Bigg Boss is an Indian reality show franchise based in Big Brother, the Dutch reality show Big Brother. The show is produced through Endemol Shine India through Viacom18 and Disney Star. Subsequently, the various version of the program are internationally accessible through OTT platforms.
Bigg Boss was first conceived by the Hindi language, and has since been expanded into seven languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent, which includes Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Malayalam.
There have been seven versions of the show that were filmed in various languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent. The first episode of the series was Bigg Boss in Hindi, which premiered in 2006 on Sony TV, and from season two onwards it moved to and is currently on Colors TV. 2013 was the Bigg Boss Telugu Vote year that the show expanded its reach to Kannada by launching Colors Kannada along with Bengali through ETV Bangla, later rebranded as Colors Bangla. In 2017, it extended its presence to Tamil via Star Vijay and in Telugu through Star Maa. In 2018, the company ventured into Marathi through Colors Marathi and into Malayalam through Asianet.
While only famous people were picked to be as housemates in the initial seasons however, viewers from all walks of life have been chosen to be on the show in the latest seasons of Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam versions of the show.