Kaushal Manda - A Phoenix raising from the ashes

 

Last year, when superstar legendary NTR hosted Big Boss Telugu season 1, it felt more like everybody was participating in Seethamma Vaakitlo, not Bigg Boss at any stretch.... Bandhalu, bandhavyalu, thyagalu, gauravalu etc. My husband, a first time Bigg Boss viewer, had to stop me from constantly nagging that this is not the Bigg Boss I had signed up for. What can I say.... after watching all the seasons of the Hindi version and a few seasons of Kannada version, BBT1 didn’t feel like Bigg Boss at all. Nevertheless, I warmed up pretty soon and enjoyed the clean version of that season. 

My oh my! This season looks like it has surpassed everyone’s expectations and more. Anyone who has seen Bigg Boss, albeit any language, already know the classic rule 101 of what not to do in Bigg Boss in the first two weeks. 

1. Don’t alienate anyone. 
2. Don’t ignore anyone. 
3. Don’t corner anyone.

Ask Gauhar Khan and Gautam Gulati how they won Bigg Boss in their respective seasons. The first few weeks are crucial because the audience form their opinion on what they see and perceive each and every contestant. Gauhar won because she stood up against the biased host Salman Khan, who incessantly castigated her and favored his unworthy film fraternity. Gautam won because the other contestants ganged up against him and treated him bad through out the season. Seems familiar?

This year in Bigg Boss Telugu 2, we have Gauhar and Gautam rolled in one, i.e. Kaushal Manda. What were the contestants thinking? Anyone worth their salt knows viewers always root for the underdogs and/or victims in any game show, not just Bigg Boss. Kaushal has constantly been at the receiving end, right from the beginning. After Deepti N, the dimwit, ousted his game plan to counter the filmy trio who may or may not have formed the pact before entering the house, problems escalated for him quickly and he has been a target ever since.

Kaushal has been accused of being selfish and a pervert to everything in between. More like the other contestants are unable to come up with something that would finally get him out. I had heard about the Standford prison experiment, and we are seeing one example right inside Bigg Boss house. While the others inside the locked house are projecting him as a sociopath/psychopath, the general audience is helplessly watching a simple man with minor flaws, cautiously walking on egg shells to escape their wrath. One mistake from him, and they are ready to skin him alive.

Kudos to Kaushal Manda for not cracking under pressure and raising from the ashes every single day, only to face a new one at the end of the day. I don’t even care even if he is right or wrong anymore, because at this point he is the only one focused on the game. He deserves every single penny from the winning amount, even if in case he doesn’t win (rigged?) Bigg Boss.

p.s. The only other person I don’t mind winning apart from Kaushal is Geetha Madhuri, because she isn’t following the herd mostly, and playing her own game.