In a shocking twist, Bigg Boss 17 saw not just one but double elimination in the episode aired on Sunday. Neil Bhatt and Rinku Dhawan were evicted from the show. According to reports, the finale episode will air on January 28, 2024, and the countdown has begun. 

Neil, who participated in Bigg Boss 17 with his wife Aishwarya Sharma, spoke to PeepingMoon exclusively after his eviction. From his equation with Vicky Jain-Ankita Lokhande to Isha Malviya being the reason behind Aishwarya's elimination, he opened up about his journey on the show. 

Excerpts from the interview:

Bigg Boss 17 was more about verbal arguments and bringing out personal affairs. Do you believe that made the contestants more aggressive?

I think it could be a catalyst in that way. I partially agree with this. 

You never got along well with Vicky Jain. While the audience did get to see a portion of your fight, what caused the gap between you both and why couldn't it be bridged?

Vicky Jain and I shared a bond beyond the show. That is, before the show and that was one and a half years before the season began. Somewhere we connected on a deeper emotional level. He would ask me, "How can I be a man like you?, "How can I be a husband like you?, "How can I treat my wife better," and on different aspects of marriage. So, we've connected like that. When I came to Bigg Boss 17, I saw Vicky not holding up his hand, at least even talking to me once in a while or even just acknowledging the fact that I'm a part of the show, suddenly I saw him nominating me and cracking jokes on marriages and making wife jokes. It was going below the belt and I believe that's what caused a rift and started building a wall between us.

The show started with two couples entering the house and one of them has been talking about separation. Did you notice the tension between them?

I did notice a lot of things and some questionable things. Yes, I've heard that about the things mentioned in the question but I don't know how authentic that is. I've been noticing some things about their behaviour patterns since Aishwarya left. Earlier there were two couples and there was always a direct comparison. Since Aishwarya left, the status quo changed and I wondered about their gameplan from that point. I've always called out Ankita (Lokhande) saying she's never had an individual thinking because she's followed what Vicky has been telling her. Suddenly, in the last week, after Aishwarya left, they've been making sure to have fallout in front of the housemates just to prove that Ankita has started having her thought process. So if that talk of divorce or separation is a part of that strategy, I don't know how much to believe in that.

Aishwarya Sharma seemed to have shared a great relationship with Isha Malviya but things didn't end well. What's your reaction to Isha being the reason behind Aishwarya's eviction?

I was livid with Isha for her incredibly ridiculous decision of evicting Aishwarya from the show when she clearly had a bond and she claimed that she didn't share a good bond with her. She purposely and deliberately tried to break the bond with Aishwarya. Given the criteria by Bigg Boss, there were four videos of me, Aishwarya, Ankita and Anurag in this order of breaking the rules.
She clearly didn't follow the criteria and said, "I want to go with my relationship basis." Anurag broke the maximum rules. Aishwarya was the person with whom she shared a bond but she wanted to get rid of her because she was calling Isha out. So, this was taking a toll on Isha and her fakeness was being exposed. 

According to you, who is the potential winner, manipulator, underdog, villain, and undeserving contestant?

According to me, the potential winner could be Munawar Faruqui or Abhishek Kumar. Vicky is the manipulator, it's a given. I could put Abhishek in the underdog category. Isha is the villain whereas Samarth Jurel is the undeserving contestant.