Bigg Boss 8 Takes Off

The inaugural flight of Bigg Boss Season 8 that took off on Sunday night was 2 and a half hours (too) long and began like a plane attempting to take off in peak hour traffic from Mumbai's Chatrapati Shivaji Airport. Just like a plane standing in queue for what seems like eternity before the ATC finally gives the go ahead to take off, Bigg Boss's first 15 minutes were excruciatingly slow. Though the pace did pick up later. It started with a Salman Khan item number with East European models dressed as air hostesses whose dancing was so lacklustre, it seemed the only thing they were looking forward to was the lunch break and the 5000 bucks the production guy would hand over to them at the time of pack up! That and a few insipid jokes later it was time to reveal the contestants. All the 12 men and women that the Bigg Boss casting agents have painstakingly selected, like every year, from the scores of wannabes and have-been's that are seen sipping coffee at the various cafes in Mumbai's Lokhandwala area. Men and women the world doesn't mind locking up in a house with closed circuit cameras and electric fencing!

The first to arrive on stage were these two ladies

Karishma Tanna and Sonali Raut.

One a TV star, the other the sister of super model Ujjwala Raut who made a not so memorable Bollywood debut this year in a film called "The Xpose"

Up next was Upen Patel. The dude with the weird accent who made a brief appearance on Page 3 a decade back as Amrita Arora's arm candy. When his cabin baggage was checked by the lovely Eli Avram, lingerie was discovered. That's one fetish, Mr. Patel we could've been spared from knowing about!

We will now quickly run you through the other contestants, cos hey there's not much we can say about them, is there? Check Wikipedia if you don't believe us! Plus if we reveal everything about them here, what will you do for the next 3 months?

That's Soni Singh, TV's much feared vamp going all coy in the presence of "Salman Sir"

Aarya Babbar seen here with last season's Armaan Kohli

TV Stars Sukirti Kandpal and Gautam Gulati

Model Diandra Soares seen here with Gutthi and Salman. Gutthi unfortunately isn't part of the show though the 5 minutes she was on screen really cracked us up.

Praneet Bhat Of Shakuni Mama from TV's new Mahabharata fame. He will need to use all the guile from his character if he is to win this show!

That's Sushant Divgikar in drag. He's here for the same reason that Imam Siddiqui and Andy were here. To live up to every gay stereotype and also bitch with the girls

Also entering the Bigg Boss house is Serbian model Natasa Stankovic from the Satyagraha item song and Do The Rex condom commercial. She's here because Bhai is not done with giving Hindi language lessons yet!

The last contestant to enter the house was Minissha Lamba. She reached after boarding was done, so had to be shipped off in this box! Now really, is this the most creative the Bigg Boss script writers could get?

And finally the show ended with three characters in hoodies being introduced. One of them is Puneet Issar (Duryodhana from BR Chopra's Mahabharata). These three are part of a secret society that will wreak havoc on the poor inmates of the house. The suspense will be lifted in episode 2. Whateva!

(All pictures courtesy Colors TV)