Meet Bigg Boss 16 winner MC Stan: Street rapper from Pune, who started singing at 12

A look at the journey of MC Stan aka Altaf, who bagged the winner's trophy at Bigg Boss 16 finale on Sunday.

Rapper MC Stan aka Altaf Shaikh bagged the winner's trophy for Salman Khan-hosted reality show Bigg Boss 16 on Sunday in a surprise win. Shiv Thakare, Archana Gauatam, Priyanka Chahar Choudhary and Shalin Bhanot were also in the run for the victory. Given the buzz around the other finalists, not many saw Stan winning the show. ()

MC Stan poses with the Bigg Boss 16 winner's trophy.

MC Stan is a street rapper hailing from Pune. He first began his music journey at the age of 12, when he started singing qawwalis. He first rose to popularity when his songs Wata and Khuja Mat became popular on social media, and made him a common name among the youth. His YouTube channel has over two lakh subscribers. MC Stan is known as the ‘beef king’ in the underground rap world. His YouTube channel has 6.08 million subscribers.

Prior to his participation in Bigg Boss 16, MC Stan made news, when he broke up with his former girlfriend Auzma Shaikh last year. Soon after the breakup, he had shared her residential address on social media, and some of his fans reached her house and even threatened her.

Auzma also shared his residential address, and she claimed that MS Stan sent his manager Vardhaman Mehta later to attack her. She had told MidDay in 2022, “In revenge, he called Santacruz police station and filed a non-cognisable complaint against me for posting his address. On February 21, I went to the police station with two of my friends after we were called. Mehta was there with his friends. When we were returning home, Mehta and his friends Aakash and Sunny followed us on bikes. They stopped the auto, verbally abused us, kicked and thrashed us and also snatched my iPhone and smashed it.”

During his Bigg Boss journey, MC Stan built friendships with Sajid Khan, Shiv Thakare and Abdu Rozik, among others. Together, their ‘mandali (group)’ entertained one and all. He also impressed the audience with his raw personality. Even Salman was intrigued by his street-style lingo, when Stan came on the stage for Bigg Boss 16 premiere last year. The host was also impressed with the rapper's rags-to-riches journey.