MC Stan is a Top Contender to Win ‘Bigg Boss’ Season 16

At a time when the widest-reaching mainstream spotlight that Indian hip-hop can get has been the reality show MTV Hustle, the past few weeks has seen the appearance of Badshah, Raftaar, Dino James and Raja Kumari on The Kapil Sharma Show and more importantly, the steady popularity of MC Stan on Bigg Boss season 16.

At a time when Indian hip-hop artists have been letting the music do the talking with a slew of releases and music videos almost every month, MC Stan chose to enter the cloistered Bigg Boss house – a set somewhere in Goregaon with over 100 cameras installed. While there have been plenty of comments about how the Pune-bred rapper and producer is actually the one bringing in a new audience to Bigg Boss (rather than the other way around), Stan is certainly missing out on shows and releasing music.

There were music videos out in recent times – “Gender” and “Kal Hai Mera Show” culled together footage from live shows – but the focus has been on Stan’s performance in the house along with 16 other contestants. It’s fair to say manufactured drama rules Indian reality T.V. shows, so it really does make one wonder what led Stan to enter the Bigg Boss house and what is he gaining from it?

For starters, the rapper taking to primetime reality T.V. is a leap towards becoming a household name of sorts, with several other housemates and past winners using their Bigg Boss credentials to enter other reality shows and become fixtures in showbiz. Even as we entertain this thought for Stan, there’s his unmistakable demeanor and personality on the show that says whenever he’s evicted – or even crowned winner – he’ll head into the studio to create with even more conviction than ever before. The unfiltered lens that Bigg Boss offers has been its longstanding draw (or the thing that repels everyone from the show) and Stan has often voiced how he wants to get out and get back to his people and the music.

Just like his emo rap and the occasional rage mode, Stan is mostly soft-spoken but ready for a fight if it comes down to it on Bigg Boss. His friendship with Tajikistan-origin singer/performer Abdu Rozik became a heartwarming side to the show, even as he went on to spar with housemates like actor Shalin Bhanot. He seems genuinely surprised and starstruck to be around the likes of host Salman Khan and guests like actor Vicky Kaushal. Stan’s popularity remains unwavering, though. Those voting for him to stay and win the show are pushing against top contenders like T.V. actor Priyanka Chahar Choudhary.

Meanwhile, on day 92 of the show, to bring in the new year, Bigg Boss invited rapper Ikka and hip-hop duo Seedhe Maut to perform inside the house with MC Stan. The footage that aired included Ikka performing “Trap Munde,” while Seedhe Maut’s Encore ABJ and Calm performed “Namastute” and Stan got into “Ek Din Pyaar” from his 2021 album Tadipaar. Last week, this was hailed as a big win for desi hip-hop, but in essence, it was another mainstream T.V. network making a grab at the movement’s popularity, trying to draw in young audiences to watch Bigg Boss as if the interests ever overlap.

Maybe the beefs and endless barrage of expletives are something Indian hip-hop and Bigg Boss have in common, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. There’s likely very little fanbase retention that’s going to happen once the current season concludes on February 12th, but seeing worthy hip-hop artists stomping around and performing on Indian primetime might just be a thing we’ll have to get used to, and that’s not entirely a bad thing.