And the Winner is Shilpa Shetty

There is a very old Hindi dialogue, “Jab Allah ho meharbaan toh Ghadda pehelwaan”. This line I feel sits so perfectly with our recent reality show winners – Rahul Roy for Bigg Boss and Shilpa Shetty for Big Brother.

On Saturday night, Bollywood’s one-hit wonder boy Rahul walked away with 50 Lakhs (wonder if it’s really that big of an amount considering the taxes, etc he would have to shell out) beating rather popular housemates Ravi Kissen and Carol Gracious. And the very next day (Englaaand time), riding on the controversial racism horse our Ms. Shetty won the Big Brother title with over 60% of votes. Unlike Rahul, Shilpa bags in a whopping 100000 pounds and Lord only knows the number of money-flowing deals via endorsements, movie offers, interviews, etc.

Frankly speaking, the final outcome of both the shows turned to be a shocker for me. Ya, ya I know Shilpa’s victory should have been expected considering the public support this woman received over the past two weeks and also her being the bookies favorite but I guess my experienced Bolly-radar let me down big time, this time.

I had expected Jermaine (Jackson’s brother) to win considering the fact that he was the only housemate liked by all contestants and he always presented himself to be un-biased & neutral when it came to other house guests and in my opinion was the only level-headed contestant in the show. However the people power (or more aptly the sentimental desi-junta) proved to be much stronger than picking a worthy winner.

Nevertheless, Shilpa is not a bad winner considering game format. She not only entertained and but also involved the viewers be it with her crying, sob stories, bitchy fights, glamorous wardrobe, under cooked chicken and stardom dramas.

But when you look at Bigg Boss, the Indian public choosing of all the 13 housemates, the absolute dullest of the lot is nothing but rather a shocking decision. I mean, come on people?Rahul Roy, the man who brought nothing but boredom to the show and practically put us, the viewers to sleep with his sant guru tactics. So slow was his dialogue delivery that by the time he finished his first sentence, I could have completed my 7th karmic cycle. Agreed I was very heart-broken when Rakhi was voted out the second time round but I would have happily accepted Ravi or for that matter even Carol as the winner. At least they added some tanginess to our evenings in their own screwed-up special ways. For me the finale of Bigg Boss was simply a Bigg Phuss.

Anyways, no use cribbing now and whats done is done. While Ms. Shetty will continue to reap the benefits of her past one month for a very long time, I wonder what else Baba Roy would gain besides his two minutes in the lime-light.