Kasturi Shankar: Bigg Boss tried to portray me as a comedy piece

After her recent elimination from the Bigg Boss show, Kasturi Shankar, as you can imagine, has quite a few things to say about her stay in the show. She talks about why she wasn't a part of the show during the first two seasons, her disappointment on how she was portrayed, and her issues with Vanitha.

You were quite active on Twitter and were hinting at your potential participation in the show.

Yes. Vijay TV has been inviting me right from Season 1. But I did not want to do it. I didn't feel that the show represented what I stood for. For example, I would have been happy to do a Neengalum Vellalaam Oru Kodi. But since this seemed like the only opportunity, I took the offer.

Did you speak with Madhumitha after you came out?

I did. I have to be cautious of what I say. Let me answer this question from another angle. Kamal sir often said on the show that the Kasturi who was in the house wasn't the Kasturi who was on the outside. I agree to a certain degree. But here's what I didn't do. I didn't talk behind anyone's back. I didn't lie. However, I spoke a lot about social and regional issues. I was very vocal when Abhirami was facing issues. Similarly, I also spoke a lot when it came to Madhumitha. Why wasn't it shown? Only Bigg Boss can answer that question. I cannot speak without the approval of the network, but when Madhumitha exited the show, it affected me more than it could have affected her. This show claims to show the true faces of the ones who enter it. But I found out the true face of this show on that day. Let us wait for her to speak.

Kavin mocked you with some unsavoury nicknames. What did you think of that?

Should we talk about him now? I don't want to comment on that considering that his parents are headlining the news. If I talk about someone in their absence, there would be no difference between me and them. If someone talks about me to my face, everyone knows what I would do. But I don't feel the need to respond to people who talk behind my back. 

You seemed to have quite a few issues with Vanitha.

First of all, I didn’t mean for what I said to be thought of as body-shaming her. She mistook it. Secondly, regarding the sneezing issue, I cook for myself since I'm the only vegetarian there. Even if I had sneezed like the way she claimed, why should she care? I was cooking for myself anyway. Moreover, she does even more unhygienic things while cooking. She dips her fingers into the food being cooked to taste it. She also feeds people while the food is being prepared.

You are known to be an extrovert, but you were relatively quiet during your stay. 

I spoke a lot. I picked my spots and I spoke my mind. But the network has an understanding of what people should see and what people must not see. I was shocked that most of my conversations were edited out. For me, the journey to success should be reached with a certain degree of fairness. Faking love, harassing women, and body-shaming are methods I did not want to follow, and only that are being shown. To attack someone mentally and emotionally, and to make a show out of that for people to view is something that is not right in my opinion.

You mentioned earlier that you had packed clothes for only two weeks. Did you already know you wouldn't stay longer? 

Yes. It was pretty obvious. I knew the people who were inside at the time. It is not new that the wild card entrant gets nominated in the first week. I also anticipated that they would offer me the secret room opportunity. I am not allowed to reveal too much, but I will tell you that Madhimitha's exit changed the dynamics of the show. It had an impact on all of us. That's why I denied the offer of being in the secret room. 

You talked about a lot of context being lost in the edits. Did you not expect that portions would get cut going in? 

I did. But beyond that, I did not anticipate the magnitude of how much things would change. After Vanitha's exit, I was sure that I wouldn't be shown in negative light. But I think this is the first time in history that an evicted contestant has been brought back to the show. So it was clear that I was not delivering the content Bigg Boss was expecting. So I guess they tried to portray me as a 'comedy piece'. However, this show has space to produce a lot of positive things. Those things weren't shown. That's my biggest disappointment. Everything goes according to a 'plan'.

You said you would speak only about Cheran sir and no one else. Why so? 

I think we should talk only about human beings. I think we should talk about people who have empathy. 

During your time, it looked like you tried to advise Losliya regarding her equation with Kavin.

Yes. One of the two has true feelings and the other is just doing it to produce content. I tried to help the one who needed help. There are many people in the real world who fake feelings in the name of love. I also talked to her about it. Again, it wasn't shown.

Is it your suspicion that Losliya has tagged along with the boys group to save herself?

She does not have the ability to think that much. She's child-like. She just wants to stay near people who make her laugh. 

If you had to summarise your stay in the Bigg Boss in a line…

Upside down. Not everything meets the eye. To tell you the truth, after watching Kamal sir's entry to politics, his hunger to fight for good, I sought inspiration and decided to spread good ideologies through my participation in the house. Yes, he does speak a lot of good things every weekend in his first monologue. But I fail to understand why he devotes time for things like solving problems between Tharshan and Sherin.