Sab set hai, Boss

Pick up any season of Bigg Boss and there is much happening on cameramdashfrom tasks to controversies from flirtations to feuds But things are equally dramatic off camera too Do you know what happened after Bigg Boss season 2 contestants Rahul Mahajan and Raja Chaudhary breached the rules and jumped off the setrsquos outer wall Or when Imam Siddiqui demanded to walk out of the sixth season While wersquove seen the oncamera action for many years this time we zoom in on the people behind the camera who join forces every year to give us the reality show From identifying interesting contestants to watching endless hours of footage from running dummy episodes to setting up more than 100 cameras they tell us what it takes to orchestrate one of the biggest reality showsInceptionDeepak Dhar Founder and Group CEO Banijay Asia amp EndemolShine India remembers that he watched the original Big Brother a Dutch show on DVD way back in 2005 The international team of Banijay had a simple askmdashwould it be possible to adapt the show in India ldquoI was shocked when I watched it because a show like this is highly volatile and risqueacute I couldnrsquot have watched the DVD with my family in the room It was difficult to even fathom something like this could work in India but I took it up as a challengerdquo shares Dhar He pitched the adaptation to several broadcasters until Sony TV first picked it up To date Dhar remembers that the first contestant to enter the Bigg Boss house in 2006 was Salil Ankola after which no one entered the house for over an hour due to a technical glitch In the meantime Ankola grew anxious wondering if he was the only contestant on the show Dhar laughs ldquoSalil thought it was a con jobrdquoImam Siddiqui who was often spotted doing yoga in a bodysuit insisted on leaving the house at 3 am PicsSatej ShindeGetting the right playersEarly on the makers figured out that the show was more about emotions than showcasing risqueacute things ldquoThe minute we see a person with an agenda we strike him off the listrdquo asserts Dhar adding that the idea has always been to rope in people who have stories to tell ldquoThe fourth season was a standout where we had Shweta Tiwari Dolly Bindra Khali and Pamela Anderson That was the turning point of Bigg Boss in the country It was also the year we got Salman Khan as the host We even cooperated with the authorities when they wanted to come and monitor if Monica Bedi dropped some evidencerdquo he sharesRahul Mahajan Raja Chaudhary Ashutosh Kaushik and Zulfi Syed were seen scaling the wall in BB2The showrsquos detractors often speculate that Bigg Boss is scripted But Tushar Joshi Editor in Chief Creative Director rubbishes the speculation He notes that often the contestants provide the drama while the creative improvises at times but the makers have never intervened in the proceedings ldquoWe have never briefed any contestant or gone in the houserdquo asserts Joshi who has been associated with the show from the fifth season He says the show relies largely on contestantsrsquo personalities and their interdynamics ldquoIf a contestant is my biggest character I canrsquot suddenly change my creative For example Ankita Lokhande was one of the most talkedabout characters in the house I couldnrsquot sideline her unless the house decided to sideline her Itrsquos a chess game between them and us Whenever we make a move they will also reactrdquoDeepak Dhar left Monica Bedi was under suspicion for her alleged connection with gangster Abu SalemThe makers also got a few seasons wrong in terms of casting Abhishek Mukherjee Head of Project points to the ninth and 12th seasons ldquoIn the ninth season 10 out of 16 contestants were failures So we pumped up the show through various tasks and situationsrdquoTakes a village to make the showThe crew consists of over 700 people who are then divided into weekday and weekend teams ldquoOne is the reality team which handles the episode from Monday to Friday and the other is the weekend team Despite being the weekend team they are expected to watch the entire footage during the week Then there is another team that takes care of my 247 live channel interactivity and the Unseen Undekha sectionrdquo explains JoshiFrom left Tushar Joshi Abhishek Mukherjee and Sarvesh SinghLetrsquos make it happenWhich brings us to the most important part the execution of Bigg Boss Itrsquos known that the show is shot 24x7 with over 100 cameras While there are cameras stationed inside the house there are also cameras placed near all the windows with cameramen trying to capture the tiniest of actions and conversations Did you know that when the contestants wash dishes at the sink smoke in the smoking room and sleep in the bedrooms they have cameras directed at them from behind the tinted windows If the cameraman takes a break there is always someone to take their placeSalman KhanTaking us around the set Sarvesh Singh Head of Production says ldquoEveryone who enters the shooting alley around the house is expected to wear an allblack uniform to avoid reflections in the glass doors and windows Every window is numbered That way when instructions are received from the control room a cameraman can reach the right window to capture the required content We have three rotational shifts for every crew memberrdquo Over 62000 wires are laid down for every connection inside the house which is later concealed to avoid monkeys disrupting the shoot Mukherjee says that the pressure in the PCR production control room is tremendous Ahead of a season the crew has to undergo mandatory 15day training where they produce dummy episodesWriters and editors in the production control roomIn the first couple of days my PCR team is taken through the old episodes where we tell them how to divide streams what to follow and where the story liesrdquo explains Joshi ldquoThe next day a few crew members go into the house and start recording their own stories In the next stage we get dummy contestants and produce a few 12hour episodes we also do one 24hour episode It is not only for the crew but to ensure smooth functioning of everything Once the contestant enters everything from plumbing to the smallest light needs to work for 105 days or 45 days if itrsquos for the OTT So everything needs to be checked including the pipes flush and gas Sarvesh even instructs them to cook just so that we can see if the stove is workingrdquoAnil KapoorEverything a contestant carries inside the house is scrutinised by the team Participants are not allowed to carry medications inside the house If a person has a prescription for antianxiety diabetes or any other illness it is delivered on a daily basis ldquoSenior journalist Deepak Chaurasia is in the house He is diabetic and unable to walk so we put inclines in the house for the wheelchair Every day his medicines and insulin shots are deliveredrdquo explains MukherjeeChallengesWith a show of this magnitude the challenges are bound to be tenfold Singh remembers the behindthescenes drama that unfolded when Mahajan and Chaudhary in the second season breached the boundary walls leading the creative team to consider having an early finale ldquoThey had made a sexist remark stating that there were no women in the house to cook for them Bigg Boss told them that they had to make their own food Rahul removed the mic and said lsquoIrsquom not doing anything If you donrsquot provide us food we will jump off the wallrsquo We thought he was bluffing but they jumped off the wall and started walking towards the main gate People started capturing them on phone cameras so we grabbed them put them in the car and brought them backrdquoDeepak Chaurasia has been provided with a wheelchair to move about in the houseJoshi recalls another instance when Siddiqui wanted to leave the show at 3 am ldquoHe said he has a friend in Lonavala and he wants to go to her house It turned out to be an old bungalow of Smita Patil which was later bought by Imamrsquos friendrdquo shares Joshi Shifting from their Lonavala set after season 12 was another challenge He highlights that despite having a medical team on standby 24x7 they have dealt with problems from ldquonondeclared miscarriages There were people taking 30 to 40 milligrams of antidepressants in angerrdquoThe way aheadWith the world embracing AI itrsquos only a matter of time before we have a BiggBossmeetsAI version Dhar says ldquoWe have started moving in that direction maybe by the end of the year or early next year the process will be in placerdquoDid you knowgtgt A season of the Chinese version of Big Brother was shot in Indiagtgt India is the only market globally where Bigg Boss plays out across two platforms TV and OTT within the same yeargtgt The production relocated from Lonavalarsquos 17acre set to three acres in Film Citygtgt Every year the crucial members of the Bigg Boss team meet their international counterparts worldwide to discuss the previous season