For almost two decades, Bigg Boss has been running (and ruining) our lives. The contestants become an integral part of our daily routine – so much so that every emotion they exhibit tends to affect and influence our daily moods.
And if that favourite contestant does not end up winning, it causes a major upheaval in the life of fans and supporters. Maybe that’s why the authenticity of every winner’s victory has been questioned till date – be it the GOAT late Sidharth Shukla or MC Stan.
History has been repeating itself since Sunday night.
Karan Veer Mehra clinched Bigg Boss 18 trophy in a historic feat — it was his second reality show victory in six months. There were celebrations in his new found fan army and outrage in others. The man had entered the house with zero fan base. But gradually, with the help of strategic game play and an entertaining side, climbed popularity charts.
But it’s the era of social media – where the chances of winning or losing can be affected by the number of followers, unless you are Karan Veer Mehra.
Karan single-handedly defeated the collective cult fan base of Elvish Yadav and Munawar Faruqui, previous BB winners who had made vote appeals for Rajat Dalal and Vivian Dsena respectively. Social media pundits are at their wit’s end trying to figure out how a man with less number of followers on social media could win a voting-based competition.
The answer is simple though. TV audience!
Bigg Boss has been followed like a cult on Indian television. The TV audience doesn’t necessarily belong to social media for it’s formed by – apart from social media users – kids and middle- and old-aged men and women, who all have an access to cell phones. So they may be able to read guidelines properly and vote, but be not present on Instagram or X (previously Twitter).
In addition to this, the TV or neutral audience is not impacted by social media narratives. It watches the show for what it is and judges contestants purely on the basis of contribution and entertainment.
In simpler words, if Karan won at 742K followers, it wasn’t because all of these 742K people voted for him. It is because the neutral TV audience voted.
And if Rajat Dalal at over 3.6M followers lost, it wasn’t because these 1M people did not vote… but only because the TV audience did not.
Karan’s victory is being hailed as one of the most satisfying wins in recent times because the TV audience reclaimed its power and voted for him in huge numbers. He was loved by India – audience and celebrities alike. And India voted for him. In fact, sources say he was almost always the top-voted contestant every time he was nominated — even above people with huge Instagram followers.
The second question hence on his rival fandoms’ mind is why would people love him so much. He was a fairly unknown entity when he came.
The answer is again simple. A wholesome personality.
It’s a myth that people like only fights on Bigg Boss. The audience loves a mix of everything. Like it happens in wholesome entertainer films – there’s romance, there’s friendship, there’s action, drama and mystery. Karan was a total package on the show by that measure. He was fun, witty, confrontational and emotional — every thing in the right proportions.
The common man could relate to him when they realised he has struggled for 20 years to reach this place – in life and on the show. With him, the audience felt betrayed when Shilpa Shirodkar made Vivian Dsena Time God not him. The viewers liked Chum Darang more when she reciprocated Karan’s feelings.
Everything fell in place for him. He gradually became the main character, the hero of the show. So even when it was ‘one vs all’ inside the house, they could see he was being unnecessarily targeted. They sided with him, and voted for him, and made it ‘The Karan Veer Mehra Show’.
So other fan armies could use bots or purchase votes, the ‘live voting’ feature ensured the TV audience voted for ‘janata ka laadla’. Several videos, in which these people are rejoicing at Karan’s winning moment, have now gone viral.
The only person who came close to this wholesome arc was Avinash Mishra. But then he chose to be the villain. And this is India… you don’t prefer villains to heroes.
Karan’s victory has rattled other contestants – apart from Chum and Shilpa. They are still not able to come to terms with a victory as this — poetic justice for all that Karan went through inside the house, because they thought he at 150K followers stood no chance of winning.
But if social media following was the only criterion to win, Nyrraa M Banerji at 6M followers would never have been evicted.
As far as the votes as concerned, the channel has often clarified that they are counted and audited by a third party to ensure transparency. They also sign an NDA (non disclosure agreement) to avoid any leak of information.
So the contestants and their fans can cry as much as they want or give death threats to Karan’s supporters, the truth remains the most deserving man has won. If they doubt the authenticity of the voting and counting process, an RTI can be registered for clarity.
A saner advice would be to grow a spine, accept defeat and move on. The boat has sailed.
Kudos to the TV audience!
(The author is solely responsible for the opinion expressed in this article. The company does not necessarily adhere to their views.)
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