Through the Looking Glass: The compelling and disquieting voyeurism of Bigg Boss

In its 20th season, Bigg Boss, the Hindi version of the reality show Big Brother, once again presents a feast of voyeurism as an engine for TRPs. Contestants are mostly celebrities who have dropped out of sight and want a bump at a revival. For instance, this time there is Mary Kom, a former world boxing champion, whose domestic life has lately been embroiled in controversy. Then there are upstarts who want a fast track to fame. The longer they stay inside the house, the better the odds of ambitions being met.

How you do that is what the makers bank on and the reason why the show has been so successful. Last year, Farhana Bhat, a contestant whose Instagram count was under 50,000 followers, made herself immediately unpopular inside the house with an acid tongue. She came looking for a fight and by the end of the season was the runner-up. Today, she has 3.7 million followers.

Courteousness and being non-confrontational, principles most try to live by, are useless inside the house. There are only about 75 minutes that the show plucks out from the 24 hours of the contestants. Content is anything out of the ordinary. Some are naturally gifted at entertainment, but most aren’t. The only recourse they have is to quarrel and ratchet up intense emotional moments. It has to be mentally exhausting for them. They might pass it off as performance but the conflict is real with a real person at the opposite end whose incentive is to double the stakes.

The viewer loves it. He puts his stamp on the idea that the only thing worse than infamy is invisibility. He protects contestants who can provide the viciousness by voting for them. He means no harm and only wants entertainment. But it is a little like watching gladiators beat each other to death and feeling no culpability because you are not the one setting up the fight. No one dies here and there is mostly a happy ending, but the aftertaste of something unwholesome is inescapable for those enjoying the show.