When the winner of Bigg Boss Season 19 was announced at the grand finale on Sunday night (December 7), a sense of betrayal and anger took hold among a large section of its audience, who claim that the show is ‘scripted’ and that Gaurav Khanna, the face of Colors TV, is a ‘fixed’ winner. Across social media, the trending refrain is that Khanna did ‘nothing’ in the show and the makers have been ‘biased’ in giving him the trophy. They also hold that BB19 will always be known as ‘the Farhana Bhatt season.’ There have also been calls to boycott Bigg Boss from the next season, which viewers see as ‘farce’ in the name of reality show.
The fans of the runner-up, Farhana Bhatt, argue that she deserved the trophy because she was one of the top players who showed her grit and guts as well as her raw and real side throughout the season and carried it on her shoulders, along with another strong player, Tanya Mittal. There is a feeling among many that the makers — Jio Hotstar, Colors TV and Banijay Entertainment (formerly Endemol Shine India) — ‘rigged’ the show to make their star win as they have allegedly done with their chosen, ‘pre-decided’ winners in many of the previous seasons. “Again, makers won and we lost,” wrote one user on Instagram. There has been a flurry of similar sentiments from hundreds and thousands of viewers.
‘Playing on the backfoot’
For most of the 106-day journey, Bigg Boss 19’s episodes centred on fights (bhasad or Kaleesh as they call it) among the 18 contestants inside the house over puri or daal or duties or captaincy and nominations. Bhatt, a peace activist from Srinagar who was raised by her single mother, was evicted from the house by the housemates in the first week itself, and brought back by Khanna. Consequently, she became a catalyst of the show, as Rohit Shetty, who replaced its longtime host Salman Khan on one Weekend Ka Vaar, rightly pointed out.
Salman himself, however, hardly ever praised her even though she did consistently well. He reprimanded her for her gandi language (filthy language) and even made her read from the book of her ‘abuses’ the makers had prepared. Once, he even asked the producers to “open the gates,” offering her an exit, just like in a past season controversy. Farhana’s fans hold that if the show had even a shred of respect for its own format, she should have been the winner.
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A feisty Farhana fought fiercely (with everyone including Khanna, Amal Malik, Kunika Sadanand and Malti Chahar; the reels of her fights as well as her dialogues have gone viral), argued, faltered, rebuilt, strategised, and stood alone when the entire house turned against her. She pulled out all stops and the audience watched her break down and rise again, watched her form and abandon alliances, watched her put her points across, sing, dance. Gaurav, in comparison, existed like background noise, present, but not in the thick of things, but mostly a spectator, who would either be seen gymming or lost in thoughts with a glass in hand, or muttering to himself, or passing a comment from afar and gossiping with his friends — famously ‘playing on the backfoot.’
The real loser: Spirit of the show
There have been multiple seasons whose winners he evoke similar reaction. One recurring name in those debates is rapper MC Stan, who walked away with the trophy at the close of Bigg Boss 16 (2022-23). While the show, the host and some fans celebrated him for being “real” and not “over-reacting,” a large section of the audience felt his win undermined what the show stood for. Critics said MC Stan spent much of the season “in the corner,” often silent — sometimes withdrawn — overshadowed by more animated, daring, and visibly engaged contestants such as Shiv Thakare or Priyanka Chahar Choudhary, both of whom were widely considered more deserving by the public.
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Even some of MC Stan’s former co-contestants reportedly expressed surprise, admitting they expected someone more active to win. The hardcore backlash pushed MC Stan himself to respond, claiming that he didn’t care about being called ‘undeserving’ — a statement that did little to allay doubts about whether the season’s audience investment had been treated with respect. Even Karan Veer Mehra, the winner of Bigg Boss 18 (2024-25), faced a wave of outrage among fans of other contestant, Vivian Dsena, who believed the trophy was ‘stolen’. People’s reaction ranged from disbelief to anger to outright accusations that the finale’s result was “fixed.” Many felt that Vivian, with a strong and engaged presence in the house had done more to entertain, more to stir things up, and more to leave a visible mark on the season, while Karan’s journey was described as relatively tame, uneventful, and unimpactful.
Many said Bigg Boss has a long history of ignoring strong women. Farhana and Tanya, two women with an aura of their own, made the show worth watching. Farhana, particularly, bled on camera, emotionally and verbally. She challenged narratives, exposed hypocrisies, responded under pressure. Fans say her choice of words may have been ‘extreme’ but she was real. That’s precisely what reality shows are all about. But she was labelled a ‘villain’ and a ‘witch’, shamed for her ‘attitude’ and warned about her language. Meanwhile, male contestants who used aggressive tactics — gaslighting, provoking, instigating — got away with it. Pranit More, who was the last to be eliminated, even after Tanya and Amal Malik, for instance, had kicked Malti.
BB 19which will also be remembered for its unfair evictions, was about democracy, but alas the voices of several of its contestants, and viewers, were suppressed. Since the makers had introduced a 24X7 channel this season, audiences could figure out how selective they were in what they showed in the nearly hour-long daily episode. According to viewers, the only contestant who managed to have it all was Gaurav Khanna, who won the trophy, along with the cash prize of Rs 50 lakh. Earlier, he had also won a car. Besides, Salman also promised he will work with him. Like last year, the real loser — perhaps — is the spirit of the show itself. Once a reality show stops being realit stops being watchable.
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