Mumbai: For the first time, audiences across India will experience the excitement, drama and fandom of ‘Bigg Boss’ simultaneously. That is because as India gears up for the festive season, JioStar is set to launch six editions of ‘Bigg Boss’ across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bangla this festive season starting September. Trusted by over 625+ brands across 46 categories including 49 debutants, Bigg Boss the broadcaster says continues to be India’s most influential marketing platform, delivering 500 million+ reach and 438 billion+ viewing minutes across languages in 2025~
The six editions will be released pan-India starting September 2026 on the JioStar television network and JioHotstar. Adding to the scale of this celebration is the franchise’s line-up of hosts – Salman Khan, Vijay Sethupati, Nagarjuna, Kichcha Sudeepa, Mohanlal – who have become synonymous with Bigg Boss in their respective markets. This year, Nation’s Dada and the pride of Bengal Sourav Ganguly, joins the franchise strengthening its star-studded appeal. To commemorate this milestone, JioStar has unveiled India’s Bigg Reality, a data-rich coffee table book that chronicles the franchise’s journey, cultural influence and enduring legacy.
Drawing on two decades of ‘Bigg Boss’, ‘India’s Bigg Reality’ showcases how one of India’s biggest entertainment franchises has become a proven growth platform for brands. In 2025 alone, the franchise recorded a reach of over 500 million, generated 438 billion+ viewing minutes and witnessed 47% y-o-y growth in engagement across six language editions.
More than 625 brands have leveraged this scale to launch products, build awareness and create lasting consumer connections across national and regional markets. On JioHotstar, 6 in every 10 viewers watch the Bigg Boss 24×7 live feed, underscoring its ability to foster deep audience engagement, enabling brands such as Tide and Silver Coin Atta to extend sponsorship beyond episodes with always-on branding that keeps their message visible throughout the viewer journey.
The book offers a view of how Bigg Boss makes brands come alive within the show, moving beyond traditional placements to create deeper, more engaging interactions. Through integrations like the Snack and Snack drone delivery, specialised tasks highlighting Vaseline products, the dynamic presence of the elevator, or the interactive Spy Kuttan robot, brands achieve sharper audience targeting and deeper participation. This measurable brand impact makes Bigg Boss an indispensable strategic resource for companies looking to build meaningful connections with consumers across the country.
The coffee table book also reveals why ‘Bigg Boss’ is far more than a viewing experience. Audiences actively participate in shaping the franchise, with more than 9.32 billion votes cast and 43 million live chats recorded on JioHotstar. Nearly 3 in every 4 viewers engage with the show beyond passive consumption, reinforcing Bigg Boss as one of India’s most interactive entertainment ecosystems.
‘Bigg Boss’ drives massive internet obsession, generating over 1.7 billion social engagements and 30 million user-generated memes in 2025 alone. This always-on engagement extends the life of brand campaigns far beyond on-air integrations, creating multiple opportunities for marketers to participate in culture, spark conversations and build meaningful consumer connections.
‘India’s Bigg Reality’ highlights the show’s deep regional penetration and cultural resonance. Bigg Boss reaches more than 200 million viewers across Hindi-speaking markets and over 300 million viewers in Southern India, where 8 in every 10 television viewers engage with the show. Its reach is 3.5 times higher than every other reality show in the region combined, underscoring the strength of its multilingual footprint.
For brands, this scale translates into measurable business outcomes. The 2025 season alone saw over 625 advertisers across 46 categories, including 49 debutants, benefiting from average uplifts of 1.33 times in awareness, 1.26 times in consideration, and 1.25 times in purchase intent. This impact is vividly illustrated through successful collaborations such as Mamaearth’s deep integration with specialized tasks and their co-founder’s guest appearance, VZY’s strategic market penetration as a co-powered sponsor for both Hindi and Kannada editions, and Jar App’s targeted user acquisition in Bigg Boss Kannada for its micro-investment product.
‘India’s Bigg Reality’ brings together audience intelligence, participation metrics and commercial impact to offer a comprehensive view of one of India’s most influential reality entertainment shows. The coffee table book also highlights how ‘Bigg Boss’ can serve as a platform for lasting audience participation, cultural relevance, and immersive brand engagement.
Speaking at a media roundtable Mahesh Shetty, Head – Entertainment Sales, TV, JioStar said that when media houses have very strong content brands, which have great consumer love, and which spans across multiple platforms consumers follow that content. If a consumer is moving across platforms, you need to have a content or a brand which is relevant regardless of the platform.
“Then the business becomes viable, the property becomes viable, which is when you go back to invest. “Today, as a company, we have invested in ‘Big Boss’, year on year, and have increased the franchise base from one language to five. We’ll also launch Bangla hosted by Saurav Ganguly.”
The key to success for him is that the brand is very strong. Therefore the content has relevance with the consumer. It is a viable proposition as a consumer, even when he/she’s moving platforms from linear to digital or to social, this brand goes across multiple brands, it has relevance. As media owners the aim is to ensure that it is relevant with the consumer as that is when there is a business.
“I think in each market, it is the biggest show. You can’t compare one versus the other, because each operates in a different way. So in each market that they operate in, they are the biggest show. We expect it to break previous records this year because the competition is us and me. It’s not about competing with somebody else.
“These are the biggest faces you can get in each market. They are the superstars of their respective markets.”
When asked if ‘Bigg Boss’ is profitable as a standalone property or if the goal is to get more viewers on the platform he noted that if investments are made every year in a property, it better be profitable. “And we start new versions of that. So on a longer term, if a property is not profitable, new versions are not created.”
When asked if JioStar will shift focus to an extent towards digital away from linear as Meta and Google eat into linear TV’s ad revenue he noted that both linear and digital have a large number of consumers. “We are a platform-agnostic media company. We programme for consumers who can go across platforms. So it’s not that our focus is only on digital or only on linear. A property like ‘Big Boss’ goes across screens. We will work on formats, our investments will be on shows where the consumer actually consumes it across screens, because we have a strong presence across screens.”
He noted that CTV is growing. He noted that JioStar is in the business of storytelling and sharing credible content and empowering creativity. The aim is to do this in a way that users love and advertisers actually leverage the entire platform. He noted that many shows are still built for television. It still works. “So content travels across mediums and screens. Television continues to be the biggest mass-reach medium in the country today and continues to be the base stage for the majority of the brands.”
Meanwhile he noted that digital is evolving into a subscription-based business, an advertising-based business, and commerce is the third leg. “The business is transforming at the pace which is unprecedented, and we are at the inflection of a technology shift called AI. When things moved from desktop to mobile and now mobile and now to AI, people who are in the trenches actually make a big difference.
“Entertainment is one industry which embraces trends the fastest because content travels across screens. I think the business will evolve and thrive. We are doing a lot of stuff to see how we solve for the whole monetisation across screens.”
Festive Season: When asked about why the festive season is the right time for Big Boss he noted that firstly, the festive season is the season when there is a maximum fragmentation across mediums, more number of brands looking to target the same set of consumers’ discretionary spends. “On ‘Big Boss’ the whole country comes together and watches a show whose format they understand, and huge numbers on interactivity. They know how to engage, what to vote, which weekends.
“So for three months of festive season, you have one property which brands can latch on to for attentive reach. Not just any reach, but attentive reach in a format that people understand and in the most nuanced, customisable way nationally and also with regionally.
“And that’s why we choose festive, and this is a big one from an execution point of view, massive one for us to pull off. But we are so excited with the possibility of giving brands an opportunity to own attention this festive season through ‘Bigg Boss’. ” He was then asked about the BCCI looking at shifting the IPL away from the Summer and towards the festive season.
Shetty noted that last year was the first year when the show went first through in digital. This year is the first year when all the language versions of the show are coming together at the same time. “Next year, we’ll see what pans out. There a lot of ifs and buts here. So let’s not make any assumptions.”
He noted that in the past a part of ‘Bigg Boss’ has happened at the same time as the IPL. ” ‘Bigg Boss’ did very well around that time also. The timing of the matches and the timing of Bigg Boss is also slightly different because matches start slightly earlier. Once they get over, ‘Bigg Boss’ continues.”
The point was made that whenever Big Boss happens, people are engaging with it. “And that’s the power of the IP that we have. We think that the multiplier effect of all coming together is going to be much more higher this year. The consumer fandom continues and thrives no matter when it happens. ‘Bigg Boss Malayalam’, we used to do it in summer which is when the IPL happens. We used to do very well. We just moved the date so that every team comes together. It’s not that IPL is the only thing that we watch.”
Bigg Boss Bangla: In terms of ‘Bigg Boss Bangla’ returning after a gap he noted that earlier it was not on Star Jalsha which he said is the number one Bangla channel. What also makes a difference is when you have a great property on a huge platform. When the JioStar merger happened ‘Big Boss Bangla’ was put on Star Jalsha. “When a big property goes on the biggest platform which has a high speed that’s where magic happens. You may have a great product, but not the biggest platform. This is the first year when the combined entity has completed one full year. So the distribution, the opportunity to have maximum eyeballs on some of the already hit properties like this are phenomenal.”
Someone asked the question of Saurav Ganguly having done a show for Zee Bangla. Shetty replied that Ganguly brings a lot of heat to the ‘Bigg Boss’ property. “Saurav is an iconic figure in that market. Actually, he is an iconic figure for the country. So, it is natural that he would have done other things also. ‘Bigg Boss’ is not the only reality show that Salman has done. He has also done ‘Dus Ka Dum’.
“But he brings a different thing to ‘Bigg Boss. Saurav has done ‘Dadagiri’ and did a great job. But he will bring a different element of his character or his stature to ‘Bigg Boss’.
“And I think he will also move up from his fan base once he comes on to ‘Bigg Boss’. And on a different note he has an immense desire to do very well in whatever he does as a sports person earlier and now as an anchor. He is putting a lot of effort to see how he will portray himself very differently and with the hearts of his audiences in a ‘Bigg Boss’ kind of a setting. He has done very well in ‘Radha Devi’, but I think he will do even better when he comes on to ‘Bigg Boss’. “
No Advertiser Fatigue: Currently conversations are on-going with brands to come on-board ‘Bigg Boss’. He also noted that different audience clusters will watch each version. “The consumer who is watching ‘Bigg Boss Hindi’ is not watching ‘Bigg Boss Tamil Nadu’. These are all happening in different markets. Today, advertisers also have different needs in different markets. Also, in a way, it may so happen that for a particular advertiser, he may be wanting to push a particular model in a particular market. So, he has the flexibility saying that in Tamil Nadu market, I will push this particular brand and in a Hindi market, I will push this particular brand.
“It’s not about fatigue because these are all different markets. Consumers are different. “I would actually flip it and then say it is a reverse because what matters is grabbing consumer attention.”
Millions of people watch a consumer electronics brand who is sponsoring ‘Bigg Boss’ for three months in a row in the standard format. “ Look at what it does to your memorability, to your recall and what it does to some of these brand metrics. In an era of infinite scrolls and where attention is so feeble, this to me is like an attention magnet.
“Regional brands who participate in it will get value and national brands who participate in it will get even more value because it has a multiplier effect on all the factors on awareness and recall and memorability because brands are not buying reach anymore. They are buying results. And this is an opportunity for them to deliver on that.”
He added that the strategy is not to sell only linear TV or only digital. “We sell sponsorship for the property. The consumer can consume it wherever they like. The consumer chooses the platform or the medium which is the most convenient to them. And so, our sponsorship packages are for the property. Every year we get newer brands. For example, we have clients like Unilever. They come year on year.” Even if the macro economic situation has challenges they still want to talk because they have seen huge benefits in the past. At the same time new brands also come up.
That he noted is because the kind of reach and engagement that you can get with a ‘Bigg Boss’ in a cluttered environment. Here, with one property, you can get the consumer’s attention. “It is not just visibility, but also engagement. You can talk about your brand story. It’s not just my logo over there.
“Our conversations are on right now. These are multiple markets, and we have many brands across multiple markets. I think it will be a healthy mix of returning and new brands.”
He added that new age brands believe in the salience and the stature of being part of something like this. “We are talking to most of them. But you will see the percentage of new age brands embracing this content type is only going to go up.” A lift brand had come in and therefore a lift was constructed in the ‘Bigg Boss’ set.
“In a landscape of fragmented audience attention specifically during festive season, Bigg Boss acts as a powerful magnet, delivering unified attention at scale for three most important sale months of the year. Driven by a 47% year-on-year growth in engagement—fuelled by 24/7 live feeds, billions of votes, and live chats—the show transforms passive viewers into active participants. For brands, this deep, measurable engagement offers an unparalleled opportunity to break through the clutter, moving beyond standard media tactics to innovate where content, culture, and commerce converge,” said Bhaskar Ramesh, Head – Entertainment Sales, Digital, JioStar.
