Salman Khan finally addressed the noise around this season's contestant lineup, and he didn't dodge it. On the latest Weekend Ka Vaar episode of Bigg Boss 20, talking to Amrapali Dubey, he owned up to the gaps in casting rather than defending every name on the list.

"We had thought we would handpick contestants, but sometimes our selection also falters," he said. It's a rare bit of candour from a host who usually plays cheerleader for his own show. He went further, taking a swipe at contestants who lean on the excuse that they're doing plenty in the house even when none of it makes it to air. "The truth is whatever you are saying or doing is not worthy of airing," he told them, adding that a house without at least one or two genuinely 'kameena' characters just doesn't work as television.

Salman also walked through how the casting actually happens, presumably to push back on the idea that this year's picks were random or lazy. According to him, the Bigg Boss team meets and interviews thousands of hopefuls before whittling that number down to sixteen, a process that stretches across eight months and pulls names from wildly different fields. "When you guys came here, people asked what kind of casting this was, but after a week, everyone is loving a few characters," he pointed out, framing early scepticism as something the show has weathered before.

He was careful, though, to separate his role from that of a judge. "I am not here to come and judge you. I will just share my opinions, but I want all of you to grab an opportunity and not just wait for one to come to you," Salman said, turning the criticism back into a pep talk for the housemates still finding their footing.

One name he didn't have to defend was Qazi Touqeer's. Salman singled him out as the standout of the opening week, calling him the house's "rockstar" and praising the way he's led from the front rather than sitting back and watching the game happen around him.

Bigg Boss 20 went live on September 6 with a cast of sixteen that includes Mahhi Vij, MC Mary Kom, Kanika Mann, Isha Rikhi, Amrapali Dubey, Qazi Touqeer, Aasif Khan and Yung DSA. The show's opening numbers were, by the makers' own count, the biggest launch the format has ever had in India, which is likely part of why the casting chatter has been so loud in the first place. Whether Salman's admission quiets the trolls or just gives them more to work with is the kind of thing this show will settle over the next few Weekend Ka Vaar episodes, not this one.