Big Boss 7 has arrived, finally

Actor Salman Khan will anchor show for fourth straight season, will take home much more money this time

Reality show Bigg Boss has arrived for its seventh season and there is already a lot of hype surrounding it. Making headlines recently were news that actor Salman Khan, who will be anchoring the show for the fourth season in a row, will be charging nearly Rs 5 to 7 crore per episode. Sources within the channel however reveal that the figure is exaggerated and the actual figure for the host’s fees is a little under Rs 3 crore per episode. However, Khan will be making appearances in more episodes this season, which increases the total sum he takes home, much higher than last season.

A person close to the show who wished to remain unnamed says, “These figures are extremely inflated. Yes, Salman will take home a higher fee, but it is not so high as reported in the media. we have our budgets to look after as well.”

The show is the Indian version of Dutch reality show Big Brother format and is produced by Endemol. It has been on air on Viacom18’s general entertainment channel Colors since 2008, before which it was on Multi Screen Media’s GEC Sony Entertainment Television (2006-2007).

This year, the show is based on the theme of Heaven or Hell. The communication released for marketing it the show revolves around the concept that in the Bigg Boss house, contestants can feel the pleasure of heaven and the pain of hell. Anchor Khan will don the avatars of an angel from heaven and the devil from hell.

Rajesh Iyer, Marketing Head- COLORS says, “This season Bigg Boss will make sure that you get to see heaven and hell both saath-saath on Bigg Boss Season 7. The message is simple - pleasure or pain, both are inevitable and there is nothing to be taken for granted this season. The only thing that we can assure you is that Bigg Boss 7 is going to be a tumultuous, eventful and one ‘hell–of- a-crazy ride.”

The teaser promos of Bigg Boss 7 that shows the two gates of hell and heaven together have already hit TV screens and will be followed by a series of promos over the next few weeks.

The first creative that hit airwaves on 4th August features Khan coming out of the gates of hell and heaven in his devil and angel guise respectively. The campaign will extend to print, radio, digital, mobile and BTL (below the line) mediums.

The television campaign envisioned by the team at Colors has been brought to life by Orchard Advertising (a Leo Burnett agency) in association with Prashant Issar of Tubelight Films.

Hemant Kumar Sivan, executive creative director, Orchard Advertising says, “An iconic reality show like Bigg Boss faces a challenge every year to deliver something new and unique. This year is we had the task of presenting Bigg Boss in a way, that raises the curiosity and interest levels amongst people. The next challenge was to present Salman Khan in a fresh manner.  While working on the concept of heaven and hell, we took inspiration from the mythological space and gave it a contemporary spin by articulating the pleasure of heaven with ‘Wow’ and the pain of hell with ‘Aao’.”