From Basement Auditions to Penthouse Alliances: The First Rise Sets Off a New Power Game on Rise and Fall Season 2

The Penthouse has the power, the Basement has the struggle but for three Workers, there was finally a chance to change their fate. With the comfort of the Penthouse becoming harder to watch from below after everything they have endured in the Basement, Tej Pratap Yadav, the Ultimate Ruler, opened the doors to a very different kind of test. What looked like a little entertainment soon turned into something far more important: an audition for the first Rise of the season.

Gautam Gulati, Sara Gurpal and Niharika Tiwari each had one job, impressing Tej Pratap Yadav. Gautam took on the role of Tej’s personal fitness coach, putting him through a workout, while Sara turned entertainer, dancing and singing for the Ultimate Ruler. His own reaction summed up the awkwardness of the moment perfectly: “Thodha dekh karke main thodha atpata bhi lag raha tha aur sharam bhi aa rahi thi ki ‘yeh kya kar rahi hai?’ saamne camera bhi laga hai aur puri desh ki janta dekhegi ke netaji ke saath iss tarike ka vyawaar ho raha hai”. Niharika, meanwhile, chose a very different weapon – her teekhi awaaz – roasting the Rulers and leaving the entire Penthouse in splits. Three Workers, three strategies and one man deciding who deserved a chance to Rise.

But this was never just about entertainment. For the Workers, this was a golden opportunity to make their case for the Penthouse and to prove why they deserved to Rise while someone else had to Fall. Each contestant pitched their own worth, making it less of a performance and more of a battle for Tej’s favour. And when the Ultimate Ruler finally had to make his call, it was Gautam who emerged with the first Rise of the season. As Niharika and Sara bid him goodbye and headed back to the Basement, Gautam had officially crossed the line between the two worlds and suddenly, the question was no longer whether he could impress Tej, but what he would do with the power and comfort he had just earned.

Downstairs, however, not everyone was mourning Gautam’s departure. Anish Bhagat was visibly pleased to see him go, believing his exit would bring some positivity back to the Basement. But Anish soon dropped another layer into the story, telling him that Tej and Shehzad Poonawalla had already decided they wanted Gautam in the Penthouse as part of a plan to get back at Raj Grover. And just like that, Gautam’s Rise began to look less like a simple reward and more like a carefully calculated power move. Was Gautam chosen for his performance or had the Penthouse already been plotting his place in the game?

For Sara, the result landed differently. Back in the Basement, she broke down, feeling that she too had done enough to deserve the Rise. And while one worker was dealing with disappointment, Shehzad was already making his own move upstairs. He began filling Gautam in on what had happened during the task, claiming that Karan and Priyanka had abused him while playing, before offering his own rather loaded assessment of Priyanka: “Priyanka is too crazy, she is psychotic actually”. With Gautam now sitting comfortably in the Penthouse, the timing of Shehzad’s intervention was hard to ignore. Was he simply giving Gautam the truth from his point of view, or already trying to pull the newest Ruler into his alliance?

As Tej and Shehzad continued plotting over who should be sent back down, the Basement found a quieter moment amid all the power plays. Manish Kashyap and Kajal Raghwani got talking about Kajal’s past relationship, bringing personal revelations into a Tower otherwise consumed by strategy, rivalry and survival. But the calm did not last long. By the following morning, Gautam and Priyanka were already sitting down to sort through their equations, while the question of where Gautam would eventually stand,  with Shehzad, Priyanka or on his own, began hanging over the Penthouse.

Gautam may have earned the first Rise, but the real power play has only just begun. From Workers auditioning for their shot at the Penthouse to alliances being quietly plotted around the newest Ruler, everyone seems to be making a move and in a Tower where every Rise can create a new rivalry, has Gautam’s victory just become the biggest opportunity for the next alliance to take shape?

Produced by Banijay Asia, Rise and Fall Season 2 is hosted by Virender Sehwag and streams free, exclusively on Prime Video, with fresh episodes every day at 12 noon. The show is available to audiences through MX Player by Prime Video on the MX Player Android app, as well as across mobile devices, Connected TVs, the Amazon shopping app, Prime Video and Fire TV.