Actor-musician Karan Oberoi is not much of a Bigg Boss fan.
In fact he says he cannot bear the concept of contestants being turned into performing monkeys. “I have never watched a single episode of Bigg Boss and I don’t intend to either! It reminds me of gladiatorial fights in the Roman arenas! People are being butchered in closed confined spaces for the entertainment of cheering audiences and a great source of deflection from their own pathetic lot.”
It amazes Karan how audiences enjoy the contestants being melted down emotionally. “The only difference between a gladiatorial fight and Bigg Boss is that the massacre is more of the mind than body on Bigg Boss, and the source of ambiguous joy for the audiences is the systematic break down of the human mind. Quite close to some of our TRP chasing news channels!”
A recent task of four women “seducing” Siddharth Shukla has Karan fuming. “The idea of a man being seduced on camera by four women is balderdash! It just promoted toxic masculinity! And clearly along the lines of the show itself!”
He wants the supporters of Bigg Boss to reboot their priorities. “How can some real person’s pain or breakdown give us joy and entertainment! We possibly need to introspect too as an audience. And as content creators we have a moral and social responsibility too which we can’t shirk in the race to generate eye balls and ear shots.”