Indian television can’t get any bigger than this. As the channel Colors’ CEO Rajesh Kamat puts it, “It’s Bollywood Ka Boss meets Bigg Boss.” Amitabh Bachchan has agreed to play a very special role in the third season of Bigg Boss, which begins in October.
This is the Big B’s second television appearance after the spectacular Kaun Banega Crorepati. And hence crucial. Negotiations between Big B and Colors were frantically on, until late this week.
Finally on Friday the Colors team headed for Singapore to announce Big B’s presence on the show.
Says Kamat, “Why Mr. Bachchan? You may well ask. After the success of Season 2 we needed to take Bigg Boss to another level. We went to the drawing board and concluded that the only way we could take the show higher was by introducing the concept of the Pop Philosopher. Earlier, we had the anchors commenting on the goings on in the Bigg Boss. Now the discussion would move to a dinner-table introspective level. Why were the contestants doing what they were doing…what were their motivations? Etc. We needed a prophetic voice that would be heard and taken seriously. Quite frankly if Mr. Bachchan hadn’t agreed, we’d have scrapped the concept of the pop-philosopher on the show.”
Filmmakers and scriptwriters are making a beeline for Singapore. But does Big B’s second major foray after KBC after years of being offered fiction and non-fiction mean he’s now in the mood to lean towards the home medium for a while?
“Not at all,” says the Big B. “I finished my pending film assignments and then came here. My trip to Singapore was planned well in advance. The next lot of films is crystallizing. In the meanwhile, I took on Bigg Boss because they thought I could be a convincing voice of reason on the show. I’m not the host or the anchor. I’ve a totally different function as a commentator who could connect with audiences without talking down to them.”
The icon surprises you by saying he’s nervous. “You’d think KBC was harder because that was my first time on television. But no. Every time I do anything new and that means starting a new film project too, I get butterflies in my stomach. I’m happy about this show because like KBC it has been conceptualized and created by the best minds, and some of the finest psychologists. So I’m in safe hands.”
— By Subhash K Jha
