Ashutosh Kaushik is widely recognised for winning both MTV Roadies Season 5 and Bigg Boss Season 2. While the actor had memorable moments on both shows, one incident from Roadies, in particular, blew up into a major controversy. It had to do with a task in the season's finale, which involved slapping the opponent as hard as you could. The reason the incident became so notorious, though, was because Ashutosh's opponent was a woman, Shambhavi, but he went ahead and slapped her anyway. He has now opened up about his thoughts on the controversy.
Ashutosh Kaushik recently made an appearance on Siddharth Kannan's show and revealed how he felt about the finale task, the resulting controversy, and the flak he received for it. The actor bluntly stated that he had no regrets about fulfilling the task so far and would have no regrets about it in the future, either. In his words:
"I don’t regret it, I never will. I sent a boy from my team to be slapped, my opponent sent a girl, thinking he’ll win. But when you’re in the battlefield, everybody’s equal. Maine ghuma ke diya thappad."
Elaborating on the reason why he had no regrets about completing the task, Ashutosh Kaushik coolly stated that he wasn't the one to design it. The actor accused host, Rannvijay Singha of not only coming up with the task but also encouraging it with a dialogue that had been cut from the finale. Revealing the same, Ashutosh said:
"Raghu got really angry, but I want to ask him, ‘Who came up with the task?’ He pretends to be a feminist, but he’s the one who came up with this idea. They even edited out what Rannvijay had said. He said that they would measure the sound of the slap, and that it should be heard all the way till the Petronas Towers. After I slapped her, I asked him, ‘Was it loud enough for you?'"
Ashutosh further blamed the Roadies producers for thinking of the task and his opponent, Nihal Nikam for sending a woman to be slapped. According to the actor, he even offered to be slapped in return despite not needing to do so.
Ashutosh Kaushik then opened up about the backlash he had received for completing the task. Surprisingly, he revealed to Siddharth that he had barely felt any flak as people had mostly supported him, saying he had done the right thing. While discussing the same, Ashutosh also raised some doubts about Shambhavi Sharma's character.
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According to Ashutosh, Shambhavi used to flirt with male contestants on the show just to get ahead. He disliked this trait of hers so much that he had even asked her to stop calling him brother. That said, Ashutosh revealed that there was no bad blood between him and Shambhavi following the task. In fact, they would greet each other warmly even if they were to run into each other today.
In an earlier interview with Rediff, Roadies creator and judge, Raghu Ram confessed that the slapping task idea may not have been well thought-out. In his words:
"It was a mistake. In the finale, there were two boys left, and we brought back the rest of the Roadies for the last bit. And the point was for each of the boys to convince his teammates to do tasks that would make him win… Our guess was that people would not come forward to do the task, because there was enough animosity between them… But we were surprised when people started falling over themselves to do the tasks."
What do you think about Ashutosh Kaushik's revelations about Rannvijay Singha's instructions for the slapping task in MTV Roadies Season 5?
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