Actress Nikita Thukral was probably hoping to receive the same victorious result as Shilpa Shetty did in Big Brother, UK. But the celebrity contestant, who entered Bigg Boss in Kannada, could not win the title and the reason Nikita too, like Shilpa, was target of Xenophobia, but in a regional and lingual sense.
Nikita was the only non-Kannadiga contestant of the 13 other participants and, according to her, she faced a lot of hardship because of the ‘lingual’ clash.
She is still hurt by the behaviour of some contestants who always pulled her down for not knowing Kannada. “The first three weeks went on quite well and I was enjoying the show. But from the fourth week, I was literally hounded by Chandrika and Arun Sagar, who ganged up against me all for not knowing the local language,” she explains.
Even under such circumstances, Nikita was the only female contestant who managed to stay for 100 days and reached the finals with Vijay Raghavendra and Arun Sagar. “I entered the house only after signing the contract and everybody was aware that I’m popular in Karnataka as an actor, though I’m from Mumbai. In fact I had told the organisers that I wish to stay for only four weeks. But it was the love of the people which took me till the finals,” she says.
But Nikita considers herself as a winner and thanked all the Kannadiga viewers, who stood by her till the end. “We all speak the language of films irrespective of which region we come from. I never ignored the importance of Kannada but a few, especially Chandrika took double advantage of me being a non-Kannadiga. I have learnt both good and bad from the show,” she says.
Nikita has however managed to learn and write in Kannada though not thoroughly. “I did it only out of love for the people. Even I have Kannadigas who reside in my colony in Mumbai. They were so happy that I was part of the reality show. They voted for me throughout and told me that I did a good job. I only wished that the game was handled with a good spirit of competition. On the other hand, I really made good friends being inside the house and I am out of words to thank Sudeep who really supported me,” she says.
Now, she plans to take a break before starting to sign new projects. “I have to get back to my glam image before I start again. I will be going on a short trip and decide about movies after I come back,” she signs off.