‘Bigg Boss a very difficult show’

Salman Khan during the Bigg Boss Season 8 press conference

By Priyanka Bhadani

After a lot of contemplation, actor Salman Khan is finally returning to host Bigg Boss Season 8. Reports of him not doing the show kept doing the rounds since the last season ended until three weeks back when an official announcement was made and a promo featuring Khan in a pilot’s costume went on air. Few more promos have been released since then, keeping in sync with the theme — aviation.
At the press conference for the show last week when we told him that the promos look interesting and he looks equally dapper in all of them, he shrugged off the remark by diverting his attention towards the aircraft debris stacked against the wall of the Jet Airways Hanger in Kalina, Santacruz, where the conference was to begin in a few hours. Surprisingly, the actor found the metal scraps very “interesting” too. Visibly restless, Khan opted to walk during the interview and look at the “interesting things”, than sit and talk about the show.
During the tête-à-tête, on being quizzed why he took so long to say yes to the show, he curtly responded, “I didn’t want to do it!”
But then, what changed his mind? “Well, I like the show but I didn’t have the energy to do it. But now that I have taken it up, I hope I am able to do a good job,” he said.
Last year, Khan wasn’t very pleased when televison actor Kushal Tandon, who took a call to leave the show in between and then made a comeback after a few episodes. “Once you are out of the game, you are out of the game,” he said and added, “But that wasn’t Kushal’s fault, it was the Colors team.” But this time he would make “100 per cent sure” that a similar incident is not repeated and protocol is followed. “Or, if anyone comes back to the house, I am out,” he remarked.
Like every year, the names of the contestants are still under wraps and would be revealed closer to the telecast of the show. While Khan made sure not to divulge any names, he said his approach towards the contestants would depend on their attitude in the show.
The channel, on its part, says that it chooses contestants from all walks of life. Even in this season the contestants have been chosen keeping their personality in mind. “We choose people who are interesting enough to raise the curiosity of the viewers,” says Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors, who also mentions that Bigg Boss has established itself as an education programme on human psychology. “What happens in the house is actually what happens in your life. The learnings from the house can be applied in your personal life as well,” he adds.
Khan couldn’t agree more with Nayak as he says that “It is one of the most difficult shows to be in.”