{"id":18311,"date":"2026-06-23T16:21:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/news\/-2026-06-23-18311\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T16:21:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:51:55","slug":"lock-upp-season-2-ekta-kapoor-kangana-ranaut-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/entertainment\/lock-upp-season-2-ekta-kapoor-kangana-ranaut-exit-2026-06-23-18311\/","title":{"rendered":"Lock Upp Season 2: Ekta Kapoor on Why Kangana Ranaut Is Not Returning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Bengal Story Bureau:<\/strong> MUMBAI: Producer Ekta Kapoor has finally addressed the speculation surrounding Kangana Ranaut&#8217;s exit from the reality show Lock Upp. At a press conference in Mumbai on Monday, Kapoor revealed that a complete format revamp for the upcoming second season was the primary reason behind replacing the actor and politician with new hosts Riteish Deshmukh and Farah Khan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The controversial reality series, which originally debuted in 2022 on ALTBalaji and MX Player with Ranaut as the jailer, is making a major transition to the global streaming platform Netflix. The upcoming edition, titled Lock Upp: Sach Ya Sazaa, will premiere on June 27 and run for six weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Complete Creative Overhaul<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Answering questions about the major hosting change, Kapoor stated that the original framework has been entirely discarded to give the show a fresh identity. The makers decided that retaining elements from the previous season would prevent the branding reset they were aiming for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The entire format of the show, the whole vision changed and the demographic, the kind of jailer-judge format we had. Nothing of the original show has been kept,&#8221; Kapoor said at the launch event. She added that she was confident Ranaut would have understood the creative decision to bring in a new presentation style for the global audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The New Jailers and Format<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the new format, actor Riteish Deshmukh and filmmaker Farah Khan will take over the hosting duties. The revamped version will feature 14 well-known personalities locked inside a controlled, high-pressure environment without basic comforts. Over 42 days, the contestants will face daily tasks, changing alliances, and survival challenges under the watch of the new hosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Describing the scale of the new season, Kapoor noted that the Netflix partnership allows the creators to reimagine the reality show as a larger social experiment packed with unpredictability and unfiltered drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">First Contestants Confirmed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the media interaction, the makers also unveiled the first three confirmed contestants for the new season. Veteran television actor Ram Kapoor, popular daily soap star Shivangi Joshi, and Dubai-based model Pamela Serena will be among the 14 inmates navigating the high-stakes game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The episodes will stream from Saturday to Wednesday at 8 pm (IST). With the core structure entirely redesigned, viewers are waiting to see how the new hosts handle the controversies and conflicts inside the high-pressure setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Producer Ekta Kapoor has clarified why Kangana Ranaut will not return to host the second season of the reality show Lock Upp. The new edition, set to stream on Netflix, will be hosted by Riteish Deshmukh and Farah Khan following a complete revamp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1235,"featured_media":18312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_seo_keywords":"Lock Upp Season 2, Ekta Kapoor Lock Upp, Kangana Ranaut Lock Upp, Riteish Deshmukh Farah Khan, Lock Upp new host, Lock Upp Netflix release date, Ram Kapoor Lock Upp, Entertainment News, Bollywood News, OTT Release, Web Series Update","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[6082,6084,433,6081,2798,6085,6083],"class_list":["post-18311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ekta-kapoor","tag-farah-khan","tag-kangana-ranaut","tag-lock-upp","tag-netflix-india","tag-reality-tv","tag-riteish-deshmukh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1235"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18313,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18311\/revisions\/18313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}