The Rise & Fall of Bigg Boss 20: Even Salman Khan’s unfiltered avatar and Qazi Touqeer’s entertainment can’t rescue this painfully boring season

Bigg Boss 20 lacks the unpredictability that made previous seasons engaging. Contestants are too aware of their images, leading to predictable dynamics.

When the 20th season of Bigg Boss was announced, expectations were understandably high. It was supposed to be bigger, more entertaining and, most importantly, fresh. Instead, just three weeks into the season, I find myself wondering if this could be the most disappointing season of the show yet.

Qazi Touqeer and Salman Khan can't seem to save Bigg Boss 20.

The disappointment began even before the premiere. The contestant line-up had almost no major, instantly recognisable faces, and many fans were left underwhelmed. I was still willing to give the season a chance. In fact, I was hopeful that the show could surprise us the way Bigg Boss 10 did. That season also began with an unusual mix of celebrities and eventually found its rhythm. Sadly, Bigg Boss 20 has gone in the opposite direction. And at this point, I don't think the contestants are entirely to blame. Bigg Boss itself is.

Bigg Boss 20 actually started well

Ironically, the show began on a promising note. There was less of the repetitive kitchen drama and more arguments around what felt like actual issues. Qazi Touqeer brought much-needed entertainment, while Mahhi Vij had enough personality to create chaos without having to manufacture it. Amrapali Dubey quickly became the house's mohalla ki aunty, carrying information from one person to another and, intentionally or otherwise, adding fuel to fights. Arishfa Khan reminded me of Farrhana Bhatt from last season, only as a younger and much more immature version.

One of the biggest positives of the first two weekends was Salman Khan. His hosting felt unfiltered. He called out the right contestants, took clear stands and didn't shy away from telling people when they were wrong. His Wanted avatar, where he took on trolls, was entertaining without feeling forced and served a masterclass in hosting.

He also didn't always need to shout to make a point. His sarcastic digs at contestants worked because they were delivered calmly.

And then there was his acting. Salman's imitation of Kanika Mann was genuinely funny, while his handling of Qazi's alleged act of being unwell showed exactly why his presence has been such an important part of Bigg Boss over the years. The first two weekends felt like a reminder of why people still tune into Bigg Boss. Unfortunately, the show itself seems to have forgotten that.

Bigg Boss is now controlling the game

The biggest problem with this season, in my opinion, is how much Bigg Boss has started interfering with the contestants and their relationships. Take Yung DSA. Him being advised to reconsider his group because he was beginning to look negative was, frankly, a bad move. The moment you tell a contestant how they are being perceived, you change the way they behave or show their real self.

Yung became conscious of his image. The people around him became conscious of theirs. Suddenly, instead of watching contestants behave naturally, we started watching people think about how they were being perceived by the audience. Yes, their group deserved to be called out for bullying. But that is exactly what Salman or Bigg Boss should have done during Weekend Ka Vaar. Let the contestants continue being themselves and then hold them accountable for their behaviour. Instead, the show appears to have made them conscious of the cameras.

And once contestants start playing to protect their image rather than simply being themselves, a reality show loses one of its biggest strengths: unpredictability. The same applies to Qazi. Qazi is undoubtedly one of the most entertaining contestants this season. He takes stands and knows how to create moments. But the constant praise from Bigg Boss seems to have given him a bit of a king complex. I wouldn't be surprised if his journey eventually follows the Tanya Mittal route - where he is repeatedly praised in the first few weeks before being called out almost every Weekend Ka Vaar.

There is nothing wrong with praising a contestant when they deserve it. But when the show's own voice repeatedly tells someone that they are the star of the season, it inevitably affects their behaviour.

Even Bigg Boss is spoon-feeding the contestants now

Then there is Gullu's captaincy. Bigg Boss gave him an additional opportunity to become captain, only to later criticise his captaincy. The show has also started telling contestants what they could have done to create drama when they failed to do so themselves.

That is not what I want from Bigg Boss. If contestants don't fight over kitchen duties, let them not fight. If they don't create the drama the makers expected, perhaps that is information worth listening to.

Instead, we are getting endless discussions about kitchen duties, chores and who did what. These are the exact kind of conversations that make viewers switch off. The tasks this season are certainly better than last season, but even they haven't managed to solve the bigger problem. They don't seem designed to reveal enough about the contestants' personalities. A good Bigg Boss task should make you understand the people playing it — who is selfish, who is loyal, who is competitive, who loses their temper and who can think strategically. This season's tasks haven't consistently done that so far.

There is no clear winner material yet

Perhaps the biggest problem is that, three weeks in, I still don't see one contestant who feels like an obvious winner. Qazi is entertaining and often takes the right stand, but his real personality still feels like a mystery to me. We know the entertainer. We know the performer. But who is Qazi when the performance stops?

The house also doesn't currently have someone with the strong-headedness of Rubina Dilaik, Gauahar Khan, Sidharth Shukla or Manveer Gurjar. There isn't someone as naturally entertaining as Shehnaaz Gill. There isn't a personality who creates the kind of unpredictable moments Tanya Mittal created. And there isn't a mastermind like Karan Veer Mehra who can keep the audience guessing with strategy.

That doesn't mean these contestants cannot grow into those roles. There is still a lot of season left. But right now, nobody has managed to establish themselves as the person you have to watch every day. And that is a serious problem for a show that depends entirely on its contestants. I have actually fallen asleep while watching an episode this season. That, for an ardent Bigg Boss fan, says enough. At the moment, the only real hook seems to be Weekend Ka Vaar. So is it bad editing or the wrong contestants? For me, it is both.

Can anything save Bigg Boss 20?

At this stage, I don't think one change can suddenly turn the season around. But there are still ways to inject some life into it.

The most obvious one is strong wildcards. Not just random new faces, but contestants who have an existing connection with people inside the house — rivals, exes or people with unfinished business. Someone who walks in with a reason to confront an existing contestant could immediately change the dynamics.

The second option is bringing back genuinely interesting tasks. Give the contestants something similar to the torture task or other physically and mentally demanding challenges that force their real personalities to come out. Don't tell them what drama they should create. Give them a situation where drama happens naturally.

And then there is the nuclear option: personalities like Tanya Mittal or Rakhi Sawant. They can be annoying. They can be exhausting. But at least they give viewers something to talk about. At this point, I would rather watch an unfiltered contestant create ridiculous drama than watch another 20-minute argument about nothing. The Tathastu theme, which allows contestants a second chance at staying in the house, could have been interesting. But right now, it only seems to be extending the screen time of contestants many viewers are already getting bored of.

And then came Rise & Fall

The timing couldn't be worse for Bigg Boss because Rise & Fall Season 2 premiered on September 26 and has managed to grab a lot of attention in just a few days. The difference is noticeable. Rise & Fall has a format that naturally creates unpredictability. Workers can win tasks and potentially send rulers to the basement. Alliances keep changing, power keeps shifting and contestants have an actual reason to strategise.

The casting has also helped. Bringing politicians into a mix of influencers and actors has created combinations that you wouldn't necessarily expect from a conventional reality show. It is serving the drama that Bigg Boss is known for, but with a format that gives that drama a reason to exist. The tasks have consequences. The alliances have consequences. Losing power actually changes the game. That unpredictability has given viewers a reason to keep watching. Right now, I find myself more curious about what happens next on Rise & Fall than on Bigg Boss. And as someone who has watched Bigg Boss for years, that is a frustrating realisation.

Bigg Boss was better when it was unfiltered

At its core, Bigg Boss was always fascinating because viewers wanted to see what happened when interesting personalities were locked inside a house with no escape. People watched to see what their favourite stars were really like. They wanted to see them fight, make friends, fall out, compete in tasks, lose their temper and occasionally get scolded by Salman Khan.

The best seasons were not necessarily the ones where the makers had to manufacture drama. They were the ones where the contestants themselves created it. That is what feels missing from Bigg Boss 20. The contestants are too conscious. Bigg Boss is too involved. The tasks aren't bringing out enough from them. The house dynamics have become predictable and the daily episodes don't have enough of a hook.

And that is why this season hurts more than an ordinary bad season. Qazi's entertainment can only take the show so far. Salman Khan can deliver a fiery Weekend Ka Vaar, but he can't carry six other episodes every week. At some point, the house itself has to give us a reason to care. Right now, Bigg Boss 20 isn't doing that. And perhaps the biggest irony is that the show that built its identity around being unpredictable has become painfully predictable itself.