6 min readNew DelhiMay 7, 2026 09:09 PM IST
Actor Tanishaa Mukerji, who is the sister of actor Kajol and the daughter of yesteryear actor Tanuja, started her career in the movies in the early 2000s and after appearing in a few popular films like Neal ‘n’ Nikki and Sarkar, she decided to participate in Bigg Boss 7 in 2012. Calling it a “traumatic” experience and an “unconscious decision”, Tanishaa shared that she was quite naive when she took part in the show. During the show, Tanishaa was in a relationship with Armaan Kohli, and had various clashes with Gauahar Khan, who eventually won the show.
Bigg Boss was an ‘unconscious decision’ for Tanishaa
In a chat with Mamaraazzi, when Tanishaa was asked about her decision to participate in the reality show, she said that it was “not a conscious decision. That was an unconscious decision.” She shared that she imagined it to be “rosy” but it was nothing like that. “I was living in my fairy tale world, thinking it would be all rosy. My agent was like, ‘You can create a new perception for yourself, you can style yourself, you can show who you are to the world’. I said yes not realising that you don’t show the world anything, they show the world what they want,” she said.
She shared that while it is the makers’ prerogative to do what they want, the participants must know how to protect themselves, “which I had no clue about.” “The team was quite smart. They asked my people if I had ever seen the show and I hadn’t. They said, ‘Tell her not to watch’. I was that naive that if they are asking not to watch, then I won’t watch,” she shared.
‘Other contestants were using my family to get screen time’
Recalling her time on Bigg Boss, Tanishaa said that she wasn’t very comfortable with Hindi at the time so most of her content was edited out, as she largely spoke in English. She also shared that she “chose not to say a lot of things because I also didn’t want to get into conflicts and get into spaces where there was a possibility of a backlash on my family.” She added, “I didn’t realise that everyone was making lots of content on my name and my family. They were using me to make their content.”
She remembered comments like “Voh kaisi family se aati hai (What kind of family she comes from),” and said, “I was like, I never went to the camera and said ‘voh kaisi family se aati hai’. I never went and spoke to the camera because for me, in a reality show, the camera is a voyeur. They are looking into a real space and I always used to tell everyone that I am not in competition with any of you, I am in competition with Bigg Boss. You do you and I do me, that was what I was vaguely thinking in my stupid brain.”
Tanishaa Mukerji with mom Tanuja and sister Kajol. ( (Photo: Tanishaa Mukerji/Instagram)
‘Are you willing to pay Kajol, Ajay Devgn Rs 3-4 crore?’
Tanishaa shared that until she came out of the show, she didn’t know how the other contestants were using her family members’ names to make content for the show. “I didn’t know until I came out of the house that people were talking about my sister, my brother-in-law just to get screen time. I think it was my naivety. Today, I know that I will never put myself in that position again where anyone has any right to say anything about my family.”
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She recalled that comments were made about her family members questioning why they were not coming to see her in the house. “I was like, ‘Are you paying them? They are massive celebrities. Are you willing to pay them Rs 3-4 crore? They will come. If you are not willing to pay them, why should they come for free? This is a TV show. Everyone here is getting paid,” she said and added, “It was very wrong because of the kind of contestants we had. It had to do with their level of upbringing really.” She said that she did not make comments about other contestants’ family members “because I come from a different upbringing. I come from a different background.”
‘Trauma bonding’ with ex-boyfriend Armaan Kohli
When asked if Bigg Boss was a “traumatic” experience, she said, “Yes, definitely. Because these reality shows survive on trauma, it is trauma bonding. You make friends also it is trauma bonds; you figure it out later but these are all trauma bonds you are creating. And when you heal, they are not your friends because you have healed past the trauma, so suddenly you are like, ‘I don’t find this person very interesting anymore. I don’t want to interact with someone who talks like that’.”
After meeting on Bigg Boss in 2012, Tanishaa and Armaan broke up in 2014. At the time, she addressed her break-up with The Times of India and said, “All I have to say is Armaan and I are very different people with different ideologies and I wish him the best. God bless him.” When asked what changed after their time on the show, she said, “I don’t know, honestly. We were always different but you need time to really get to know someone.”
