Bigg Boss 11 contestants in a mall: Do they deserve to be treated like caged animals?

Bigg Boss 11 has reached its last stage with finale scheduled to take place on January 14. This week is no-nomination week where no contestant will be thrown out of the house on the basis of the fan votes. There can still be a surprise eviction as per Bigg Boss precedent.

The contestants still in the game are Shilpa Shinde, Hina Khan, Vikas Gupta, Luv Tyagi, Akash Dadlani and Puneesh Sharma. The producers of the show decided to take them to a mall, which is their twisted way of gauging the public mood, and give the contestants a reality check of their popularity. Probably they have forgotten the difference between shooting in a controlled environment and leaving the clueless contestants open to pushing and shoving in a crowded mall.

For that is exactly what happened in the mall in Vashi, Mumbai. It got overcrowded within minutes after organisers put it out on social media that the contestants will be present there. Of course, they wanted to make noise, but at what cost? A bunch of unruly people wanted to touch the participants. The security was definitely not adequate as one of them got really close to Hina Khan and pulled her hair.

Then they were put inside cages like circus animals. Yes, they signed up for this but what has happened to your conscience, organisers? How can you exhibit them like this?

The crowd later turned more undisciplined and the contestants were out of the mall before anything untoward could happen, but it puts a serious question mark on the morality of the show producers, as well as the channel.

The channel is paying them to be in the show, but this is like reducing them to the level of insects. Don’t you dare blame it on the mob mentality because this is what the makers wanted from the very beginning. As a show, Bigg Boss is all about voyeurism and enjoying the wild-unseen side of the contestants. The fans know exactly what you offer them. It’s a synergy, but can anything justify compromising the contestants’ well being, their safety?

Even if it was a stunt, it shows what you think of the people participating in your show. There is nothing civil about it. You don’t own them. You might get TRPs by putting them inside cages, but it wasn’t human at all. In fact, it was worse than a zoo where the spectators are not allowed to touch the animals. Hope good sense prevails in the future.

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