MasterChef India accused of bias after contestant allowed to cook with paneer instead of fish

The judges of MasterChef India are being criticised by the show's fans on social media sites for alleged favouritism displayed towards a contestant called Aruna Vijay. In the ongoing season 7, contestants were asked to cook a dish using one ingredient in the Immunity Pin Challenge. The said ingredient was fish. Vijay, however, was allowed to cook the dish using paneer (a variety of cheese used in the Indian subcontinent)as an alternative due to her religion-inspired aversion to fish. She is a Jain. On social media sites, various fans of the show expressed their dismay and resentment at what they see as something that happened due to partiality shown in favour of Vijay. Some others, however, said they were happy that the judges and the makers of the show respected her religious beliefs.

In the challenge, Aruna proved to be the runner-up, while Kamaldeep Kaur emerged as the winner.

One Tweeter wrote, "Height of favouritism by @SonyTV Aruna allowed to chose protein of her one choice jus cuz she is a vegetarian. Never such partiality has happened in other versions of Masterchef. If she can’t cook non-veg food or out of her comfort zone she shd leave the show #MasterchefIndia."

One other tweeted, "Priya was asked to be flexible and was evicted for 'staying true to her beliefs' ... Meanwhile Aruna gets the option of cooking with Paneer, while others HAD TO cook with the chosen protein... Okay... Not biased at all 🫥 #MasterChefIndia."

One other echoed that if Aruna is not comfortable with fish she should step out of the show. "wtf is this?! i’ve never seen such partiality/ favouritism in any previous season. How can they just switch the protein from fish to paneer “only for aruna”! If she’s not comfortable with the ingredient then she should step out! SIMPLE!! #MasterchefIndia," they said.

One even went so far as to suggest that the seventh season of MasterChef India appears "fixed". They said, "Does anyone feels like this season’s Masterchef India is kind of fixed? Feels like Aruna & Gurkirat are being favored too much. Just a thought !🫣 #masterchefindia."

MasterChef India is based on MasterChef Australia. The latter itself is based on the British cooking reality series MasterChef, which has inspired localised adaptations in several countries.

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