TNI Bureau: The much-awaited controversial show ‘Bigg Boss 6’ was kicked off on Colors last night. Host Salman Khan surprised the audience with some interesting names of housemates. They included Navjot Singh Sidhu, Aseem Trivedi and Parrot Radhe. Here are the brief profiles of all Bigg Boss 6 contestants:
Navjot Singh Sidhu
During his 20 years of cricket career, Former Cricketer and TV commentator Navjot Singh Sidhu (48) played over 50 Test matches and over 100 ODIs, scoring over 7,000 international runs. He has 27 centuries to his credit. He became a commentator for Nimbus sport and initiated the second life when India toured Sri Lanka in 2001. Later he also joined ESPN Star Sports as a commentator. Sidhu is also known as a “cricket analyst”.
But post the cricket life, Sidhu became famous when he appeared as a judge for the comedy show “The Great Indian Laughter Challenge.” His ‘chha gaye guru’ became a signature dialogue of him here. He also appears in “Funjabi Chak De.”
Coming to the third introduction of Sidhu the politician, he won from Amritsar on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket in the Indian general elections of 2004. However, he had to resign from the post thanks to a court case but later again won in a by-election with a good majority.
Model Sanaa Khan
Actress, Model & Item girl Sanaa Khan (25) is best known for her appearance in the Amul Macho commercial ‘yeh to Bada toing hai’. Basically she is popular in Tollywood, the South Indian Film Industry though born and brought up in Mumbai.
Sanaa has appeared in more than 30 TV commercials alongside Shahrukh Khan and Akshay Kumar. She has also did the item numbers in films such as ‘Bombay to Goa’ (new) and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal. In 2008 she got the opportunity to appear as the lead female actor in the Tamil film ‘Silambattam’ opposite Silambarasan. She managed to earn much appreciation for her role in this film and also awarded the ITFA Best New Actress Award in Singapore for the same.
Sanaa has other Tamil films like Thambikku Indha Ooru with Bharath and Aayiram Vilakku with Shanthnoo Bhagyaraj to her credit.
Vrajesh Hirjee (Golmaal)
Theatre and television actor Vrajesh Hirjee (35) is best known for his comic roles in all the series of Golmal. Recall him, he is the snake-man in the first part. He is a renowned actor of Guajarati theatre and has done a number of successful Bollywood movies like Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein, Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai, Golmaal Returns and Tum Bin.
Besides acting, Vrajesh is also a TV host. He is an AIESEC Alumnus. Recently, he appeared in the water game show Zor Ka Jhatka: Total Wipeout as a contestant. He is currently seen in SAB TV sitcom Bhai Bhaiya Aur Brother.
Sampat Devi Pal, Gulabi Gang leader
Sampat Pal Devi (52) is the founder and leader of the women group “Gulabi Gang”. She is a former government health worker and a mother of five children, who came into news after the launch of the book “Sampat Pal – A warrior in pink saree” in 2008.
Sampat Pal Devi founded the Gulabi Gang in 2006 to root out domestic abuse and other violence against women in her native. The group use tactics to achieve greater social justice for the poor with its main focus on poor women.
Sampat’s work was appreciated in a documentary called “Gulabi Gang”, directed by Nishtha Jain, premiered at the Norwegian Short Film Festival in 2012.
Kim Longinotto directed a movie titled “Pink Saris” that carries the story of this group. It is also heard that Anubhav Sinha is in a process of making another movie on this gang titled” Gulabi Gang”.
Urvashi Dholakia (TV Star)
Komolika of ‘Kasautii Zindagii Kay’ Urvashi Dholkia (33) is an actor and stand-up comedian of Bollywood. She made her maiden appearance in a TV ad of Lux soap with actress Revathi at the age of six. Then acted in Vishal Singh’s Dekh Bhai Dekh in 1993. She has acted in Zamana Badal Gaya, Mehndi Tere Naam Ki and serials like Ghar Ek Mandir and Kabhi Sautan Kabhi Saheli
Urvashi was married at the age of 16 and has twin sons, but was divorced merely in one one-and-a-half years after the marriage. The negative character Komolika, played by her in ‘Kasautii Zindagii Kay’, the Star Plus daily soap opera in 2001, made her one of the most famous vamps on Indian television. Her role actually became an unofficial yardstick to rate bad women on TV.
Aashka Goradia (TV Star)
TV star Aashka Goradia (26) is best known for her character ‘Kumud’ in Ekta Kapoor’s TV series ‘Kkusum’. Born and brought up in Ahmadabad, Aashka has acted in Akela and Virrudh on Sony TV, Kahin To Hoga on Star Plus, Sindoor Tere Naam Ka and Saath Phere on Zee TV, and Mere Apne on 9x.
Aashka has also done some popular reality TV shows like Comedy Ka Maha Muqabla and Fear Factor – Khatron Ke Khiladi and was one of the contestants in the Mr. and Ms. Television, a talent hunt show on Sony. Recently Aashka has opened a beverage outlet in Oshiwara, Mumbai.
Bhojpuri actor-singer Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’
Bhojpuri singer and actor Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua is a superstar of Bhojpuri films. ‘Til Gum Gauwa’ is one of his best films. He is a popular face in the states such as U.P, MP, and Bihar & Jharkhand .
Dinesh has also created record in music albums and is known as the jubilee star of Bhojpuri movies. In May 2012 Reliance Broadcast Network Limited’s intellectual property vertical, BIG Live, Radio arm 92.7 BIG FM & Regional TV Channel BIG Magic announced him as their Brand Ambassador for its music awards for U.P, MP, and Bihar & Jharkhand ‘BIG Hindustan Music Awards’.
Sapana Bhavnani
Hairdresser Sapana Bhavnani ( 41) is a celebrity hair stylist who has styled hair of celebs like Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Siddharth Malaya and John Abraham, Sameera, Dino Morea, Koena Mitra, and Bipasha Basu.
Sapana owns the famous ‘salon Mad-O-Wot’ at Carter Road in Mumbai. Besides hair make-up career, she’s also a producer, director, writer, photographer, DJ and an actress. She married and divorced twice. She has also published a book called “Style-o-wot,” and appeared in a music video. She has also seen briefly in films like Pyar Ke Side Effects and Ugli Aur Pagli.
Separated couple Rajeev Paul and Delnaz Irani
After living a long 14 years of married life Rajeev Paul and Delnaz Irani were separated in 2010. The duo was a host of Nach Baliye, the reality dance show in October 2009.
Rajeev Paul is a television actor best known for his negative role in Balaji’s daily soap Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii. He started his acting career with Mahesh Bhatt’s television soap Swabhimaan and became famous through small screen after appearing in Ekta Kapoor’s serial ‘Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii’. Besides being an actor, he is also a poet who recently launched his first book titled “Mumbai,Mohabbat aur Tanhai”.
Theatre, television and film actor Delnaaz Irani is best known for her character Sweetoo in the movie ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’. She is actually of Irani origin. She has acted in big banner Bollywood movies with some of the biggest names in Bollywood including Shahrukh Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Salman Khan,Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta, and Kareena Kapoor.
Aseem Trivedi
Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi (25) hit the headlines recently when charged with sedition and arrested by Mumbai police for his political cartoons on Parliament. However, he managed to get support of several Indians including some well-known media persons who criticized government’s decision of arresting him and protested all over the country. He was arrested at a time when he was supposed to fly to Syria to collect an award for his cartoons given by the Cartoonists Rights Network International for Courage in Editorial Cartooning.
Aseem Trivedi is originally from Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh. He is closely involved with the Anna Hazare led campaign against corruption and displayed several of his cartoons during the protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
Sayantani Ghosh
Television and Film actresses Sayantani Ghosh (28) was noticed when she played the leading role in Aroona Irani’s Naagin in 2007. She is often described as the Bipasha Basu of television.
Sayantani won the Miss Calcutta title and then acted in some Bengali films. She made her acting debut on television with ‘Kumkum’ in 2002 and then appeared in several serials including Sahara One’s Ghar Ek Sapna, Sony’s Comedy Circus 2’ and then in Zee TV’s reality show Ek Se Badhkar Ek. Besides that she has also seen in Adaalat on Colors, Sabki Laadli Bebo on Star Plus and Crime Patrol on Sony TV.
Parrot Radhe
Parrot Radhe is the youngest participant of the Bigg Boss season 6. It is a parrot, well talkative parrot. Earlier buzz was that the crews wanted to have a kid in the house as a contestant, but then it was boldly criticized and condemned by many including some of the ex-participants of the show. The argument was that it would be too wrong to put an innocent kid in the cage of Bigg Boss as the housemates are best known for fighting, which would affect him badly. Perhaps the idea of putting a parrot cropped up from there. At the grand opening show the parrot appeared and co-hosted with Salman and entered the house.
Raymond model Niketan Madhok
Super model Niketan Madhok (29) has walked on ramp for famous Indian and International designers and famously known as Raymond model. He came into limelight after Lakme India Fashion Week in 2002.
Niketan started his career as a model in 1994 and so far worked with a lot of big names in the fashion industry like Rohit Bal, Rajiv Bajaj, Rohit Gandhi, J J Vallaya, Suneet Varma, Muzaffar Ali, and Ashish Soni among others. He has walked the ramp at the Lakme India Fashion Week for famous fashion designers like Rohit Bal, Aki Narula, Rocky S, and Ritu Kumar.
Kingfisher model Karishma Kotak
British model Karishma Kotak (30) came to India in 2005 for a career and soon got her onto the prestigious Kingfisher Swimsuit calendar. In 2006, Karishma took part in the “Lakme Fashion Week”. She has also done music videos for artists such as Jay Sean, Sonu Nigam and Apache Indian. She has now become the brand ambassador for Dove (shampoo) in India. She is best known for appearing as a model for Kingfisher and famously known as ‘the Kingfisher Girl’.
Kashif Qureshi (Martial Arts specialist) – Comman Man
Kashif Qureshi (30) is the non-celebrity contestant in Bigg Boss season 6. This is for the first ever time that Bigg Boss has introduced the new concept of adding one non-celebrity as a house mate. He is a Martial Artist by profession. He hails from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.