Bigg Boss Season 3

The second season of Bigg Boss premiered on 17 August 2008, on a new broadcaster Colors and ended on 22 November 2008. The show ran for three months. Bigg Boss 2 returned with Shilpa Shetty as the new host, who had previously won the fifth series of Celebrity Big Brother in the United Kingdom.

The new season featured 14 contestants competing for a cash prize of Rs 1 Crore. As part of the format, 14 contestants were living in the Bigg Boss house built in Lonavala, located 96 km away from Mumbai. The new house was much more stylish and modernized this time. It has a very contemporary gym for the contestants whose movements were tracked over 84 days, 24×7 by 32 cameras. The show was aired on at 10 PM [I.S.T.] daily.

After the first day in the House, the housemates had nominated Raja Choudhary and Sanjay Nirupam for eviction. On the second day, Jade Goody was informed of her cervical cancer, and she left the show immediately. Sanjay Nirupam was the first contestant to be evicted from this season followed by Rakhi Vijan. Monica Bedi was evicted on 5 September 2008. Ketki Dave was evicted on 12 September 2008. Alina Wadiwala was evicted on 19 September 2008.

Diana Hayden, former Miss India and Miss World joined the show as a wildcard entrant on 15 September 2008.

After a fake eviction of Raja on 26th (Rahul & Raja had got nominated), Raja returned to the house after 3 days in a secret room. He watched all the contestants from the secret room and took full advantage of it. Sambhawana Seth was the next inmate to get evicted on 3 Oct. Monica got wild card and entered Big Boss house again.

From the Three nomations, namely Payal, Rahul and Raja, Payal was evicted on 10 Oct 2008. It was predicted by most of the viewers since Rahul was the Strongest contestant and Raja got the best publicity and fan following after the Bold Love and Hot Scenes with Sambhawana and then again when he entered the secret room.

On 17 October Aihsan Qureshi, who was nominated for the very first time got evicted. On 24 October Debojit got evicted. On 8 November Diana Hayden got evicted, when Ashu and Diana were nominated.

On 10 November in the next nomination Zulfi Syed (with 4 votes, nominated by Raja, Monica, Rahul, Ashu) and Monica (with 3 votes, nominated by Raja, Zulfi, Ashu )were in the eviction zone. The two guests Sambhana and Payal who had entered a week ago could not participate in the nomination process and also both of them were asked to pack up with in ten minutes to leave the Bigboss house. From Monika and Zulfi, Monika had to go from the house.

Four housemates were left – Rahul, Raja, Ashutosh and Zulfi Syed, making it an all male final. Rahul along with other inmates Raja, Zulfi and Ashutosh had attempted to jump out of the House by climbing the wall after they believed that they were not being given enough food to survive on. Rahul was asked to leave the show when he refused to apologize for breach of discipline. After long journey of 98 days, on 22 November 2008 Ashutosh Kaushik walked away with the Bigg Boss 2 title and a whopping Rs.1 crore in cash. Zulfi Syed was declared the second runner-up, while Raja Choudhary became the first runner-up.