'I hope Jad has seen the footage and he knows what he has done to ruin my reputation or my bond with people outside.'
Jiya Shankar was voted out from Bigg Boss OTT 2 during a mid-week eviction, ahead of the grand finale on August 14.
With her exit from the show, Manisha Rani, Elvish Yadav, Pooja Bhatt, Abhishek Malhan and Bebika Dhurve have entered the finale.
During her exit interview with Rediff.com Contributor Mohnish Singh, Jiya says, "I learned a lot about love, relationships, about, you know, how people (referring to evicted housemates Avinash Sachdev and Jad Hadid) can put you down in just a few seconds, comment on your character... It will just take them seconds to bitch about you."
Jiya, you are out of the house of Bigg Boss OTT 2 just a few days before the grand finale. Disappointed?
Not at all. I am very grateful that I reached so far on the show.
Reaching the top 6 is a big thing.
Every contestant enters Bigg Boss' house with a goal. Did you manage to achieve yours?
Definitely!
I wanted to get to know myself better.
I wanted to learn new experiences, new lessons, which I did.
I learned a lot about love, relationships, about, you know, how people (referring to evicted housemates Avinash Sachdev and Jad Hadid) can put you down in just a few seconds, comment on your character...
It will just take them seconds to bitch about you.
But you decide what you want to be, right?
Do you want to be the bigger person who forgives people or bitch about them?
I chose to be the bigger person. I forgave people.
I gave them a lot of chances.
I held on to my relationships even though they were talking behind my back, about my character.
They were also portraying me in a bad light.
Did your stay inside the house make you a stronger person?
Yes, definitely.
No if anything happens, I will raise my voice.
For myself.
Or for anybody who is not able to stand up for themselves.
In the beginning, you shared a great rapport with Avinash, Pooja and Jad but as the show progressed, you sided with Abhishek and Elvish. How did the dynamics change?
The dynamics changed because Avinash and my relation was rocky. We went through a lot of ups and downs.
He broke my trust, and then I gave it back to him.
Once the trust was broken, I was not able to trust him again.
So things happened because of that one nomination that he did initially.
After that, I gave him another chance.
He wrote a letter for me with horrible things in it.
I was really stupid to have trusted this person again.
But I gave him another chance. But he kept on putting me in bad light.
I was not trying to harm him. I was not trying to do anything but just be there as a friend. I don't know what he was expecting out of me.
I gave him the captaincy but it was not appreciated. Jad was disappointed.
Jiya sahi kare, phir bhi galat. Jiya sahi kare, toh aur bhi galat.
I am glad the audience understood me.
In his exit interview, Avinash said 'Jiya has no jiya (heart).' How do you react to that?
And he has no courage to man up to things! Let's put it like that.
You are talking about someone's character like that?
That was a cheap stunt.
Who would you not like to keep in touch with at all?
Avinash and Jad.
Why?
Because Avinash spoke about my character and tried to portray something which was never there.
I always said, 'You are my best friend's boyfriend and that is how I met you. Even though we didn't build a bond then, we are building a bond now. But still, I will never look at you in that way because you were my best friend's ex-boyfriend.'
When this was so clear, how could you even think that I could have a thing for you?
That is just so disturbing.
Second, there were times when the way he used to talk to me was very rude. I don't know why.
Even the last time I spoke to him, he was very rude to me.
Just because I nominated him, he was pissed off.
But I told him that I thought about myself and in the end, I was right.
What about Jad?
Zillion reasons, which obviously is very clear. People know it.
I hope Jad has seen the footage and he knows what he has done to ruin my reputation or my bond with people outside.
It is just that what he did to me was horrible.
He tried to portray something that I am not.
He cried in front of people saying, 'Oh, she said what a bad father I am.'
Why would I say that?
I don't know what version of the show he has seen.
Do you think Jad could not fit in because of the cultural and language difference?
He could not fit in? He was more than welcome by every single contestant in the house.
They were not harsh towards him no matter what happened.
Even if something wrong happened between both of us, people put the entire blame on me.
When he nominated me and I confronted him, everybody charged on me, saying, 'How can you say anything to him if he nominated you?'
I had not even said anything.
Your bond with Pooja Bhatt also suffered and she even went on to say that nobody would like to work with you in the industry.
Yeah. Let her say what she feels.
She could never understand me.
That's alright. Not everybody can handle and understand me.
Who do you think is going to lift the trophy this season?
Well, I have my two favourites: Abhishek and Elvish.
It will feel like my personal victory if one of them walks away with the trophy.
You bonded really well with them.
I had bonded really well with Abhishek since the beginning.
If Manisha was circling around them, I tried to maintain a distance because I did not like her.
I could sense her vibe; it was so negative.
Then I realised she bitches about me. She was obsessed with me!
She was after me since the very first day. Where does she get this energy from to bitch so much?
So much venom!
You want to see either Abhishek or Elvish win the trophy. But during one of the recent episodes, Abhishek had said that wild card entrants don't deserve the trophy.
But Elvish is doing so well despite the fact that he entered the show after four-five weeks.
Elvish is a very strong contestant.
