K-pop artist Aoora in Mumbai.
South Korean artist Aoora has been building a fanbase in India for a while now with his own take on Bollywood classics, but now he’s taking a step further—into the Bigg Boss house as a wild card entrant, announced earlier today via JioCinema.
The channel and platform hosting Bigg Boss season 17 made a not-so-subtle announcement about Aoora’s entry. A post with Aoora’s music video footage said, “K-Pop fans assemble! Kyunki mohalle mein aane wala hai aapka favourite star for the first time in Bigg Boss’s history.”
While Aoora is the first South Korean to take part in ‘Bigg Boss’ — now airing season 17 — he’s not the only musician there. Artist Munawar Faruqui is also in the house. In season 16, the reality show crowned Pune hip-hop artist MC Stan as the winner.
Aoora, for his part, is very much keen on becoming a household name in India. Being part of the K-pop landscape since around 2009, Aoora aka Park Min-jun, was previously part of the band Double-A and went solo in 2014. While he made a mark with singles like “Twerk” in 2020, it’s only in the span of the last year that Aoora’s mashups of Indian songs mark a move towards a specific country. Earlier this year, Aoora released “K-pop versions” of Bollywood’s iconic Eighties hits “Auva Auva” and “Jimmy Jimmy” – both composed by Bappi Lahiri – via major label Saregama. He followed it up with his rendition of “Yeh Shaam Mastaani” in August.
Aoora told Rolling Stone India in an interview about his inclination to work on Bollywood classics, “I became familiar with Indian music almost a year back when I first heard the ‘Cham Cham’ song. I felt the energy of Indian songs – not just Bollywood but also Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi – matched with my energy and liking. I started exploring more Indian music. I wanted to explore a music genre where I could bring both Indian and K-pop music elements together. That is when we approached Saregama with this idea. They were enthusiastic about this experiment and that’s how this new journey started for me.”
