‘Bigg Boss 11’: Bollywood celebs who made a mark in previous seasons

The reality show that houses a bunch of inmates from various walks of life has seen many Bollywood celebs appear on it. ‘Bigg Boss’ had its first winner in the form of Rahul Roy, the quintessential lover boy from the ‘90s and continues its run with B-town stars on the show with the likes of troubled actress Monica Bedi and Ashmit Patel. Here’s looking at Bollywood celebs who made a mark in previous seasons.

The first season of the megahit reality show saw ‘Aashiqui’ star Rahul Roy make a return to mainstream media. The reclusive actor showed a much composed side of his personality while on the show as he cruised to become the first ever winner of the show, then hosted by Arshad Warsi. Rahul tried to stay away from fights as much as he could but was mired in a drawn-out argument with Rakhi Sawant during the last few weeks.

‘Bigg Boss 2’ contestant Monica Bedi was arrested with Abu Salem for entering Portugal on forged documents once. After serving jail sentence there, she was charged for forging her Indian passport as well. The ‘Jodi No. 1’ actress won many hearts with her appearance on the second season of the show, and formed a strong friendship with fellow contestant, and controversy’s favourite child Rahul Mahajan.

Shamita Shetty got herself locked inside the ‘Bigg Boss’ house in the show’s third season. After her sister Shilpa tried her luck at the international edition of the same reality show, Shamita decided to participate on ‘Bigg Boss 3’. Although the actress’s stay inside the house came to an abrupt end, with sister Shilpa Shetty's wedding coming up on November 22, 2009, Shamita chose to exit ‘Bigg Boss’ without being up for eviction as she did not want to miss the wedding, like she missed the engagement a few days before.

Poonam Dhillon came very close to winning the third edition of the hit reality show as she finished as the second runner-up. After her stint on the show, Poonam said that she participated in the show to connect to a younger audience, and the target had been achieved. "My children and their generation are oblivious to the stardom I have enjoyed in my heydays. I participated in ‘Bigg Boss’ so that the younger generation comes to know about me and respect me," Poonam said after staying in the house for 84 days.

Vindu Dara Singh won the third season of 'Bigg Boss' and walked away with the winning amount of Rs 1 Crore. Vindu was one of the strongest and powerful contestants of the house. It was Vindu's anger which became one of the main TRP-earning factors. He was often behind most of the plotting and planning and got engaged in many verbal fights with his co-contestants. But nothing stopped him from winning the show as he received the most votes from the public.

Ameesha Patel’s brother and actor Ashmit Patel entered the ‘Bigg Boss’ house in the fourth season of the show. He ended up becoming one of the finalists on the edition. While Ashmit raised many eyebrows with his friendships with TV actress Sara Khan and Pakistani actress Veena Malik, he recently got married to another ‘Bigg Boss’ alumnus from season 5 – Maheck Chahal.

Shakti Kapoor made an interesting start to his stint on ‘Bigg Boss 5’ as he entered the house with thirteen women. The show later saw an influx of other male participants, but Shakti was the only man in the house for a few weeks. After his eviction from the house, Shakti had rather intriguing things to say. "I enjoyed my stay in the house, where my signing amount was much more than the winner's booty, and my weekly payment was as much as any inmate's total stay package,” he said.

In one of the show’s most tumultuous seasons, Pooja Bedi was reportedly asked to stay away from the finale of ‘Bigg Boss 5’ after she was evicted from the house. Pooja had alleged that Salman always favoured fellow contestant Maheck Chahal. The channel, however, did not take kindly to those remarks, following which Pooja had been asked not to attend its finale. On receiving the confirmation on the decision, Pooja took to Twitter to put forth her perspective. "Have been informed by the channel that I'm not to attend finale, despite it being mandatory in my contract! Wonder why! Any guesses?" Pooja tweeted. "Have asked channel to state reason I cannot be there at finale to cheer my friends on! Also, till yesterday I was to do a medley! What changed?" she wrote.

Kajol’s sister and actress Tanishaa participated in ‘Bigg Boss 7’ and became the subject of an alleged love affair with actor Armaan Kohli. The two shared an extremely blow-hot-blow-cold dynamic on the show and were rumoured to be going strong with their relationship even after the culmination of the show. The alleged liaison did not last long as soon it was reported that the two had broken up. Tanishaa also ended up becoming the runner-up, as Gauahar Khan picked up the winner’s trophy.

Armaan Kohli had a very eventful stay inside the ‘Bigg Boss’ house, as he was involved in countless arguments, an alleged affair, and was even arrested by the Lonavla Police while inside the house. Armaan, famous for his aggressive behaviour, was mired in fights frequently with Kushal Tandon, and things came to a head when he was arrested following a complaint by fellow participant Sofia Hayat, after he hit her in the face with a mop which she was using to wipe the windscreen of a car during a task on the show.

Gauahar Khan was also a part of the seventh season of ‘Bigg Boss’, which saw strong and entertaining competitors like Armaan Kohli, Tanishaa Mukherji, Kushal Tandon, Ajaz Khan and VJ Andy. Gauahar went on to become the winner in the face of great odds as she also came out of the show with a relationship with fellow candidate Kushal. Gauahar said that she was not sure of victory when she was pitted against co-contestant Tanishaa Mukherji. But, after the win, she said that she felt lucky and was grateful to the audience for the support.

After requesting viewers and the makers of 'Bigg Boss 9' week after week to eliminate her from the reality show, Rimi Sen was out of the house after 49 days after a very drastic breakdown. The Bollywood actress, who got evicted from the show, planned to personally apologize to Salman and thought that she was not cut out for a show like ‘Bigg Boss’.