Manya Singh: My edits were villainous, leading to anxiety attacks post my eviction

The ongoing season of Bigg Boss is one of the most successful shows so far, with a lot of entertainment, gossip, and dramas. What better than getting a reality check from a former contestant herself? The Pioneer connects with the runner-up of Miss India Manya Singh, sharing with us some exclusive insights from the BB house.

Shikha Duggal

With brewing tension and drama in the controversial television show Bigg Boss 16, there was once a contestant widely famous for becoming the runner-up of Miss India, who saw a slight vanquishing post her eviction from the house this year. Yes, we are talking about the sought-after woman Manya Singh!

In an exclusive conversation with us, the former contestant chats about the entertainment dose she had been giving inside the house for quite some weeks and what’s her next move in life now.

“I was not there in the house for stardom: extremely faithful to my thoughts, I was there to take home an enormous amount of money however I skived off way too early. I am not ravenous, just wanted to secure myself. When I had no money in my bank account, I was mostly running behind in substandard decisions of my life. Sajid Khan continued to ask me about love versus money, was a tad bit diplomatic in the house but I commit — will choose money because that makes me selfless in my opinion. I am the sole breadwinner of the house and I am not selfish. People already knew me, so to be renowned from Bigg Boss wasn’t my criteria,” she shared.

Claiming not to be a jealous competitor even outside the show, she states, “I am pleased to have the crown. When I won the crown, never thought of putting it to the wrong use, it has now become my moment of gratification. My name is penned down in history! But, I am hunting for some good work in the entertainment industry still.”

When inside the house, Manya was seen opposing silver spoon-fed children who were acting snooty with her, and she stands by her perspective until now. She comes out with a statement, “From where I belong, “our” stats are totally different. Not many of us had made it to the entertainment industry! Talking about my village. I was brought up with the mindset of grabbing a government job, and not hovering around the glamour world at all. It was all about the long-term run: dowry and my parents are against it. Even in the Miss India competition, everyone already knew the insights. More or less, they were already groomed, well-spoken and then there was me, a naive upcoming girl in showbiz. I wasn’t ranting inside the house about this specific topic, was talking about facts. Many of them wouldn’t have broken the ceiling glass, while I did! Even when I stepped into a prestigious competition whose criteria is beauty: I broke the stereotype even then. I was on national television, couldn’t have lied about it on a reality show.”

When one of her co-contestant threw a poverty card on her, she had something to say about it now — “I disagree with Shalin Bhanot because the show is running on equality, he missed the context. I purposely didn’t interfere back then, because they are way older than me! Bigg Boss makers didn’t get me on the basis of my background, and Shalin didn’t understand my father’s choice. Instead, I had to go up to Sajid Khan and apologize because Shalin was debasing his hard work.”

Two important tags: coward and image-conscious by the makers themselves were a bit too much for Manya to take inside the house. She clarified her intentions, “I am way too kind, my kindness took me for a ride in the house. I am extremely aware of others’ sentiments. Eliminations are too personal out there, it hits you all of a sudden! I couldn’t have been heartless, and that’s what makers didn’t understand about me. I wasn’t nesting my likeness over there.”

There was another significant time when she felt that the television actresses were sort of trying to persecute a ploy against her and coming out strong, Manya moved ahead in the game show. She said, “They were trying to corner me because I wasn’t an established actress unlike them. If Nimrit Kaur wouldn’t have folded her hands, no matter what Manya Singh wouldn’t have bowed down against Tina Datta. I won’t even meet most of them when they get evicted one by one. Even after a successful season, they are still a bunch of mysterious women for me. More than the contestants, I am anguished by the makers because they applied the same tactics for my screen space. I really felt like an “outsider” there. They used me for my vogue and then threw me out, period. This bogged me down mentally!”

A statement of hers created a stir in the whole television industry; Manya simplifies it, “To all the television actors — I wasn’t myself in the show. I was stunned to see myself passing that statement too! I apologise to the whole fraternity. Although, even, my crown was cheapened. Nobody took a stand on it outside! I belong to the league of Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and many of the biggies were ruthless in passing comments on me on Twitter. Arjun Bijlani was a bit sanctimonious when it came to me, because his statements are different while hosting Splitsvilla! I am extremely possessive about my title, that’s all.”

She claims, most of the contestants inside the house want to be goodie two miss shoes and that’s when the problem comes. “Not everyone can be generous, where is your anger? Isn’t that an emotion? They are betraying their fandoms! If I was interactive with Sajid Khan, it wasn’t for him to sign me in his come-back movie. Plainly, it was because he’s a respectful man. And, no regrets about my elimination because it wasn’t a good place to be at. It’s a fact: the makers cornered me, the crew wasn’t interested in capturing my bits, and I was hardly called inside the confession room. Why? Salman Khan didn’t guide me! I was being provoked too. I have made this my resolution: the next time I’ll be in the house will be to promote my movie because they did make me feel bad about myself. My edits were villainous, I suffered from anxiety attacks outside. All in all, the channel was definitely biased towards me.”