Sourav Ganguly knew comparisons with Salman Khan were inevitable when he agreed to host Bigg Boss Bangla. Salman has become so closely associated with the Hindi edition that any new Bigg Boss host is likely to be measured against his confrontational, personality-driven weekend style.
Ganguly, however, has no interest in turning Dadar Dorbar into a Bengali version of Weekend Ka Vaar.
Speaking to Variety India about whether he had studied Salman’s hosting approach, Ganguly said, “He has his own way, he’s different. Sourav Ganguly cannot do the same thing as Salman Khan.” He added, “We are different people with different personalities. He hosts in his way, and I will do it my way.”
That answer makes sense beyond simple personal preference. Bigg Boss Bangla is returning after a decade away, and Ganguly is being asked to give the Bengali edition its own identity rather than reproduce something viewers can already watch in Hindi.
Ganguly came to Bigg Boss with his own TV identity
Ganguly is hardly a newcomer learning how to handle television.
He became one of Bengali television’s most recognizable non-fiction hosts through Dadagiri Unlimited, which he hosted from 2009 to 2011 before returning in 2013 and continuing through 2024. Dev Adhikari eventually took over the show in 2026 as Ganguly moved to Bigg Boss Bangla.
That background is very different from Salman’s route into Bigg Boss. Ganguly’s appeal on Dadagiri came largely from conversation, humor and his familiarity with contestants, while Bigg Boss requires him to judge conflicts, question behavior and occasionally take control of a far more volatile room.
He admitted that accepting the new job was not immediate. “It took me a little time to agree because I was hosting a different show for the last 10 years,” Ganguly told Variety India.
There was also no behind-the-scenes Salman masterclass before Ganguly took over. He said the two had met only once at an event in Kolkata and had never interacted on a Bigg Boss set, although Ganguly had watched Salman host the show.
Bigg Boss Bangla does not need to become the Hindi show
The Bengali edition already has a history of changing hosts. Mithun Chakraborty hosted its first season in 2013, while Jeet fronted Season 2 in 2016. Ganguly therefore becomes the third major personality to put his own stamp on the format rather than inheriting a single established hosting template.
Season 3 premiered on August 30 on Star Jalsha and JioHotstar after roughly a decade away. JioStar positioned Ganguly as central to the relaunch, with the weekend format branded Dadar Dorbar.
There is already some evidence that viewers are willing to follow this version on its own terms. JioStar said on September 18 that Bigg Boss Bangla had become its biggest show in Bengal on JioHotstar, delivering three times the unique viewers of the platform’s top Bengali shows, while cumulative watch time in its second week reached 2.7 times the first week. Those are platform-reported figures rather than independent ratings, but they show the scale of the initial response.
That makes Ganguly’s refusal to imitate Salman more than a polite answer to an obvious comparison.
The Bigg Boss format survives across languages precisely because the house, contestants and host can reflect different regional audiences. Salman’s style works because it belongs to Salman. Ganguly’s challenge is not to reproduce it—it is to figure out what Dadar Dorbar sounds like when “Dada” is completely himself.
