VIJAYAWADA: Life inside the house of Big Boss (Telugu) is a simulated reality worth living for a while, says film critic Mahesh Kathi who was evicted from the house on Saturday.
Happy to be a free man again after living for 28 days in what he calls ‘space to retrospect’, Mr. Kathi says by default the show is becoming a reflective reality of people who are watching the show. “On my way back from the airport, the driver went on talking about how he could relate with almost every circumstance shown in the house,” Mr. Kathi told The Hindu on Sunday.
A student of communications, he specialised in television production. “I know how television shows are produced. The brief given to us by the show organisers was anything but what goes on inside the house. It is very hard; in real life, you choose the people who are around you, your comfort factors and most importantly, you spend only a few hours in a day even with your own family; but in Big Boss house, it is an over-exposure to the house-mates. The tasks made things worse,” he says explaining the challenges.
The Big Boss housemates come from culturally different background. Living under the same roof 24x7 can be a challenge.
He says unlike a few others, who knew each other outside the house, he had the burden of familiarising with all of them. About the division of the inmates in two groups, he says it was “all about knowing and not-knowing others”.
Initially, everybody tried to put their best side up because they know that once they get out of the house, they may run into each other and so they better behave nicely. “The second week was the ice-breaker when Kalpana (singer) took over the reigns of captaincy and gradually began to show her true colours,” he says, elaborating how over a period, things began to turn ugly. “Sampu (Hero Sampurnesh Babu) was claustrophobic; Madhupriya (singer), an otherwise a strong girl, wanted to leave and Mumaith Khan, also a very strong contender, broke down at one point. Nothing can go as per your plan in Big Boss house. The real you has to surface,” he says.
Mr. Kathi faced allegations of being biased and favouritism. “I agree I had my favourites in the house but I refuse the blame of bias,” he says.
He admits that physical disadvantages prevented him from doing certain tasks “but I took up the challenge wherever it was possible for me.”
The Big Boss takeaway, he says, is “I am more resilient in terms of facing life. Even in difficult moments, I did not lose sight of my core values; There were times I was angry; but rightfully so and no regrets for that.”
