Bigg Boss Tamil 10 hasn't even properly begun and it's already got a controversy attached to it. Reports circulating ahead of Sunday's premiere claim that several contestants selected through the show's pre-season round were eliminated on stage, before ever setting foot inside the house. YouTuber Prashanth Rangaswamy's name is reportedly on that list.

The timing is what makes this one sting. Just days earlier, Prashanth had said on X that he'd received a legal notice from Yash and KVN Productions over his review of Toxic: A Fairy Tale For Grown-Ups, the actor's recent release with Geetu Mohandas. "Got legal notice from @TheNameIsYash and @KvnProductions for #Toxic review," he wrote. "I thought he is all macho in real life as well. Looks like he is just another rich and influential person!" It's worth saying plainly: this is Prashanth's claim, not a confirmed legal filing, and neither Yash nor the production house has responded publicly to it as of this report.

On September 4, Prashanth posted on X suggesting he was headed into the Bigg Boss house. "Good things will happen! Om!" he wrote. A day later, the tone shifted. "Thank you, Muruga! Om!" he posted, a message that reads very differently in hindsight. Soon after, word began spreading that he'd been voted out before the season had properly started, and Prashanth appeared to confirm it himself.

"Thank you for all the love and the hate," he wrote. "Now back to work! No regrets or disappointments! It is what it is!" No bitterness in that post, at least on the surface. He sounds like a man getting back to his day job.

Not everyone's taking it that quietly. Sanam Shetty, who was a contestant on Bigg Boss Tamil 4, posted her disappointment on X. "Sorry to hear Prashant! You would have made a fantastic contestant," she wrote, adding that she hopes he's "recalled as wildcard." It's a small thing, but it tells you Prashanth had a following inside the Bigg Boss ecosystem even before the show aired.

The pre-season selection process this year ran through a special called Bigg Boss – The Common Man, hosted by Maya S Krishnan, with Oviya, Aari Arujunan and Raju Jeyamohan sitting in judgment. A tentative contestant list had been doing the rounds online well before the premiere, but the network hasn't confirmed a final line-up, and these reported eliminations only add to the confusion around who's actually walking into the house.

Bigg Boss Tamil 10, hosted by Vijay Sethupathi, premieres Sunday at 6 PM on Star Vijay and JioHotstar, with this season's theme built around a carnival, Carnivizha. Live voting is being opened up to viewers in Singapore, the UK and Canada for the first time. The Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada versions, fronted by Salman Khan, Nagarjuna, Mohanlal and Kichcha Sudeep, all launch the same evening.

Whether Prashanth gets that wildcard entry Sanam's hoping for is anyone's guess right now. What's clearer is that the show's producers have some explaining to do about how a contestant gets eliminated before the cameras even start rolling on him.