Mugen Rao was announced as the winner of the third season of the Tamil reality TV show Bigg Boss on Sunday night. The singer from Malaysia received a winner's cheque of ₹50 lakh. Dancer and choreographer Sandy was the first runner up.
Hosted by Kamal Haasan, the show lasted for 105 days and began with 16 contestants, of which four made it to the final week.
The winner of Bigg Boss season 2, Rythvika, went inside the house to meet the finalists and accompanied Sherin, who was the first finalist to be evicted that night out of the house onto the stage. Actor Shruti Haasan too made an appearance during the finale and went inside the house to announce and accompany Losliya, who was the second finalist out of the house.
Krishnan Kutty, the Business head of Star Vijay, said that they had received nearly 200 crore votes in total for all the contestants through the season. "We received 20 crore votes in the finals alone, which is among the highest for any Bigg Boss season anywhere in the world."
Tharshan, who was heavily favored to win the competition, had left several fans shocked when he was eliminated a week before the finals. Haasan however announced on stage during the finale that he was signing the Sri Lankan model and aspiring actor, as a talent with his production house Raaj Kamal Films International.
"I am very keen to see youngsters succeed as well and you are signed as a talent with Raaj Kamal Films International. My mentors have been responsible for ensuring that I overcome barriers in my path and I hope we are able to do the same for him," Haasan said.
At the start of the finale, Haasan initiated an interaction with members of the audience and invited them to share the positives that they'd taken away from the show.
Letters from Kamal Haasan
Haasan also went inside the Bigg Boss house to meet the four finalists and gave them each a handwritten letter from him which he read out, even breaking into a song when he handed Mugen the letter.
"Director K. Balachander, actors Nagesh, Sivakumar and lyricist Vaali are among some of the artists I greatly admire who have written letters like this for me. I don't know what the people have decided, but these letters are what I wanted to tell all of you," he said.
The participants were given awards and Kavin, who had amassed a huge fan following through the course of the show, was given the 'Gamechanger' title.
Vanitha was given an award for her 'Guts and Grit' and Cheran was given an award for being the most disciplined. Sherin was given an award for being the 'Best Buddy' in the Bigg Boss house and she said she would share the award with Abhirami. Tharshan was given the all rounder award.
