Mumbai, Aug 3 : Actress Sana Maqbul was declared the winner of the third season of the controversial reality show 'Bigg Boss OTT' in an eventful star-studded grand finale held late Friday evening.

Sana took home the trophy along with a whopping amount of over Rs 25 lakh as prize money.

Having spent over a month inside the house, tagged as one of the most difficult places to be in, Sana maintained a strong position alongside the other four top contenders Ranvir Shorey, Kritika Malik, Sai Ketan Rao and Naezy.

After being named as the winner, Sana got emotional and said: "I would like to share this moment with Naezy because he only believed me in this journey and I legit have dum. Naezy, I want you to hold this (trophy) with me."

Before announcing the winner, Sana and Naezy, who made it to the Top 2 shared their thoughts.

Sana said she was "very nervous", while Naezy added that he "is living in this moment".

The first housemate who was evicted from the Top 5 race was Kritika. Sai Ketan was eliminated next. The third evicted from the final race was Bollywood actor Ranvir Shorey.

The Top 5 contestants along with former housemates were seen performing popular Bollywood tracks such as "Mere Gully Mein", "Dhaakad", "Sher Aya Sher", "Khallas", "Fashion Ka Jalwa", "Jungle Mein Kaand" and "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu", among many others.

The grand finale also saw a sprinkle of star power as Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao came to promote their upcoming film "Stree 2". Ayaan Agnihotri and Payal Dev came on the ultimate day of the show to promote their latest song titled "Party Fever".

Before the winner was announced, host Anil Kapoor entered the show on the track "Nach Punjaabban" from his film "Jug Jugg Jeeyo" and was joined by former contestants such as Payal Malik, Armaan Malik, Neeraj Goyat, Poulomi Das, Chandrika Dixit, Neeraj Goyat, Sana Sultan, Adnan Shaikh, Shivani Kumari, Vishal Pandey and Deepak Chaurasia on stage.

Anil Kapoor spoke to the top five contestants and shared what qualities attracted the audiences towards them.

The host told Ranvir Shorey: "When a participant is very real, the audiences connect with them more. He in his signature style called Sana "what a player". Anil then said that Naezy's "unpredictable" attitude created curiosity among the audience.

For Kritika Malik, it was her "wit and humour" and he called Sai Ketan a "loyal friend, soft-hearted friend and fierce competition".

The show was streaming on JioCinema Premium.

/IANS