Bigg Boss aspirants should use PR strategies for limelight, feels Bollywood PR guru Dale Bhagwagar

October 19, 2019

By Team QNAindia

Bollywood’s only PR guru Dale Bhagwagar is also the only specialist on Bigg Boss. Having handled the PR for a full 20 contestants while they have been on the controversial show, Dale also has guts to call a spade a spade. He boldly addresses queries in this exclusive no-holds-barred interview to QNA India.

Bigg Boss 13 has shifted from Lonavla to Filmcity Studios in Goregaon, Mumbai. Do you think it’s a good move?

Dale Bhagwagar: That fresh breath of Lonavla air that the Bigg Boss Housemates felt in the garden area is missing. Also, knowing that they were far away from Mumbai city, gave the contestants a feel of being separated from their near and dear ones, which went perfectly with the show’s concept. That is now missing too.

But being at Filmcity, has its own share of advantages too. Availability for props, food items, staff etc would definitely be better when in Mumbai. Travel time for staff and Salman Khan is less.

Moreover, security is better as Filmcity has two security gates before one reaches any studio floor. The distance between the first and second gate is almost 2 kilometers. So for any anti-Bigg Boss protest morchas to walk all the way, would be quite a task, and also provide the makers ample time to call for police help, just in case any protest morcha breaks through the first security gate.

Will Bigg Boss 13 get better TRPs than last season?

Dale Bhagwagar: I have a feeling Bigg Boss TRPs may not rise with the passing of its seasons now. The reasons are many. The attention span of people have changed. Also, most youth want to watch shows on the go, and not sit in front of television sets anymore. Though on Voot, the show has limited its visibility by being absent on YouTube; the most popular platform for videos.

Another reason is that the show has deviated from its original concept of being truthful to reality television, and feels more and more like a game show. Being a publicist in the entertainment field and having handled the PR for the maximum Bigg Boss contestants and watched them closely, I’m of the impression that the media publicity for the show also needs more innovativeness and improvement.

Many more journalists need to receive its daily synopsis and publicity images. The PR images for the media could be of better size, correct format and higher resolution too. This would make the journalist’s job of covering Bigg Boss, easier. Scribes may then refrain from searching and lifting random images from FB pages or channel website, which may not satisfy their needs for a great image-resolution.

Apart from all this, one has to also understand that Gen Z does not sit and watch TV serials. So most of the times, they identify quite less with the TV stars which feature more and more on Bigg Boss nowadays. All these and many more transformational changes could give the fortunes of Bigg Boss a punchy boost.

Bigg Boss approaches a lot of celebrities, but only a few of them finally go to the Bigg Boss House. Do you think this is a promotional ploy by the makers to create a wider buzz for the show before it rolls?

Dale Bhagwagar: Ha ha! It seems you have stumbled upon some secret. Yes, this does create a buzz initially, as not all who are approached are aware of the secrecy clause in BB contracts. So they yap and talk and hint, or tell their friends that they have been approached for Bigg Boss. Some even pompously write on FB that BB approaches them every year. But I don’t think that kind of PR buzz helps them. If they really want to be on the show by getting in the limelight, or catch the attention of the makers, there are other intelligent PR strategies and methods.

What if the selection process goes on public voting?

Dale Bhagwagar: That could be an interesting turn. But the public will have to see the drama quotient of the contestants and judge by that. Only then will it work well. Hai na.

Is it better to have only celebrities in Bigg Boss or is it better to have common people with celebrities?

Dale Bhagwagar: The hero of the show should be the concept. I feel, the best thing for Bigg Boss will be to focus on its original ‘reality television’ format and reduce the number of games and tasks. I also strongly feel that Bigg Boss should have two seasons every year — one with celebs and another with commoners.

What do you have to say about most contestants who win Bigg Boss, but are not able to remain in the news after winning? What could be the reason?

Dale Bhagwagar: The primary reason for this is that success goes to their head. The months they spend in isolation makes them believe that the show has made superstars out of them. When they meet their family and friends on the show, they hear stories of how they are being talked about in the outside world; about how famous they have become etc etc etc. They think they have ‘arrived’ and this thought goes to their head.

When they come out they are mobbed, first by the media and then by the people on the streets. They get a lot of instant recognition. In all this hullabaloo, most of them forget that PR plays an important role in the imaging, branding and consistency of any publicity exercise.

What they completely fail to realize is that long-term fame is not about hype, but about imaging and branding. That is why so many Bigg Boss contestants lose out in the long run, with most of these disappearing into oblivion. Even the winners.

To read another interview of Dale Bhagwagar on Bigg Boss, click here: Bollywood PR guru Dale Bhagwagar rips through the TRP myth of Bigg Boss

India’s biggest reality show Bigg Boss is in controversy once again! The Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC), an independent body set up by the Indian Broadcasters Foundation (IBF) to promote self-regulation by Indian television media, has stated that the Indo-Canadian pornstar Sunny Leone has promoted her pornography business through Bigg Boss.

With just two weeks remaining for the grand finale of the show; taking up 19 complaints pertaining to Sunny Leone, BCCC is reported to have put Colors, one of IBF members, on notice for allowing cross-promotion of sexually explicit content by Sunny Leone, who, in turn, is making money out of her presence on Bigg Boss.

It has been reported in The Tribune that in a meeting yesterday, BCCC directed Colors to stop all cross-promotion of Leone’s pornographic sites and videos by December 26.

Wajahat Habibullah, chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities and a member of BCCC, said, “We all agreed that Sunny Leone has been using Bigg Boss on Colors to promote pornography which is classified as criminal activity in India. It may not be criminal in the United States where she comes from, but here, it happens to be so. Therefore, she can’t be allowed to use our television to promote her business. Colors has agreed to comply and report back on steps taken.”

Sunny’s interactions with Bigg Boss hosts Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt and Housemates including Juhi Parmar, Siddharth Sid Bhardwaj, Akashdeep Sky Saigal, Amar Upadhyay and guest Andrew Symonds have been widely speculated and discussed on the show.

“Sunny has been constantly playing mischief with Amar Upadhyay on Bigg Boss, falsely alleging that the family man has been ‘touchy-feely’ with her,” remarked Dale Bhagwagar, publicist for the television star, most famous for his role as the righteous Mihir Virani in the epic daily soap Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.

A public relations specialist with Bigg Boss; Dale has earlier handled the media for the maximum number of celebrities on reality shows including Shilpa Shetty (during Big Brother), Rakhi Sawant, Kashmera Shah, Ashmit Patel, Sherlyn Chopra, Diana Hayden (Bigg Boss). He pointed out that “Brand Sunny Leone has enhanced itself multiple times since her appearance on Bigg Boss.”

Dale added that “her stint inside the Bigg Boss house has helped Sunny top Google charts with millions looking her up on the internet from India and abroad.”

“According to data collected from Google Trends, Sunny Leone’s search results are reported to be five times more than current teen sensation Katrina Kaif, twice as many as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and nine times more than the vivacious Kareena Kapoor. That says a lot for Sunny’s rising brand and popularity,” said the Bollywood PR.

Meanwhile, BCCC is reported to have said that anyone is free to appear on any show, but no one has the right to promote their business through it, especially so when the business happens to be illegal.

It was noted that Sunny Leone’s video postings, procured from Bigg Boss 5, are being cross-promoted on a blog authored by the pornstar. The report further states that Sunny’s Twitter account, having 86,000 followers, mentions that mobile applications of her hard porn products are available via email.

More about Sunny Leone on Bigg Boss:

Born Karen Malhotra, Sunny, who entered Bigg Boss as a Wild Card Entry on November 21, became an instant sensation, creating ripples across the country, and garnering attention and protests from people shocked with a pornstar’s presence on Indian national television.

A few days later, acclaimed Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt went into the Bigg Boss House and offered her a lead role in his next film Jism 2, creating great hype all over again. Her seducing pole dance on the show too, attracted great eyeballs and was expected to have boosted the TRP’s.

Not revealing her true identity to the Housemates for long, Sunny, whose Hindi accent is also famous on the show, finally relented when firebrand Pooja Misrra (who had re-entered the House as a guest entry after being in the outside world and knowing about her pornstar status) coaxed her to come out with the truth.