Archana Gautam eliminated in Bigg Boss 16 grand finale, breaks down on stage

Archana Gautam is the second finalist to be eliminated in the grand finale of Bigg Boss 16. The actor was one of the five finalists in this season of the popular reality show. Before her, Shalin Bhanot had been eliminated. The winner will now be decided from among the remaining four finalists - Priyanka Chahar Choudhary, MC Stan, and Shiv Thakare. As her name was announced by host Salman Khan, Archana broke down on the stage.

A model-turned-actor-turned politician, Archana began her career in modelling almost a decade ago before moving to pageantry. She was crowned Miss Uttar Pradesh in 2014, and also winning titles like Miss Bikini India and Miss Cosmos India, both in 2018. He had cameos in films like Great Grand Masti and Haseena Parkar. In 2021, Archana joined Indian National Congress and contested the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections from the Hastinapur seat. She lost, receiving only 1519 votes.

The finale began telecast on Colors TV and Voot from 7pm on Sunday, February 12, bringing to an end several months of entertainment, tasks, infighting, and competition. The grand finale featured stand up acts from Bharti Singh and Krushna Abhishek as well as dance performances by the finalists. Apart from this, the occasion also saw some reunions as some of the most popular ex-contestants from the show returned.

Speculations and polls around it began days before the winner was crowned. In a Twitter poll conducted by DNA, fans had a clear favourite as over half the total votes fell in favour of Priyanka Chahar Choudhary. The actress polled 50.5% of the 4940 votes in the poll, closely followed by Shiv Thakara with 38.6% of the total votes. MC Stan and Archana Gautam lagged far behind in the counting.

The winner will be crowned later on Sunday night. Bigg Boss 16 winner will receive a prize money of Rs 21.80 lakhs along with a brand new Grand i10 Nios car, along with a trophy shaped like a golden unicorn.