From dealing with depression to Bigg Boss 19 being therapeutic, injuries and more- Amaal Mallik gets candid about his life

Amaal Mallik, a music composer, made his reality show debut with Bigg Boss 19. He won hearts with his journey on the show, and fans got a chance to connect with him on a deeper level. He recently appeared on a podcast with Pinkvilla, where he spoke about his life. Amaal opened up about his injuries, dealing with depression, his journey on Bigg Boss 19, and much more.

He shared, “I’ve not gotten surgery done, but I have 45 stitches here. I have a right dislocated shoulder, I have fractured my left hand—sab kuch hai. The nose is broken. But I’m like the Terminator; I get up every time, like dum-dum-dum—aaj kaam karenge. Yeh sab chal raha hai, aur music ka alag se. So it’s always been about mind strength—ki nahi, kar lenge. But now I need to slowly, slowly fix and work on these things. There are good ways also; technology and science have moved ahead.”

He shared, “Those four months away from the world gave me the space to process everything. I could sit with my feelings, dump them, purge myself, and come out lighter. That’s why today, mentally and emotionally, I’m in a very good space as an individual. Sometimes people feel it was a very tough call being diagnosed with this and then immediately entering a reality show. My parents didn’t want it. No one wanted it. But for my own self-belief, I did it.”

“The bonus was that people could finally connect a face to the music. They could say, ‘Accha, music ka chehra yeh hai.’ Apart from the music, they liked me. They started calling me accha wala gudda God knows what all names—and they loved me for who I am. They also realised that the songs they’ve loved for so many years came from this person. That discovery happened so beautifully. What truly mattered, though, was the journey itself. Aap jo rahe meri zindagi mein the hostel life I never lived earlier. Washing utensils, making coffee, stealing food from people’s plates and then feeding them omelettes. Beautiful, ordinary things happened for me. I think it was important that I found a place where there was nothing but me, my thoughts, and a few friends I made along the way. I got to relive my entire journey 30–35 years, every high, every low and finally let it all out and come out stronger.”

out there, and that helped them understand me in ways words never could. Today, they’re in my house every day—18–18 hours—because we hadn’t met for four months. But I think they are very proud. They’re proud that I challenged myself, pushed myself, and actually went ahead and did something this difficult.”

Amaal said, “Today, I’m in a very good space, and I’m looking forward to doing my best and creating the best music of my life. People often ask, ‘Bigg Boss se kaise heal hue aap?’ Honestly, even I don’t fully know the answer. Because usually, people go there and come out needing therapy it’s that tough. And I genuinely give credit to every contestant jitne bhi the because it was not easy. Doing 106 days was extremely difficult. But even one week, two weeks, three weeks inside felt like three months had passed. Today, it feels like you guys are in 2026, and I’m already in 2029. It feels like so much time has passed not just in reality, but on a soul level too. There’s this strange time dilation that happens. Aisa lagta hai jaise aap log teen saal peeche ho, aur main teen saal aage hoon.”

Talking about his face surgery, he said, “To do my face surgery, I had to take a loan of ₹5 lakh just to do a maxillofacial surgery. If you search, a dentist comes and fixes all. My right-side skull broke—I’ll show you. I don’t have that phone. If someone can get a phone, I’ll show it to you. So all these things hote-hote maine kaam kiya hai. During my Class 12 exams, my whole face was broken, and I was still writing, taking three to four hours. I kept my eyes open through a device like that and wrote the papers. So I have faced a lot of physical struggles and emotional struggles. That’s where all the music also comes from. Yeh sab mere saath bahut jaldi hua, and I am grateful.”

He shared, “Wherever I got a job as an assistant, the moment they found out that my surname was Mallik, they would remove me from the job. ‘Oh, he’s from that family, he might sell out our music,’ or whatever. There was this kind of notion. So it actually worked against me and my brother, singer Armaan Malik. From the age of 15 to 25, what I saw in those 10 years usually people might see it in a different timeline but for me, it was all very good because all those struggles, difficulties, and obstacles happened at the earliest stages of my life.”