Bigg Boss 12: Dipika Kakar, Sreesanth, Karanvir Bohra talk about navigating the controversial reality show

As Bigg Boss 12 finale drew close, five contestants —  Dipika Kakar , Sreesanth, Romil Chaudhary, Karanvir Bohra and Deepak Thakur — were left in the fray. Eventually it was television actress Dipika who walked away with the trophy while former cricketer, Sreesanth came a close second.

Despite having contrasting personalities, the two had developed a close, almost sibling-like bond. While Sreesanth was highly emotional and had frequent fights with the other housemates, Dipika won many hearts simply because of her dignified approach towards the game.

Feeling relieved after her journey coming to an end, she said, “It was a very difficult at every step for me. Your co-contestants demean you every moment, questions are raised, fingers are pointed at you, for making meals, for taking care of others, or even if you want to live the way you want to. It becomes difficult to sustain yourself. It becomes still more difficult when you go as a celebrity. It’s not necessary that just because we are actors so we are acting all the time. We can’t act 24/7, it is not possible. If we celebrities showed emotions we were called fake, whereas the commoners felt that only they were genuine and real. That was weird. But I always felt that even today people will believe in honesty and that is what happened,” said Dipika in a chat with Firstpost.

Sreesanth, when asked if he was disappointed about missing the trophy by a whisker said, “I am very happy for Dipika and my words came true…the trophy finally came to the family. Secondly, if it comes to lifting the trophy, I did that first (referring to his achievements in cricket)"

“Dipika, too, had her own journey. She was also called fake. When you are an actor people always say that you are acting. Her journey, like mine was to fight the inner battles. What you face you fight with grace and dignity,” said Karanvir, who was the first finalist to get evicted from the house.

Inside the house, Sreesanth was heard saying that Dipika and Karanvir being popular faces would win the show while the deserving candidates would be left high-and-dry. To this, the former cricketer now says with a laugh, “Yes, I made this insane statement inside the house. But there were about 20 deserving contestants inside the house, including me. Dipika was best at the game and hence people voted for her and made her the winner.”

“Even if Sreesanth had not raised this matter about me being a popular face, still some people would have said that I won because I have done a successful show with Colors. But then there is a huge mass of people who made me win and whose opinion can’t be over-shadowed by this small minority. I would like to concentrate on people who made me win and I would also like to thank people who criticised me because when you get criticism you shine brighter,” said Dipika.

Tell Sreesanth about his disappointed fans slamming Dipika for the win and he says, “I haven’t used my phone yet. I will read all that, think about it and then give an answer because I have this tendency of shooting my mouth off. But all my fans supported me a lot. Even when I played cricket I didn’t have so many fans, or probably I didn’t get so much response those days because of such hyper social media. It was a great journey in Bigg Boss. I came here to survive the show but I ruled it.”

Karanvir feels that besides winning, the reality show is also about showing one’s personality, character and behaviour. “Maybe I should have played better and harder but it’s also important for people to remember you for what kind of a person you are. My whole game was of kindness, dignity, grace. I would perform the tasks well, I would entertain, I have given my 100 per cent. I am not the kind who would play mind games or strategise against anyone. We don’t do that to any one in real life,” he said.

Distressed when his wife, Teejay Sidhu wrote an open letter to Bigg Boss saying that she was unhappy about the way Karanvir was being treated on the show, latter clarified, “My wife was outside the house and that was her perspective. I haven’t seen the open letter yet. But I never felt bad about the way Salman would pull my leg, our banter used to be very beautiful.”

While Karanvir and Dipika started off on a friendly note, the two had a fall-out quite early on the show and they could never reconcile, to which Dipika said candidly, “We had a housemate kind of an equation after a point and it stayed that way. Yes, we did share a very good bond initially but there were certain misunderstandings and both of us drifted apart. I can’t pinpoint what exactly happened. He went into the other group and took decisions against me. I felt a bit awkward when he suddenly turned his back on me.”

“Whatever happened in the house we leave it there. We are back to normal life. I am friends with everyone, including Sreesanth,” reacted Karanvir.

When asked whether Bigg Boss was the platform for him to clear the air and give his side of the story for the controversies he was embroiled in like match-fixing or slap-gate with Harbhajan Singh, and Sreesanth said, “It was not just a show for me but a great platform. Lot of people came with a mask to play the game but I came as the real Sreesanth. At times I over-reacted, or I was rude which wouldn’t happen in real life and all that stays inside the house. I have forgiven myself to forgive others,” he said.

He added, “There were certain occasions where it was very difficult to forgive few people. Even I have done things for which I will never forgive myself. But if anyone is questioned about their family, or their career, they would react. Maybe I went overboard. This was a reality show and it was not about being fake or being nice and sweet, it was about being you and I can proudly say whatever I did was real. Also, I think we behaved the way we did because we were all locked up inside the house."

For most part of this edition, Sreesanth was definitely the flavour of the season as the show revolved mostly around him, to which Karanvir said, “He is an international cricketer who has won the World cup, everybody has respect for a personality like him.”

“I have not gathered any information so far, so when I watch the show I will understand. I have no idea about it. If the show revolved around Sreesanth then I definitely want to watch it," added Dipika.

Shilpa Shinde, winner of Bigg Boss 11, supported Sreesanth and has always been of the opinion that Dipika’s game was not up to the mark and that she didn’t deserve the Bigg Boss 12 trophy. She even took a dig at Dipika saying that despite shedding so many tears, the show was still a flop. When Dipika was told about Shilpa’s opinion of her victory, she exclaimed, “Really?!! But no problem, everybody has their opinion.”