I’m disappointed with Kamal sir: Vaishnavi Prasad, evicted Big Boss contestant 

'When he asked Mumtaz to imitate Aishwarya in one of the earlier episodes, he turned it into more of a comedy than the schooling that she deserved.'
Kamal haasan (Photo | IMDB)
Kamal haasan (Photo | IMDB)

Vaishnavi Prasad, who was recently evicted from the Big Boss House, had apparently not watched even a single episode of Bigg Boss Season One before stepping in for the second season. She believes that an episode of Neeya Naanaa on Star Vijay that showed her as a “no-nonsense, straightforward person who can face problems head-on” got her this opportunity. “Their idea is typically to pick a commoner or two to create friction. They felt that some of my qualities would come in handy,” says Vaishnavi, as she opens up about her Bigg Boss experience.

Culture shock

“When Ponnambalam anna walked in, I recognised him as the popular villain from Tamil cinema. So I introduced myself to him. He has this habit of saying ‘Jai Shri Ram’, and when we shook hands, he said that. For many days, I thought that was his name. That shows how detached I am from the film industry. I thought it would be easy to get along with everyone because I didn’t know any of them, but it was the opposite. They have common topics to discuss, to talk about, and I just didn’t fit in.”

Feeling misunderstood

“Except Ramya, no one recognised my talents. During the ‘character change’ task, the best embarrassment came for Balaji anna, thanks to me. I put a lot online there but I was never appreciated. Similarly, take the ‘bommalattam’ task. I know how to sew, and have made stuffed toys before. However, when I started stitching, Mumtaz was so domineering that in the interest of winning the task, I just gave in. I don’t think the housemates realised I was a strong competitor.”

The big Ponnambalam issue

“He is a good person and we have a good relationship even now, but I think what he spoke was wrong. He apologised, however, but people in there just dragged it on and on unnecessarily.”

Sendrayan’s character

“Sendrayan adds humour to whatever he does and tries to sell himself as a funny person, which he is. He thinks this enhances his likeability. He gets targeted for doing this, but he doesn’t usually get hurt. Sometimes though, when people cross the line, he isn’t able to handle it.”

Respect for Mumtaz

“Mahat and Aishwarya started behaving rudely to Mumtaz a couple of days before I left the house. Forget the fact that she is an actor or that she is an older person. She is a human and what he said about her was very disrespectful. Hats off to Mumtaz for holding her ground though.

She is a smart lady. She used to give as good as she got at the beginning, but somewhere down the line, she understood that everyone in this house is unreasonable, and so, she adopted the patient game. As the tasks are getting tougher and the abuse aimed at her increases, it just makes her a bigger person in the eyes of the public.”

Yashika, not an angel

“Inside the Bigg Boss house, there is no room for strategy. If you think about it, every task is customised based on behaviour, relationships, enmity and team spirit. There is no use planning on a broad scale. At best, you can plan for each task and how you will project yourself to the watching public. The latter, especially if you are faking it, won’t last at all.

Take Yashika, for instance. She projected herself as a problem-free character with a poker face, largely uninvolved in everyday hassles. The day before I left, when ‘Gram Panchayat’ was going on, Mahat called Mumtaz a dominator. I told him that I was glad he spoke his mind for a change, even if I didn’t agree with him. Yashika, who was standing behind him, remarked, ‘Huh, who gave you that idea?’ It slipped, and however much she tried to defend herself the next day, people realised that she is a master-planner who talks behind everyone’s back.”

The Mahat-Yashika relationship

“Mahat is gullible. He is easily influenced because he is a person of extremes. He is emotionally vulnerable and was missing Prachi (his girlfriend) a lot. Yashika saw this weakness and started manipulating him. Unless their relationship lasts outside of Bigg Boss, I won’t believe it’s genuine.”

Why I went to Bigg Boss

“I wanted a learning experience. It has been my life goal to experience as many new things as possible. A platform like Bigg Boss gets me the exposure and contacts to pursue the things I want to do for the good of the society, like fight for women’s rights, and animal welfare.”

The Secret Room experience

“I saw a lot of things in the Secret Room that I didn’t expect. Once I got out, people expected me to lash out. But I stayed silent because I wanted to wait for the opportune moment. That was probably the wrong strategy because once I didn’t say anything about what I saw in there, people assumed that I was okay with it. The truth is, I couldn’t just lash out because I was going to wake up to these faces.”

Disappointment with Kamal Haasan

“When he asked Mumtaz to imitate Aishwarya in one of the earlier episodes, he turned it into more of a comedy than the schooling that Aishwarya deserved. I think he has a responsibility to school them because nobody gets away with those things in real life. Why should this be any different? If this is a social experiment, I feel it is unfair because Mumtaz and I were pulled up for the smallest of things. You expect us to behave reasonably in unreasonable situations, but when you don’t pull up someone for completely unreasonable misdemeanours, it is disappointing.”

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The New Indian Express
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