Kushal Punjabi thoroughly enjoyed shooting for his cluster in Welcome - Baazi Mehmaan Nawaazi Ki that is being telecast on Life OK this week.
"It was a wonderful experience; had good fun moments. Till now, this is my eighth reality show. It has always been fun working for shows like Zor Ka Jhatka and Fear Factor (sports), Ek Se Badhkar Ek (dancing) or standup comedy. For the first time, I am trying my hands at cooking, something which I am not very good at," says Kushal.
He also accepts that this Miditech Production is not all about food but about other things as well. "It is a 50/50 mix. The entire focus is on the great Indian hospitality." As for the fights, he questions, "have we not seen dinner table conversations degenerate into fights and debates?" he adds.
On the allegations that most of the tiffs were scripted, Kushal maintains," I don't know about others but as far as my cluster is concerned, it's a strict 'No'. Since I knew three of the four guests (Shilpa Saklani, Delnaaz Irani and Rahul Mahajan), I was dead assured that I can safely have certain debates with them. Since I did not know Sofia Maria Hayat, I did a background check on her and found out that she was from England and wanted to become an actress here in the country. Agreed certain conversations did go into a different zones, but the creatives never told us to what to say yes to. One thing they did was to suggest certain common topics of conversations such as the future of Indian television and our respective journeys in our careers."
Remind him about the catfight between Sofia and Delnaaz and he observes, "It got personal. Sometimes two people just don't get along. Sofia is a very aggressive girl, she picked up a fight and even splashed water on Dellu (Delnaaz), that was not called for. As all this happened in my pad, I tried to pacify things which I did and after that they all danced together."
He also justifies his argument with Sofia where he asked her to go back to Old Blighty." I did not explode when she did not know who our Prime Minister was. I got annoyed at her entire blas attitude about India. All she could see was dirt. My point was that if you don't bother about us, then it better to get out and go back home and earn in pounds. No one is putting a gun on anyone's head. We Indians are taught to respect our guests but you can't go on insulting our country; that is just not acceptable," Kushal blasts.
This cluster was much better than the previous cluster that had lots of fights and arguments. We had lots of fun," ends Kushal who's upcoming film Rock The Shaadi is delayed.
