Madhumitha: I was taunted by eight people in the Bigg Boss house

As Madhumitha, the Bigg Boss Season 3 contestant, opens up about her experiences in the house, I am just relieved to see her looking healthy. Three weeks ago, she got eliminated from the house for trying to harm herself.  She begins, her trademark feistiness in tact: “No one can fake what happens inside the house. Everything is recorded. I cannot lie about someone, and neither can they, about me.”

She then proceeds to address the giant elephant in the room: her disputes with the network. News outlets had gone to town when it came to light that she had filed a case against Star Vijay. “The complaint I made was wrongly perceived by the public,” she says. “I filed a complaint because I wasn't allowed to talk to the media even though it had been a while since I was evicted.” She denies that the complaint had anything to do with her salary. “I was paid on time. However, I received an e-mail from the network asking me not to talk to the media about anything that happened to me. I felt though that the interviews were important to me,” she clarifies.
 

The other elephant in the room, of course, concerns her trying to harm herself — at a time when she had just been elected the captain of the house. What did cause her to go to that extent? The internet has been rife with theories and speculations concerning this. She responds with one word: “Intimidation” Prodded, she delves into detail: “It all started with a one-line poem I recited about the rains — or the lack of it in Chennai. There was nothing political about it. But eight people in the house politicised my well-intentioned prayer for rains in Tamil Nadu," she says.

She goes on to say that while she was arguing with the eight people who “were taunting”, the organisers sent a letter into the house asking her not to politicise the issue. "They treated the letter like ‘alva'," she says, explaining that the letter made things even worse. Noting that only two housemates — Kasturi and Cheran — didn’t partake in the teasing, she says she conceded defeat and did the unthinkable. “I am a BP patient, with average levels as low as 90/60. I cut my hand, and my BP rose to 180/160. A low BP patient in such conditions could have ended up with a brain stroke," she says.

She doesn’t remember much after the incident. “All I remember is the lack of empathy those eight people showed. I lost quite a bit of blood, but it was frustrating for me to see the total lack of empathy or apology. They were all astonishingly normal.” She apparently hoped that the host, Kamal Haasan, would come to her rescue. “I expected him to take the issue up in the weekend episode, but he did not.”

 A regular complaint of contestants from the first season of Bigg Boss Tamil is how the truncated version we see on television is hardly an accurate reflection of what happens inside the house. Madhumitha does the same, but is still hopeful of Kamal Haasan’s intervention in her matter. “You see only 40 minutes out of the 1,440 minutes in a day. Someone should take the responsibility of overseeing everything that happens in a day. Injustice exists in the house and you guys don't see it. Kamal sir must be informed about this and he must take it up. He is god for many. Coming from him, it would have an effect.”

The host, Kamal Haasan, often talks about how the show holds a mirror up to society, and how people can take away lessons from it. Madhumitha scoffs at this. “There’s a girl in the house, who doesn’t wear inner garments in the evenings. She wears a transparent dress, and there are guys inside the house, and guys who are watching this show on television. Vanitha and I questioned this on the fourth day of the show,” she says. “This girl falls in love with Kavin on the fourth day of the show and mentions the word ‘marriage’. When he declines, she shifts her love to Mugen the next day. She has an imaginary baby on the sixth day. My family is seeing this. The people of Tamil Nadu are watching this. What responsibility are we really talking about?”

Considering that the network has refused to telecast the events that led to her harming herself, where does Madhumitha go from here? “Even when I cut myself, it never occurred to me to press charges against them. Pressing charges will amount to nothing and won't change them a bit. Empathy is a human emotion. It cannot be taught. It cannot be instilled into someone through a court case. I was in pain earlier, so I couldn't ask anyone anything. But by God's grace, I am fine now. And no, I won't go back in if I get the chance. However, I have a lot to ask those eight people. I will do it to their face,” she signs off.