Dheeraj Dhoopar was evicted a week before the finale of the reality show Lock Upp Sach ya Sazaa. The actor was often told that he is not visible enough on the show and did not voice out his opinions enough on the show. In an exclusive conversation with HT, Dheeraj spoke about terminating Yogesh Rawat and Harshad Chopda in the past and why he owns his game.
Dheeraj on his Lock Upp journey
Talking about his journey, Dheeraj said that he wanted to be his true self on the show and said, “When I entered the show, I said to everyone that I am not here to play the game but to change the game. Nowadays in reality shows, the whole perception is to fight with each other using abusive words. But I was there to own my truth and this is the person I am, even in my real life. I am not going to pick fights. I saw a few episodes after returning and was shocked to see how some of them are fighting, like Shilpa Shinde, Shreya Kalra and Akanksha Choudhary… unko humesha chilla ke baat karna hain (always shouting at others), using abusive words. I am not that.”
He went on to add, “I terminated Yogesh. Then why didn’t Akanksha Choudhary come to me and fight with me? Why? Aap aakey ladte and main uss cheez ka jawab deta! She moved on and never spoke a word about it. She understood my point of view, and she said okay when I gave her my point of view. I said I had my reasons to evict Yogesh and she was okay with it. When I evicted Harshad [Chopda] also, she did not come and fight with me. She was also okay with the fact too. So when I am talking, first of all, pick a fight to be visible on screen. Koi mujhse fight nahi karega toh (if no one fights with me) I will not deliberately go and fight with them. This was my game and I own it.”
‘Why is Harshad Chopda so obsessed with me?’
Dheeraj said that several contestants in the show from the reality tv background have been conditioned and knew when to say what so that it would trend on social media. “Yogesh wasn’t playing his game when Akanksha went out to the secret room. After that when he is coming back, he is showing this anger towards me. His anger I understand that he wants to challenge me but why is Harshad so obsessed with me? Jab ki Harshad aur Shivangi ko maine baar baar bola hain ki main kaha stand hota hoon tum dono ke beech mein. I cannot be their second priority, so I have all the reasons to vote him out when he is not even playing his game and playing for Shivangi!”
Lock Upp, hosted by Farah Khan and Riteish Deshmukh, streams on Netflix from Saturday to Thursday at 8 pm. The winner of the show will take home prize money of ₹1 crore.
