.
TAKE A STANCE TO ENJOY.
It is entertaining to take a stance on the various subjects that come for debate and are questioned when these so-called strangers live collectively. Try putting your judgement on line. Love or hate it- you will enjoy it. Warning- watching BIGG BOSS could be addictive and injurious to family relationships. But it is a grand lesson in street smartness and human control.
MBA LEARNINGS.
BIGG BOSS: Is it an apt representation of managerial problems? There is always a dearth of information, yet decisions must be made, sides need to be taken, and reaction needs to be served. There is no sound, camera, or action in the house. The act goes on.
IT WILL REMAIN A DREAM.
Meanwhile, I remain satisfied being a fan rather than a participant. I don’t think the channel will call me after I have made the cut a decade back. Maybe this adventure will remain on the fantasy bucket list for me. But then, one can always hope.
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