“Lifting trophies has now become a habit”, says Karanveer Mehra in good humour after being crowned the winner of the 18th edition of the controversial reality show Bigg Boss. He emerged winner after defeating two of his arch rivals -- Vivian Dsena and Rajat Dalal. A well-known television actor, Mehra is currently basking in the success of winning two reality shows back-to-back. The actor entered the Bigg Boss house this season after winning Khatron Ke Khiladi 14. “Is there any third show that I can also win? I want to hit a hat-trick,” he laughs. Mehra was among the six contestants who made it to the finale, including Vivian Dsena, Eisha Singh, Chum Darang, Avinash Mishra, and Rajat Dalal.
Mehra was often reprimanded by the show host Salman Khan, or was made fun of by his co-contestants initially when he barely played the game and was only seen doing his workouts, or cooking eggs in the morning. But soon after his game changed and he became the life of the show especially after his close friend and actor-writer-producer Sandeep Sikand entered the house privately to meet him. Sikand gave Mehra insights on how he is perceived by the audience outside and even provided suggestions on how to navigate the game better thus enhancing Mehra’s performance.
Few weeks later, when on one of the weekends Farah Khan took the reins of Bigg Boss 18's Weekend Ka Vaar in Salman Khan’s absence, she lauded Mehra as the “most targeted contestant’ drawing parallels to Bigg Boss contestant Siddharth Shukla’s Season 13 journey who went on to win the season and is still being remembered for his strong gameplay. Farah even dubbed the show, “The Karanveer Mehra Show”, acknowledging his strong game as he showcased different emotions besides quick wit and being adept at repartees and presented him with a special medal. Farah’s remark hinted that being targeted could signify Mehra’s strong presence and potential to emerge as a standout contestant in the competition. Farah also told some of the contestants that they were all obsessed with Mehra, making him popular among the viewers. “I never expected to get so much love from people. I didn’t know what was happening outside until Farah told us and I am glad she gave me that confidence and the medal that inspired me to do even better,” says Mehra.
As he looks back at this three months journey, Mehra, who calls Bigg Boss house a luxurious detox, says it was a roller-coaster ride for him with quite a few high and low points. “Probably the Time God task where I lifted Edin [Rose, wild card contestant] for many hours was a high point for me, also when I had to trim Rajat Dalal’s beard but the way I roasted Vivian, I could have avoided that,” he says. It happened during a roast segment hosted by popular comedian duo Krushna Abhishek and Sudesh Lehri when Mehra remarked, “Vivian Dsena tereko bachha bachha janta hai. Yaar, jo khudka bachcha hai usine nahi pehchana [Vivian, so many people know you but your own child did not recognize you].” The comment did not go well with Dsena, who said: “That was not cool." Karan then apologised immediately.
Speaking on his bond with Dsena which was never made clear on the show, Mehra says: “Of course, Vivian and I are friends. It is just that we have different ideologies. Actually, both of our definitions of friendship are very different. He thought of me as a dearer friend and I was coming from a space where I thought he was getting things very easily. Different situations in the house led to some problems between us. When I was wrong ..when I went on to roast him, I said sorry to him and when he was a bit aggressive on that task with Chum, he apologised to her. We are mature enough to understand these things. But now it’s a 100-day friendship. We will be on the football grounds again.”
Mehra was found mentally strong on the show as compared to other housemates and he rarely got affected by various derogatory remarks made at him, be it his two failed marriages, also he was often age-shamed. He never lost his cool over these remarks nor did he confront any of those contestants to which Mehra says, “I don’t get irked easily, I’m a very thick-skinned person. It doesn’t bother me much, as long as people talk about me it is fine. But the problem is when they talk about those who were there with me in the past but have now moved on in life. They get unnecessarily dragged into it and it is such a big platform .. people try to start digging out more information through Google search and stuff .. But I hold no grudges against anyone."
He continues, “But one thing I am really happy about is having realised that I am an emotional person and that I can cry, which has never happened in my life before. I am surprised at myself. It was an emotional rollercoaster for me, tears started flowing on seeing my mother’s letter, then I got emotional when 'my other ma' Shilpa [Shirodkar] was evicted and later when I got to know that I was in top six, top 3 ..these were all different emotional moments."
The Bigg Boss18 winner was seen being ‘betrayed’ even by some of his close friends on the show and he was also seen ‘sacrificing’ for them but never once he was seen complaining and that is when the show host had asked him why can’t he confront people. Shirodkar was one such contestant who despite being his friend had been unfaithful towards him a couple of times by selecting Dsena over Mehra for the position of 'time god' [one who got many privileges and power to nominate people while being safe from nominations] and even nominating him but Mehra didn’t complain to which he explains, “I had realized that Shilpa is a very simple person, she didn’t understand the game or how it is played and I connected well with her.”
One of the talking points of Mehra’s Bigg Boss18 journey was his equation and romantic bond with fellow contestant Chum Darang. Through the course of the show, the actor developed a liking towards her and even confessed his feelings, however, Darang maintained that she would discuss their relationship once the show was over. When asked if he wants to take their relationship forward, Mehra replied, "I have already said what I had to. Now as Salman Khan sir had said, the choice is always the woman's, it is her prerogative, so I will wait to hear it from her. I do love her as a friend and my family is quite chilled about it.” But Darang has said she has feelings for someone outside who she was in a relationship with for 10 years, to which Mehra retorts, “I did feel bad about it and she will only tell if she still has a feeling for that guy.”
Lastly, while the channel kept referring to Dsena as Colors ka laadla [favourite/beloved] right from the time the show went on air, now that Mehra has won the trophy, does he think actually he is the channel’s favourite and not Dsena, to this Mehra signs off saying, “No, let me be janta ka [common man’s] laadla. I am happy being that.”
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