‘Took me 14 years to reach here’

Bigg Boss 8 finalist Pritam Singh managed to stay in the house until the last day, but couldn’t grab the trophy. He instead took home Rs 25 lakh and says that the journey meant a lot to him since it took him over 14 years to get the recognition he had always dreamt of. In Hyderabad for the auditions of India’s Got Talent, dressed as a clichéd Hyderabadi with white cap and colourful outfit, Pritam talks about his journey…

“The Bigg Boss journey felt like going back to school. We are always busy with our lives and hardly take out time for ourselves. Bigg Boss is a place where you get to explore yourself — the strengths, weakness and how to overcome them,” says the 35-year-old radio jockey.

Talking about his 14-year struggle he says, “I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs in my life. On March 5, 1999, I had come to Mumbai with a dream of becoming an actor. I struggled for the next eight years, knocked on the doors of producers and directors, but nothing great was coming my way. I bagged movies like Escape From Taliban, Tamil movie, Vanjinathan, starring Vijaykanth and Ramya, and Mani Shankar’s Mukhbir. I continued to get small roles but these movies didn’t work and my career was going nowhere. I then decided to give up and returned to Nagpur to help my dad with his restaurant.”

He continues, “After I returned, people started commenting on how I’d gone to become an actor and returned with nothing great. That’s when radio happened and it gave me the required confidence to not give up. After that I shifted to Mumbai and continued working as a radio jockey. By then the actor in me was long lost. And then Bigg Boss happened after years, and I got the recognition that I had dreamt of.”

But often, the recognition from a Bigg Boss stint is short-lived. “Before the BB journey started, I was just recognised by my voice. Bigg Boss gave me the recognition that I had been waiting for the last 14 years. Even if it is short lived, I’ll go back to radio and will always be recognised by my voice.”

This season of Bigg Boss will also be remembered for the relationship that Karishma Tanna and Upen Patel shared. We ask Pritam if it was just for the cameras. “It looked genuine inside the house. In fact, the other day I called them for a party, they both agreed and later excused themselves. Karishma said she had a family get together. She now considers Upen as her family and that speaks a lot about the relationship,” he says.

As Pritam gets ready for his next stint, with India’s Got Talent as a host, he hopes that it will boost his career. “IGT will help me enhance my career. People have seen me at the house and they know what I am capable of. The show is a game changer for everybody; why not make the best use of it?”