Remember when Shilpa Shinde ended up winning Bigg Boss 11 without winning a single task or even fully participating in any of them? Interestingly, Hina Khan was a part of the same season, gave her hundred percent to the tasks, was pretty popular among the audience, and yet missed out on the trophy despite working so hard for the show. One can’t help but wonder what made the BB audience choose Shilpa over Hina. Well, we might have an explanation. There are a few things that the average Indian audience likes more than the sweet, docile, bechari woman and that may have materialised nicely in Shilpa’s favour.
In fact, a quick look at the list of all the Bigg Boss winners to date and you’ll see an obvious pattern. Barring a couple of BB winners, all of them can be easily put into two categories: the docile, neat, and clean bahu who slogs in the kitchen and the toxic, hyper-aggressive man who has this compulsive need to win all the tasks. Don’t trust us? Let’s help you with a breakdown.
Neat & Clean Bahus
A quick roundup of all the women who won Bigg Boss and it won’t take you too long to detect the very obvious pattern. Excluding Gauahar Khan and Urvashi Dholakia, all these women had a pre-set image. They had all been seen as TV’s darling bahus and came wearing that exact image to the show. Also, one thing that’s common among these all was the fact that they were seen tied to the kitchen counter most of the time in the house, which actually says a lot about Indian audiences’ choice of the BB winner and women in general.
And no, don’t get us wrong here. We aren’t trying to insinuate that these women were putting up a front or that cooking in the kitchen or having a good image is a big thing. We are just trying to filter out the fact that it is actually a particular image of the Indian women that we clearly like more than anything else.
Here, take a quick look at the list of all these women winners to understand what we mean:
Dipika Kakkar
Dipika had just left the cult Colors show Sasural Simar Ka before entering the Bigg Boss house. She had quoted financial responsibilities as the reason behind entering the house and stuck to her neat and clean image through the show. Also, she was often found sticking around the kitchen area and was also called out by a few fellow contestants who thought that she was trying to follow Shilpa Shinde’s footsteps.
Shilpa Shinde
Who would have thought that entering the house with her arch-nemesis, Vikas Gupta would do wonders for Shilpa’s Bigg Boss journey? During her stay in the house, she time and again talked about how she had been boycotted by the industry because of Vikas and was effectively out of work. Apart from that, she was also seen sticking to the kitchen area most of the time, and well, rest, as they say, is history.
Gauahar Khan
In all honesty, Gauahar wasn’t the typical Indian bahu per say, always spoke her mind, and fought for what was right. That said, she did all of this while spending a lot of time in the kitchen and starting quite a filmy romantic relationship with Kushal Tandon. Well, we Indians definitely like a woman who can handle both the kitchen and the drama and it is quite apparent in our love for soap operas and also, Gauahar’s Bigg Boss win.
Juhi Parmar
Just like Shilpa, Juhi too entered the Bigg Boss house at a rather low point in her life when the news of her divorce was being extensively circulated and the actress was going through an overall career low. The audience of course felt for the actress who again was often seen standing in the kitchen and voila we had the Bigg Boss 5 winner!
Shweta Tiwari
There are few Indian TV bahus as iconic as Shweta Tiwari and the result of Bigg Boss 4 shows that. The actress entered the Bigg Boss house at a time when her broken marriage had been made into a huge drama, all thanks to her ex-husband Raja Chaudhary. At this point, we are kinda tired of repeating the kitchen part so yup, we’ll leave it just there.
Hyper Dominant/ Aggressive Men
Interestingly, the Indian audience’s choice of men who won Bigg Boss is in stark contrast to its women winners. We clearly like our men all dominant and that shows in the choice of all these BB winners. Sad to point out that we are all okay with toxic masculinity and here’s a list of some pretty aggressive men who won the show to prove just that:
Siddharth Shukla
There are aggressive men, there are hyper-aggressive men, and then there is Siddharth Shukla. You get the point! From constantly disrespecting people to never shying away from screaming matches, Siddharth remained aggressive throughout season 13. In fact, this man is so damn aggressive that he couldn’t suppress his toxic ways even in the Bigg Boss 14 house where he wasn’t even a contestant.
Prince Narula
For lack of a better term, let’s just openly say that Prince Narula is quite a butt hurt who cant take even take the slightest of the meddling with his ego and did the exact same in Bigg Boss 9. He was super aggressive during all the tasks, often got into aggressive fights with his competitors, never shied away from shouting his lungs out, and still won the show.
Gautam Gulati
The world knows about how aggressive Gautam Gulati got within two weeks of his entry into the Bigg Boss house and how he ended up abusing Karishma Tanna during a task. Well, that and his playboy image are what we suspect played a huge role in his Bigg Boss win.
Vindu Dara Singh
Again, Indian TV fanatics are well aware that Vindu Dara Singh can hardly go an entire episode of a reality show without getting aggressive or making a rather caustic remark. And while he might have won Season 3 of Bigg Boss, he couldn’t leave his aggression behind even while entering the Bigg Boss 14 house as a celebrity guest. Oh also, he is pretty good friends with Siddharth Shukla!
Well, that’s 9 out of the 13 Bigg Boss winners and clearly, the audience has a pretty fixed palette. Women in the caves and men to the chase…we haven’t evolved that much after all!
Featured Image: Instagram
