Chaos, conflict, and controversy. Well, remove these three aspects from the Bigg Boss house, and what we are left with is… brick, cement, or in this case, styrofoam, cardboard, colourful upholstery, mirrors, a truckload of cameras, and a bunch of contestants with a lot of dreams. 2026 marks the 10th iteration of this reality show, and things just got better this time around because JioHotstar has decided to simultaneously launch the Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu versions alongside the Tamil version of Bigg Boss. In this edition of Bigg Boss Tamil, the makers have included a ‘Common Man’ theme to bring in a few non-media personalities to fight it out inside this unforgiving space. “Tenth time is indeed the charm,” says Krishnan Kutty, Head Entertainment Business - South Cluster, JioStar, whose career with the streaming giant coincided with the rise and rise of Bigg Boss. With this season of Bigg Boss set to begin streaming on Sunday, we caught up with Krishnan as he opened up about the machinations of the show, navigating social media reactions, moving past the negativity, the change in hosts, and more.
Excerpts:
How often do you get time to watch Bigg Boss across the various languages…
Probably not as much as I’d like to. But I do keep abreast of what’s happening, how the weekend episodes are going on, who stays on, and who is getting evicted. This time around, we are also launching the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada versions simultaneously. More to see, and more to make note of, I guess.
There's always a conversation about the kind of contestants that take part in the show. What is progressive in one state might be too controversial in another.
See, we want to provide the best mix of people in each language, and each version has its own set of cultural ethos. What works in one place doesn’t always have to work in another. This realisation comes with consistent exploration of new avenues. We have to pick people who are interesting and can make a difference. You need people who can speak up and hold their own. Most importantly, they must know how to survive inside an environment like Bigg Boss.
How do you deal with the kind of negative responses that come your way every season? It is getting more vociferous as every season progresses.
It is part and parcel of mounting a reality show, which is so popular. There will be conversations surrounding the show, and, in fact, we see a thriving culture where people take snippets, discuss them thoroughly, argue a lot, and, of course, review them. We do keep tabs on what is being said, and there are enough people in the team who understand what we are doing and how it is being portrayed. We can’t take every comment to heart, and it isn’t like we should brush away everything, either.
What is more challenging? Creating a market or sustaining one?
Both bring unique challenges, right? When I started out at Hotstar, we were just discussing the idea of bringing Bigg Boss to Tamil. It was a new venture, and questions were being asked about what would work, what wouldn’t, what we should definitely bring in, what we should avoid, etc. But here we are 10 years later, scaling up with every season.
Kamal Haasan's exit was seen as a move that would be tough to look past. And now, Vijay Sethupathi has become the face of the show…
We never wanted to replace Kamal sir, and honestly, no one can. He gave the show a lot of credibility, and we will always be grateful to him for navigating some choppy, challenging waters, especially in the initial seasons. This was one of the biggest decisions we had to take. We were clear that we didn't want somebody like Kamal sir. We wanted someone who has their own grammar and approach to the show. And that’s where Vijay Sethupathi came in. He brought in a new language, and it has worked wonderfully.
As the head of a division, how tough it is to say no to things
It is ‘No’ that we have to say a lot, and you know what hurts more? It isn’t the ‘No’ that comes way early into the discussions. It is the ‘No’ that comes after a lot of to-and-fro with the creators and everyone else involved in a project. We would have liked the idea, worked on it, developed it into something concrete, and forged future plans for it, and then… we have had to pull the plug sometimes. That is tougher, but that’s the name of the game.