YouTuber Elvish Yadav emerged as the winner of Bigg Boss OTT 2 in the grand finale of the Salman Khan-hosted reality show on Monday, becoming the first-ever wildcard contestant to win the reality show.

Abhishek Malhan and Manisha Rani ended their journey on the show as first and second runners-up, respectively.

Elvish was left speechless when his name was announced as the champion. Apart from the BB trophy, he also won Rs. 25 lakh as prize money. In a heartfelt gesture, Elvish called Abhishek and Manisha on stage and shared his trophy with them as a symbol of their camaraderie.

Messages from family and friends

The grand finale of Bigg Boss OTT 2 was graced by the families and friends of the top five finalists — Elvish, Abhishek, Manisha, Pooja Bhatt and Bebika Dhurve. The other participants of this season — Akanksha Puri, Cyrus Broacha, Jad Hadid, Aaliya Siddiqui, Falaq Naaz, Avinash Sachdev, Palak Purswani, Jiya Shankar and Aashika Bhatia — were also present. However, contestant Puneet Superstar gave the finale a miss.

Abhishek, who was hospitalised due to an illness, was absent for a major part of the finale. The episode began with the families and friends of the finalists sharing warm wishes with the contestants. Pooja became emotional seeing her step-mother Soni Razdan on screen. Her father, Mahesh Bhatt, told Pooja that her half-sister Alia Bhatt is waiting to hug her once the show ends.

Pooja and Bebika evicted

Pooja was the first finalist to be evicted during the finale. After exiting the house, she said that she would definitely keep in touch with Bebika. She also advised Manisha to speak less. Pooja was joined on stage by Krushna Abhishek dressed as Jackie Shroff. He settled the controversy around claims of Pooja having a phone inside the Bigg Boss house in a funny manner, claiming that the viral clip was photoshopped.

Bebika was the next finalist to be evicted. Thus, Elvish, Manisha and Abhishek emerged as the top three finalists of Bigg Boss OTT 2. Bebika thanked Salman for the guidance she received from him and said the show made her a better person.

Abhishek and Elvish reach Top 2

Ayushmann Khurrana and Ananya Panday graced the stage to promote their upcoming movie Dream Girl 2. Ananya claimed she was an avid viewer of Bigg Boss OTT 2 and asked Jiya to come clean about her relationship with Abhishek.

Ayushmann and Ananya organised a ‘telephone task’ with the top three finalists. Elvish, Manisha and Abhishek were asked to step into a telephone booth in the activity area. Ayushmann and Ananya took turns to call them on the phone and asked the contestants about their most-cherished moment in the house. After the task, Ayushmann announced that Manisha was evicted from the house. She joined Salman on stage, and called her father too and the duo danced to a Bhojpuri song.

Twist in the tale

In a surprising twist, voting lines were opened for 15 minutes, giving fans an opportunity to vote for their favourite contestant. As the final votes were tallied, Elvish and Abhishek exited the Bigg Boss house and joined Salman on stage. After engaging in some fun banter with the top two contestants, Salman finally declared Elvish as the winner of this season.