Bigg Boss is a reality show based on the original Dutch Big Brother format developed by John de Mol. A number of contestants live in a purpose-built house and are isolated from the rest of the world. Each week, housemates nominate two of their peers for eviction, and the housemates who receives the most nominations would face a public vote. Of these, one would eventually leave, having been "evicted" from the House. However, there were exceptions to this process as dictated by Bigg Boss. In the final week, there were three housemates remaining, and the public voted for who they wanted to win. The housemates in the Indian version are primarily celebrities with the exception of one who is a non-celebrity selected via auditions. Housemates are overseen by a mysterious person known as 'Bigg Boss', whose only presence in the house is through his voice.
A Bigg Boss House is built for every season. The house was earlier located in the tourist place of Lonavla, Pune district of Maharashtra, however the house for the fifth season was located ND Studios in Karjat. The house is well-furnished and decorated. It has all kinds of modern amenities, but just one or two bedrooms and four toilet bath rooms. There is a garden, pool, activity area and gym in the House. There is also a Confession Room, where the housemates may be called in by Bigg Boss for any kind of conversation, and for the nomination process. The House has no TV connection, no telephones, no Internet connection, clocks, pen or paper.
Rules
While all the rules have never been told to the audience, the most prominent ones are clearly seen. The inmates are not permitted to talk in any other language than Hindi. They are not supposed to tamper with any of the electronic equipment or any other thing in the House. They cannot leave the House premises at any time except when permitted to. They cannot discuss the nomination process with anyone. They cannot sleep in day time. Sometimes, the housemates may be nominated for other reasons, such as nomination by a person who has achieved special privileges, for breaking rules or something else. If something is very serious, a contestant may be evicted directly.
Airing
The main television coverage takes the form of a daily highlights programme and the weekly eviction show on Fridays and that are aired on Colors TV while the first season was aired on Sony TV. Everyday's episodes contain a main happenings of the previous day. Every Saturday episode mainly focuses on an interview of the evicted contestant by the host. The episode on Sunday named differently across seasons and contains extra footage of the week, which was not included in any episode.
Series Details
Male housemate Female housemate
Although Sanjay Dutt was the main host of season 5, Salman Khan also hosted a few eviction episodes with him including the opening & finale episodes.
Bigg Boss 8 was merged with its spin-off series Bigg Boss Halla Bol! and hence, there was no particular winner of this season. Although on the finale day, the five finalists were declared as "The Champions", who continued their journey as contestants in the spin-off series, against some ex-contestants from previous seasons.
Fifteen Housemates entered the house on Day 1, while four housemates entered the Out-house on Day 0, the public voted for two Housemates, to enter the house as the two Housemates making it a total of seventeen Housemates on Day 1. Later on Day 14, one of Day 1 evicted housemate enter the house as a Wild-Card.
There were two stages of this season, therefore, two Finales.