By: Entertainment DeskMumbai | November 14, 2025 03:34 PM IST 4 min readAmaal Mallik said his brother was removed from a reality show simply because he belonged to a musical family.The nepotism debate has captured the nation’s collective consciousness for years. There is hardly any platform where it hasn’t been discussed, debated, and disputed. The latest battleground is the Bigg Boss 19 house, where singer and composer Amaal Mallik, son of Daboo Malik and brother of playback singer Armaan Malik, faced criticism from fellow contestants for his understanding of “struggle.” The conversation began when Amaal accused fellow contestant Gaurav Khanna of “playing a character” throughout the reality show.Gaurav did not take the comment lightly, responding sharply: “You are playing your character; everybody is playing a character. He thinks everyone is playing a character, just like we all think he himself is playing a solo musician character talking about his struggle.” He continued, “If he thinks he is a musician, and music is on his mind 24×7, I am not going to tell him that he is playing a character.” Amaal fired back, asserting, “That is your opinion if you think I am trying to exaggerate my struggle.” He also referenced an earlier incident on the show, where he mentioned flying to New Zealand to meet his aunt when he was feeling low, only for Gaurav to make fun of it: “When I just said that my aunt is in New Zealand, he said that we cannot even reach where your struggle begins.”Gaurav then highlighted the inherent privilege that Amaal and his brother enjoyed, saying, “Earlier, he said his brother waited for eight hours to meet Salman Khan, so I just said that after eight hours, he had the ability to meet him. Even if we stand for 20 years, we might not get the chance.” Amaal agreed, acknowledging, “Correct. I have always said I had a ‘foot in the door’ moment. But, just like a common person waits outside a studio, my mom and brother waited too; there was no difference.” However, Gaurav pushed back, arguing that Salman Khan met them because he already knew them. Amaal countered firmly, “He would have met an unknown person also, he is Salman Khan.”Story continues below this adAlso Read | Dharmendra leaked video being investigated: Amitabh Bachchan says ‘disturbing, disgusting’, rues ‘lack of ethics’; Jaya Bachchan schools paparazzi Defending himself further, Amaal clarified, “My brother got a ‘foot in the door’ moment not because of anyone, but because he waited there. Nobody knew my brother. I used to ask him every day, ‘Armaan, what happened?’ He used to tell me that he was trying his luck everywhere. He tried every single management just so he could meet someone. Despite being from a musical family, he entered a reality show and wasn’t treated differently. In fact, he was removed from the show with the explanation that, ‘You are from a musical family; you will get more chances in the future.’ He did his first song at the age of 11 in the film Bhootnath. So it’s not like we haven’t faced struggle. All four of us as a family used to live in a rented house, and we didn’t even have money to pay the rent.”This is not the first time Amaal has faced criticism in the Bigg Boss 19 house for equating his privilege with struggle. Previously, contestant Pranit More had mocked him for visiting his aunt in New Zealand, saying, “Life of the rich. We used to go to Shirdi.” Gaurav added, “I am comparing it with my journey. If I have to visit my aunt, she lives in Kanpur.Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.© IE Online Media Services Pvt LtdTags:Amaal Mallikbig boss