Before Bigg Boss 20, fans spent over Rs 11 cr to make Qazi Touqeer win Fame Gurukul

Before Bigg Boss 20, Qazi Touqeer was a reality TV sensation. The Fame Gurukul winner had millions rooting for him in 2005.

When Bigg Boss 20 premiered on September 6 and the contestants were revealed, the general verdict was that there were hardly any known faces in the lineup. Among the contestants was Qazi Touqeer, a name that meant very little to a generation that grew up on Instagram, YouTube and streaming platforms. On premiere night, many viewers found his antics irritating; others simply wondered why he was on the show.

Then there was another night, almost 21 years back.

Flashback to October 20, 2005. At the finale of Sony TV’s Fame Gurukul, a 20-year-old boy from Kashmir was crowned one half of the show’s winning ‘Fame Jodi’, alongside Ruprekha Banerjee. Each won Ra 50 lakh, Sony music contract and a Maruti Alto.

The boy the judges doubted, audience loved

What’s wild isn’t the win, it’s the math behind it. Indian Idol’s first season, the one that had the whole country choosing between Abhijeet Sawant and Amit Sana, pulled in about 3 crore votes across its entire run. Qazi alone is reported to have pulled in roughly 2.5 crore, on one season of a smaller show, becoming the most-voted contestant across any reality show in India.

And this at a time when each SMS vote cost three to six rupees out of your own pocket.

Fame Gurukul was Sony’s answer to the BBC’s Fame Academy, arriving a year after Indian Idol had already made reality-TV singing a national event. Qazi Touqeer was one of its stars. He had no formal musical training. He was off-key often enough that the judges sent him in the “danger zone” ten separate times across the season.

Ten times, he was in danger of going home. Ten times, India voted him back in.

In an interview at the time, Tarun Katyal, then Executive Vice President and Business Head of Sony Entertainment Television, said, “What do we do with this boy! He has proved there’re forces much larger than talent to control stardom.”

Qazi himself understood what was happening, even if he couldn’t quite explain it.

“I just don’t seem to be getting booted out. It must be my luck. But more than that, the viewers just love me. Otherwise why would so many thousands spend six rupees each to SMS in my favour? Kuch to baat hai,” he told IANS at the time.