Bigg Boss Kannada

Bigg Boss Kannada, also known as BBK, is the Kannada version^[1] of the reality TV show Bigg Boss, which is broadcast in India through the Colors Kannada channel. The show is produced by Endemol Shine India, which owns the global format of Big Brother. Kiccha Sudeepa was hired to host the reality show in 2013 for the first season^[2][3] on ETV Kannada (now Colors Kannada). Later, he continued as a host of the show.^[4]

A 'Bigg Boss' House is constructed for every season. For the first two seasons, the house was located in Lonavala, in the Pune district of Maharashtra, where the Hindi version of Bigg Boss usually takes place. As the schedules for the Hindi and Kannada versions were expected to overlap, a house exclusively for the Kannada version was built at Innovative Film City in Bengaluru, Karnataka for the third season. This continued to be the location of the house for subsequent seasons of Bigg Boss Kannada. Each house built for a season of Bigg Boss is retained until the start of next season and is open to the public as an attraction.

The house is usually well-furnished and decorated, with modern amenities and a large, common bedroom for all contestants. The house would also have toilets, a swimming pool, gymnasium and spacious gardens. There are show-specific activity areas and a small sound-proof room with controlled entrance called the 'confession room', where the housemates are called in by the Bigg Boss for the nomination process and other conversations.^[5] Starting from the second season, there was also a luxurious single bedroom for the captain. This season also introduced a secret room with bed and other facilities, where an evicted contestant, if selected by the Bigg Boss to continue the game, would be retained for a week or two and then returned to the show.

The house has no television connection (except for the day where the show host Sudeep converses with the contestants through the TV), telephones, Internet access, clocks or writing equipment, complying with worldwide rules of Big Brother.

The house was reduced to ashes on 22 February 2018, and had to be rebuilt for the sixth season.^[6]

Each season gets its own 'Eye' logo similar to the Bigg Boss and Big Brother shows. The first season of Bigg Boss Kannada on ETV Kannada inherited its logo from the sixth season of its Hindi counterpart in the form of a human eye with an eyeball displaying the SMPTE color bars, against a purple background with lightning storm. The second season moved to Suvarna TV and had a dedicated logo in the form of a more detailed human eye against a background which split the 'hot' (orange) and 'cold' (blue) sides of the personalities in the house. This logo also had the text 'Season 2' inserted below the eye. The third season returned to the previous broadcaster, then re-branded as Colors Kannada, and the logo was adapted from the first season version; it used a purple background with a tornado and the season number was not mentioned.

The fourth season logo featured a futuristic design, with different elements inside the eye, against a background that uses tech elements and logos from the previous season on a dominant blue color. It was partially derived from the eye used for the season 15 of Big Brother UK. The logo used for the fifth season of Bigg Boss Kannada was adapted from season 14 of Big Brother UK; it shows a pile of old television sets displaying the SMPTE bars hanging at the center from the top, surrounded by multicolored doors, cupboards, lights and windows forming the shape of an eye against a background of an overcast sky with fireworks. For the sixth season, an 'ice-fire' theme was adopted for the logo while the seventh season's logo was adapted from season 20 of Celebrity Big Brother UK.

While not all the rules have ever been disclosed to the audience, the most prominent ones are clearly seen.^[7] The inmates should talk in Kannada at all times, although minimal use of English is allowed. The property of the house, including the electronic equipment and the furniture, should not be tampered with or damaged by the housemates. The housemates cannot leave the house premises at any time except when permitted. Sleeping is only allowed when the lights go off in the night. Liquor is forbidden and housemates can only smoke in the smoking area. A housemate can not assault another housemate physically; if they do so, they will be eliminated from the house.

Nomination is a mandatory activity, usually taking place on first day of the week in which all housemates need to take part unless directed by Bigg Boss. Each housemate nominates two other housemates for eviction. Housemates receiving the most nomination votes are nominated for eviction from the house and undergo a public vote (through SMS). On the weekend episode, usually the one contestant with the lowest vote will be evicted from the house. A housemate may also be directly nominated for eviction by that week's captain of the house or for other reasons by the Bigg Boss. Housemates who are awarded 'immunity' cannot be nominated by other contestants. Immunity is automatically given to the week's captain and can be earned by contestants through winning specific tasks or achieving secret tasks given by Bigg Boss. Sometimes, the captain can make a contestant immune from nomination upon Bigg Boss' direction. The housemates are not allowed to discuss the nominations or the nomination process with each other.

The captaincy concept was introduced in the second season. A captain is selected for every week by Bigg Boss through specific tasks or elected by the housemates. The captain has additional privileges in the form of immunity from nomination that week, exemption from participating in the task activities, and a separate bedroom with more facilities more than those of other contestants. The captain is exempt from nomination that week and has the power to either nominate a housemate directly, make a housemate immune from nomination or rescue a nominated housemate, depending on Bigg Boss' decisions. The captain's main duty is to supervise the weekly task, making sure its conditions are met and the task is performed well to procure a 'luxury budget' for the next week. Captains should also keep an eye on house rules and may punish a housemate for violating the rules.

Bigg Boss Kannada premiered on ETV Kannada, with the second season airing on Star Suvarna. Seasons three and four were broadcast on Colors Kannada, while seasons five and six aired on Colors Super. From the seventh season onwards, Bigg Boss Kannada was aired on Colors Kannada and was also made available for streaming on Voot. Each day's episodes contain the main events of the previous day. Every Sunday episode mainly focuses on an interview of the evicted contestant by the host. For the seventh season the eviction process was changed to the Saturday episode.

• Note: (WC) means wildcard contestant.

Seasons	S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7	S8	MS	OTT	S9	S10	S11	S12
Order of Entry	Housemates
1	Narendra Babu Sharma	Akul Balaji	Bhavana Belagere	Pratham	Jaya Sreenivasan	Sonu Patil	Kuri Pratap	Dhanushree	Akul Balaji	Roopesh Shetty	Arun Sagar	Namratha Gowda	Bhavya Gowda	Sudhir Balraj
2	Leelavathi S M	Deepika Kamaiah	Chandan Kumar	Sheetal Shetty	Megha	Andrew Jaypaul	Priyanka Shivanna	Shubha Poonja	Kiran Raj	Aryavardhan	Mayuri Kyatari	Snehith Gowda	Yamuna Srinidhi	Kavya Shaiva
3	Arun Sagar	Laya kokolla	Huccha Venkat	Shalini Satyanarayan	Dayal Padmanabhan	Jayashree	Ravi Belagere	Shankar Ashwath	Kaustuba Mani	Rakesh Adiga	Deepika Das	Eshani Chandrashekar	Dhanraj Achar	Satish Cadaboms
4	Shwetha Pandit	Harshika Poonacha	Jayashree Ramaiah	Kirik Keerthi	Sihi Kahi Chandru	Rakesh	Chandana Ananthakrishna	Vishwanath Haveri	Chandana Ananthakrishna	Sanya Iyyer	Nawaz	Vinay Gowda	Gauthami Jadav	Gilli Nata
5	Vinayak Joshi	Santhosh	Kruthika Ravindra	Malavika Avinash	Shruthi Prakash	Murali	Vasuki Vaibhav	Vaishnavi Gowda	Prerna Kambam	Jashwanth	Divya Uruduga	Santhosh Kumar	Anusha Rai	Jhanvi R
6	Aparna	Neethu Shetty	Madhuri Itagi	Kavya Shastri	Anupama Gowda	Akshatha Pandavapura	Deepika Das	Aravind KP	Abhinav Vishwanathan	Sonu Sreenivas Gowda	Darsh Chandrapa	Neethu Vanajakshi	Dharma Keerthiraj	Dhanush Gowda
7	Anushree	Anitha Bhat	Master Anand	Bhuvan Ponnanna	Riyaz Basha	Rakshitha Rai	Jai Jagadish	Nidhi Subbaiah	Dhanush Gowda	Jayashree Aradhya	Prashant Sambaragi	Siri Sirija	Lawyer Jagdish	Chandra Prabha
8	Thilak Shekar	Srujan Lokesh	Neravanda Aiyappa	Sanjana Chidanand	Niveditha Gowda	Rapid Rashmi	Gurulinga Swamy	Geeta Bhat	Bhavya Gowda	Arjun Ramesh	Amulya Gowda	Snake Shyam	Shishir Shastry	Manju Bhashini
9	Nikitha Thukral	Rohith Patel	Neha Gowda	Chaitra	Sameer Acharya	Adam Pasha	Bhoomi Shetty	Shamanth Gowda	Vaishnavi	Lokesh	Roopesh Shetty	Bhagyashree Rao	Trivikram	Rashika Shetty
10	Vijay Raghavendra	Shweta Chengappa	Pooja Gandhi	Dodda Ganesh	Karthik Jayaram	Kavitha Gowda	Kishan Belagali	Manju Pavagada	Trivikram	Uday Surya	Saanya Iyer	Gaurish Akki	Hamsa Prathap	Abhishek Shrikanth
11	Chandrika	Mayur Patel	Tsunami Kitty	Vanishree	Ashitha Chandrappa	AV Ravi	Duniya Rashmi	Divya Suresh	Gagan Chinappa	Nandini	Vinod Gobragala	Michael Ajay	Manasa Santhosh	Mathina Mallamma
12	Jayalakshmi	Anupama Bhat	Ravi Mooruru	Niranjan Deshpande	Diwakar	Shashi Kumar	Chandan Achar	Chandrakala Mohan	Ramola	Spoorthi Gowda	Neha Gowda	Drone Pratap	Suresh	Ashvini Lakshmi
13	Rishi Kumar (WC)	Aadhi Lokesh	Rehman Haseeb	Karunya Ram	Tejaswini Prakash	Reema Das	Sujatha Satyanarayan	Raghu Gowda	Niranjan Deshpande	Chaithra Halikeri	Roopesh Rajanna	Tanisha Kuppanda	Aishwarya Shindogi	Dhruvanth Talwar
14	Rohan Gowda (WC)	Shakeela	RJ Nethra	Mohan Shankar	Chandan Shetty	Naveen Sajju	Raju Talikote	Prashanth Sambargi	Ritvvik Mathad	Somanna Machimada	Rakesh Adiga	Rakshak Sena	Chaithra Kundapura	Rakshita Shetty
15	Rishika Singh (WC)	Guruprasad (WC)	Shruth	Rekha	Suma Rajkumar	Sneha Acharya	Chaitra Vasudevan	Divya Uruduga	Nayana	Kiran Yogeshwar	Aryavardhan	Sangeetha Sringeri	Ugram Manju	LM Karibasappa
16	Yogesh (actor) (Guest)	Bullet Prakash (Guest)	Mithra (WC)	Om Prakash Rao (WC)	Jagan Chandrashekhar	Anand Malagatti	Chaitra Kotooru	Rajeev	Yashasvini	Akshata Kukki	Aishwarya Pissay	Santhosh Varthur	Mokshith Pai	Malu Nipanal
17	Rajesh (Guest)	None	Gowthami Gowda (WC)	Sukrutha Wagle (WC)	Krishi Thapanda	Naina Puttaswamy	Shine Shetty	Nirmala Chennappa	None		Kavyashree Gowda	Karthik Mahesh	Ranjith	Spandana Somanna
18	None		Sushma Veer (WC)	Masthan Chandra (WC)	Vaishnavi Menon (WC)	Dhanraj	Harish Raj	Chakravarthy Chandrachud(WC)			Anupama Gowda	Avinash Shetty(WC)	Hanumantha Lamani (WC)	Ashwini Gowda
19	None				Lasya Nagraj (WC)	Jeevitha (WC)	RJ Prithvi (WC)	Priyanka Thimmesh(WC)			None	Pavi Poovappa(WC)	Shobha Shetty (WC)	Amith Pawar
20					Samyuktha Hegde(Guest)	Meghashree (WC)	Raksha Somashekar (WC)	Vyjayanthi Adiga (WC)				None	Rajath Kishan (WC)	None
Total	17	16	18	18	20	20	20	20	16	16	18	19	20	19
Winner   Runner-up   Finalist

The series is also set to roll out a digital version of the show called Bigg Boss OTT, which is also going to be hosted by Sudeepa and broadcast by Voot for 24×7 coverage. The series is set to launch on 6 August 2022.^[16][17]

Each season has grown in terms of revenue and has attracted prominent brands to sponsor the show.^[19] The sponsors receive the privilege of getting their brands advertised on the show, in the house as well as during the commercial breaks. Few tasks on the show would be designed in a way such that the brand gets advertised directly. Household articles such as pillows and coffee mugs would usually contain the branding from the sponsor. The sponsors for the show until date are listed in the table below.

The first season of the show became popular^[20] and turned out to be a TRP magnet,^[21] eventually becoming the No.1 reality show in South India.^[22]

Bigg Boss Kannada moved to Asianet's Suvarna^[23] (now under Star India) for the second season and grew even bigger in the market.^[24][25] The channel claimed an approximate increase of 25% in viewership^[26] and 400% in online engagement^[27] for the season. The season debuted with 6.7 TVR while averaging 5.7 TVR in its launch week and had a peak rating of 7.9 TVR during the first elimination episode of Saturday.^[28]

The show returned to Viacom 18^[29] with Sudeep signing to host the next five seasons.^[30] The third season was aired on Colors Kannada (rebranded from ETV Kannada) and witnessed a slight fall in the TRP because of a controversy involving a fellow housemate following his immediate elimination.^[31][32] A year later, during the press meet for the fourth season, it was clarified that the TRP fall was a false claim and the ratings actually went up after the elimination.^[33]

The fame of the show as of fourth season reached to an extent where the film producers from the Kannada Film Industry and the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce held a protest in front of Innovative Film City in Bidadi, where the Bigg Boss house is located, demanding the actors not to participate or host reality shows on television, also tried to impose a ban on the show because of its popularity affecting the performances of movies in the box office.^[34]

The fifth season of the show was aired in Colors Super,^[35] the second Kannada GEC by Viacom18 to increase the viewership for the channel. The season premiered on 15 October 2017^[36][37] and has been the first season to include non-celebrity housemates selected through online audition process.^[38] The grand finale was held on 28 and 29 January 2018 and Chandan Shetty emerged as the winner. Season 6 of Bigg Boss premiered on 21 October 2018 in Colors Super. After a successful season the grand finale was aired on 26 and 27 January 2019 and farmer Shashi Kumar emerged as the winner, with runner-up being singer Naveen Sajju, followed by Kavitha Gowda, Andrew Jayapaul and Rapid Rashmi in the 3rd, 4th and 5th place respectively. Sudeep was the host of this season too.

• Bigg Boss Kannada at IMDb