Shilpa Shetty to host Bigg Boss-II

Actor Shilpa Shetty will anchor the second season of reality show Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother, which is all set to hit the small screen soon. However, the twist in the tale is that it will be aired on Colors, Viacom 18’s new Hindi general entertainment channel.

Sources said Bigg Boss Season 2 will go on the air in August and will be a daily show for three months. The show will replace Akshay Kumar-hosted Fear Factor — Khatron Ke Khiladi, which is slated to go on the air from today.

“The channel intends to take the show to a higher level and hence has roped in Shilpa Shetty,” added an insider from the channel. However, it is not clear whether Shetty has come on board as a participant or a host.

Shilpa Shetty made headlines all across the globe after she won the international version of the British show, Big Brother, last year. The 33-year-old Indian actor was the first Bollywood star to be a contestant and to have won the Celebrity Big Brother show after having faced racial discrimination from fellow participants.

When contacted, Colors CEO Rajesh Kamat confirmed the development. “Yes, Bigg Boss Season 2 is going to be aired on Colors. The channel Colors is all about ‘zazbaat ke rang’ and Bigg Boss is one of the unique formats that brings out all possible zazbaat in one show,” he said.

Big Boss was first telecast on Sony Entertainment Television in 2006 and had grown to become a popular show that delivered an average rating of 1.7 (13 weeks in the Hindi-speaking markets), according to TAM Media Research.

In its first season, the show produced by Endemol India had 15 participants, including Rakhi Sawant, Ravi Kisshen, Deepak Tijori, Carol Gracias, Baba Sehgal, among others, and Arshad Warsi as host. The grand finale clocked a television viewership rating of 3.52 with Rahul Roy winning the first season.

Early this year, there were reports that Endemol and Sony Entertainment Television were having problems over the sequels of Bigg Boss and it was pretty clear that Sony would not telelcast the second part of the popular programme.