Television actress Rubina Dilaik was declared winner of Bigg Boss season 14, in a star-studded grand finale that started on Sunday night and went into the early hour of Monday.
Dilaik came into the reality show with a huge fan base she had earlier garnered with her roles in shows such as ‘Shakti: Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki’ and ‘Chotti Bahu’, and she took home the Bigg Boss trophy plus Rs3.6 million (Dh13 million).
Over 140 days of battle inside the house had seen Dilaik maintain her position all along as a strong contender for the trophy. She defeated Rakhi Sawant, Aly Goni, Rahul Vaidya and Nikki Tamboli in the grand finale.
Sawant, who entered the show as a challenger in the middle of the season and created some fireworks in the later episodes, was admired for her dose of entertainment in the show. She chose to walk out by taking a briefcase with Rs1.4 million in the final.
After walking out, Sawant said: "I am very happy with this. I will pay for my mother's hospital bills with this (money). Initially I did not want to take it but Vindu Dara Singh said that you will not win because everyone here is very big."
Talking about her decision, show host Salman Khan said Sawant took the right call by walking out with the briefcase.
The top five contestants were also seen performing before Dilaik was feted with the winner's tag.
Sawant performed her famous numbers such as ‘Pardesiya’, ‘Dekhta hai tu kya’ and social media content maker Yashraj Mukhate's Sawant's Bigg Boss mash-up ‘Saandni’.
Khan was seen enjoying her performance as he grooved and whistled. After her performance he was heard praising her: "Rakhi, what do you do! After a really long time I saw an entertaining performance."
He described her dance as "outstanding".
Aly Goni and Jasmin Bhasin, who are fondly called Jasly by their fans, put up a stunning water act on the number ‘Zara Zara’.
Vaidya and Ali performed on tracks such as ‘Yeh dosti’ and‘Main khiladi tu anari’. Nikki Tamboli joined the boys. The trio performed on rapper Badshah's ‘Genda phool’.
Dilaik and Vaidya had a dance-off on the number ‘Allah duhai hai’ from Khan’s movie ‘Race 3’.
The Bigg Boss 14 grand finale also saw a motley of Bollywood personalities such as Dharmendra, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Nora Fatehi, Riteish Deshmukh, Dharmesh Yelande, Tushar Kalia adding glamour to the night.
Veteran actor Dhamendra, whom Khan tagged as "Darling" of decades, "most handsome hero" and his favourite actor, entered the show on the number ‘Yamla pagla deewana’.
While talking to the contestants and host, the 85-year-old veteran said: "I did not become an actor for fame. I saw Dilip saab and I saw the love. That is what I wanted."
Khan, Dharmendra and Sawant later re-enacted an iconic scene from ‘Sholay’.
Dixit Nene, Yelande, Kalia were present at the Bigg Boss finale to promote their upcoming dance-based reality show ‘Dance Deewane 3’. Fatehi, who was a contestant in the ninth season, set the stage on fire with her performance on numbers like ‘O saki saki’ and ‘Garmi’.
One of the highlights of the show was when Khan danced with Fatehi. He was seen performing the hook steps of Nora's hit dances such as ‘Dilbar’, ‘O saki saki’, and ‘Garmi’ with her.
Another highlight was Salman dancing with former contestant Sonali Phogat on the number ‘Tip tip barsa paani’ from the 1994 film ‘Mohra’.
Also present at the finale were eliminated housemates Jaan Kumar Sanu, Pavitra Punia, Eijaz Khan, Kashmira Shah, Rahul Mahajan, Arshi Khan, Shehzaad Deol, Jasmin Bhasin, Shardul Pandit, Naina Singh and Devoleena Bhattacharjee.
Friends and family of the top five housemates attended the grand finale, too.
Khan also announced about the auditions of Bigg Boss season 15. However he did not divulge too much.
