Three levels of manipulation in Bigg Boss

So, there are two very obvious, well discussed types of manipulation that happens in the BB house.

1. Manipulating the audience

This is clearly something the show is very unapologetic about. Random cuts and heavily edited promos are released to hype up the episodes. Ridiculous storylines are attempted to spark up, and then abandoned when no material comes out from them. Eg - All Shefali said to Asim was "Why don't you just tell her that you love her?" regarding Himanshi, who bhee so casually she was just pulling Asim's leg like friends do. Plus, Himanshi is a young, pretty girl so makes total sense for Asim to find her attractive and flirt a little, but she has made it clear since day that she is committed already. Then, Bigg Boss cut a promo with a voiceover saying "Bechare Asim! Kab kehpayenge apni dil ki bat?" 🤣 And idiotic reviewers like Maun Punjabi (who HIMSELF was in the show yet is lost about what it works) is saying an hume pata chala ki yeh Asim pyar mein hai iseliye ye sab hua hai.

2. Manipulating the Contestants

This is also a very well-known thing that the show is unapologetic about. Salman even admitted last night that format hee aisa hai, jhagada nahee karogey toh creative team karwayegi. This happens in many obvious ways - like how teams are formed in tasks, which contestants are pitted against each other in tasks like the akhada, that bullshit shower nonsense, etc. This is also done in more subtle ways too. Eg - Salman giving Asim a boost of confidence last week when he was showing some autonomy and potential rebellion from Shukla. Or by BB's choice of words and selective enforcing of the rules (like when the other team lost out on their captaincy because of sleeping while Shukla jee can sleep and be a kamchor all he wants).

Then, yesterday it started hitting me that there is a third level of manipulation happening in the show itself. See, the show has become so popular that they very well know that there are people like us, who like to sit and endlessly dissect not only the contestants and tasks, but the show-runners and editing as well. So, now they are messing with us on that level as well. If anyone here watched/watches pro wrestling (not grappling sport, but WWE type wrestling) then that is super common in that industry. When fans think the company is pushing a certain wrestler too much, or holding back a wrestler too much, then they double down on it to create even more buzz. Any publicity is good publicity. So, that creates the third point:

3. Meta Manipulation

This happens to both contestants and audiences. Example - after Himanshi got trashed by Salman, she was visibly upset and shaken up. Salman (or rather, whoever is in his ear) chose to ignore her, because they knew the caller was coming up. Once the caller trashed her some more, Salman left for a bit. Interestingly, the show CHOSE to show us Himanshi wondering if the caller came from Sana's fanbase. Meanwhile, the girls went to the akhada and Himanshi won, but Salman stayed stoic. After coming back to stage, when contestants couldn't hear him - Salman suddenly switched to a lighter note saying idk if Himanshi is having a good week or bad. Clearly, they are messing with not just her, but how we think she is being treated by the show. Why? Because the Himanshi investment was made for one reason - to start a Sana fight. Planting the caller and trashing her for the push was a great way to get the controversy conversation going. Speaking of the akhada, all that pathetic acting by Salman while he was talking to the showrunners and insisting that the boys go for akhada is another (poor lol) attempt at meta manipulation. They want the show to look REAL, where they don't even edit out the host and production conversation. Salman is now even openly bashing the channel/show for doing things he himself wouldn't do. Further creating a narrative that the show is pushing Shukla and holding back Asim/other victims of his aggressive behavior. Its easy to just make the villian "channel wale/Colors team" because that is a nameless/faceless entity with no image to uphold. So instead of it spreading that Salman is a biased host, the gameplan is now to paint Salman as a helpless employee of an evil company. Next level, mega ch*tiyapa hai doston! 🤣

Originally posted by: NepaliArtist

So, there are two very obvious, well discussed types of manipulation that happens in the BB house.

1. Manipulating the audience

This is clearly something the show is very unapologetic about. Random cuts and heavily edited promos are released to hype up the episodes. Ridiculous storylines are attempted to spark up, and then abandoned when no material comes out from them. Eg - All Shefali said to Asim was "Why don't you just tell her that you love her?" regarding Himanshi, who bhee so casually she was just pulling Asim's leg like friends do. Plus, Himanshi is a young, pretty girl so makes total sense for Asim to find her attractive and flirt a little, but she has made it clear since day that she is committed already. Then, Bigg Boss cut a promo with a voiceover saying "Bechare Asim! Kab kehpayenge apni dil ki bat?" 🤣 And idiotic reviewers like Maun Punjabi (who HIMSELF was in the show yet is lost about what it works) is saying an hume pata chala ki yeh Asim pyar mein hai iseliye ye sab hua hai.

2. Manipulating the Contestants

This is also a very well-known thing that the show is unapologetic about. Salman even admitted last night that format hee aisa hai, jhagada nahee karogey toh creative team karwayegi. This happens in many obvious ways - like how teams are formed in tasks, which contestants are pitted against each other in tasks like the akhada, that bullshit shower nonsense, etc. This is also done in more subtle ways too. Eg - Salman giving Asim a boost of confidence last week when he was showing some autonomy and potential rebellion from Shukla. Or by BB's choice of words and selective enforcing of the rules (like when the other team lost out on their captaincy because of sleeping while Shukla jee can sleep and be a kamchor all he wants).

Then, yesterday it started hitting me that there is a third level of manipulation happening in the show itself. See, the show has become so popular that they very well know that there are people like us, who like to sit and endlessly dissect not only the contestants and tasks, but the show-runners and editing as well. So, now they are messing with us on that level as well. If anyone here watched/watches pro wrestling (not grappling sport, but WWE type wrestling) then that is super common in that industry. When fans think the company is pushing a certain wrestler too much, or holding back a wrestler too much, then they double down on it to create even more buzz. Any publicity is good publicity. So, that creates the third point:

3. Meta Manipulation

This happens to both contestants and audiences. Example - after Himanshi got trashed by Salman, she was visibly upset and shaken up. Salman (or rather, whoever is in his ear) chose to ignore her, because they knew the caller was coming up. Once the caller trashed her some more, Salman left for a bit. Interestingly, the show CHOSE to show us Himanshi wondering if the caller came from Sana's fanbase. Meanwhile, the girls went to the akhada and Himanshi won, but Salman stayed stoic. After coming back to stage, when contestants couldn't hear him - Salman suddenly switched to a lighter note saying idk if Himanshi is having a good week or bad. Clearly, they are messing with not just her, but how we think she is being treated by the show. Why? Because the Himanshi investment was made for one reason - to start a Sana fight. Planting the caller and trashing her for the push was a great way to get the controversy conversation going. Speaking of the akhada, all that pathetic acting by Salman while he was talking to the showrunners and insisting that the boys go for akhada is another (poor lol) attempt at meta manipulation. They want the show to look REAL, where they don't even edit out the host and production conversation. Salman is now even openly bashing the channel/show for doing things he himself wouldn't do. Further creating a narrative that the show is pushing Shukla and holding back Asim/other victims of his aggressive behavior. Its easy to just make the villian "channel wale/Colors team" because that is a nameless/faceless entity with no image to uphold. So instead of it spreading that Salman is a biased host, the gameplan is now to paint Salman as a helpless employee of an evil company. Next level, mega ch*tiyapa hai doston! 🤣

Awesome summation! Love your intellect. ⭐️

Just saw something on Twitter along these lines as well. The show is now starting to openly address its own bias in a subtle way (by pretending that Salman is disagreeing with the channel). So, in a weird way, the show is making the Shukla bias part of the storyline itself!

Brilliant post...👍🏼👏

Awesome post!

Seriously now I feel all this baisedness is nothing more than to get the audience totally emotionally invested in the show as nothing generates so much interest as a show supposedly being bias. And we as audience take this bait hook, line and sinker.

Also I question myself often, should I invest in a show that totally thrives on negativity??? This season I have been watching very randomly, still I'm invested and though not able to watch regularly, keep total tab through SM and IF.

Originally posted by: NepaliArtist

Just saw something on Twitter along these lines as well. The show is now starting to openly address its own bias in a subtle way (by pretending that Salman is disagreeing with the channel). So, in a weird way, the show is making the Shukla bias part of the storyline itself!

If true and the channel is promoting it's own bias for Shukla for publicity or whatever purposes then it would indicate in my opinion that they plan to use Sid for the trps till the finale but make someone else the winner.

I would be mightly impressed to be honest, if the Bb show runners could think on so many levels but you might be giving them too much credit.

with the 3rd one you mentioned, it is actually 2 birds with 1 stone theory:

1. an attempt to make salman look not a biased host.

2. an attempt to show they don’t edit out content.

Great summary!

but this manipulation is what BB is about.

but they seem to be ruthless this season for whatever reasons.

Originally posted by: aaditi123

I would be mightly impressed to be honest, if the Bb show runners could think on so many levels but you might be giving them too much credit.

Heheh, well I may have overthought that Himanshi meta-victimization theory, but the 2 cases of Salman's discussion with production about who to send to the akhada, and Salman clearly bashing the channel as having made decisions he himself does not agree with definitely were planted there for a reason.

Salman's terrible hosting skills, and general unprofessionalism and ineptness at hosting, is very well documented from award shows, to international tours, to dus ka dum and now to big boss. He makes mistakes constantly, asks for redos of certain fumbled sentences etc. So, this must be common practice for Salman to fumble through an episode, and then to edit it smoothly for TV. Thing is, this time (which just happened to be the episode where he mentioned he disagrees with the channel's decision to keep a contestant after violence), they decided to keep a pretty inconsequential conversation with production which would not have made any distance if edited out. For this reason, I think it shows that the channel is very clear about two things. 1. They are biased against Shukla, and it is becoming difficult to hide it. 2. Salman usually gets the blame for their biasedness. So, perhaps they were just aiming to further hammer in the differences between 'channel wale' and the host by showing that conversation in the earpiece, so people understand that Salman doesn't run the show. Either way, its pretty subtle and I must admit, a clever way to wash the host's hands off the bias, which they preempted and tried to get a headstart on.

(Also, unfortunately for them, Salman's horrible acting skills when he was talking to the channel about sending the boys to the akhada certainly didn't help 😆)

👏👏 Great Post.