If you thought The Traitors 2 had already spilt all its secrets, think again. The much-awaited reunion episode is set to air on September 9 with Karan Johar leading the chaos. With the entire cast coming together, viewers can expect more revelations, confrontations and, quite possibly, a few unresolved scores to be settled. But before the reunion brings everyone back to the same room, winner Krystle D’Souza spoke exclusively to India Today about one of the season’s biggest controversies — how Parul Gulati allegedly bribed her shadow to get information on who the traitors were.
While the format demands innocents to be suspicious and act like detectives, Krystle believes there is a difference between playing the game and having an unfair advantage. “I love this game because everyone uses their brain. Everyone is thinking. Look at the innocents; they are bringing points to put up an argument. They may be right or wrong, but they are bringing valid points. Somebody coming in with a gut feeling is just not for this game,” the actor said, without delving deep into the accusations.
However, according to Krystle, what audiences saw was only a small slice of what happened that day. Behind the edited episode was an exhausting day of feeling cornered by almost the entire house, The Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai actor said, “I just felt like it was a little unfair to the rest of the people who were actually putting in effort. You can’t come in and say, ‘I will show you who you are.’ It’s like, we know you have a cheat code, but don’t go all crazy. I felt tortured and bullied the whole day. That whole day, I felt so ostracised, at one point, I wanted to leave. I was like, forget this game, let’s leave, because the way I was being attacked felt very personal.”
For the unversed, the controversy erupted after Shahneel Gill accused Parul of paying her assigned ‘shadow’, a production crew member who assists contestants, to leak the identities of the traitors. Krystle, Rida Tharana and Prish later backed the allegations, while Parul denied any wrongdoing and called the backlash a ‘digital witch-hunt’.
When asked if the show itself was at fault for allowing this alleged cheating to happen, Krystle said, “I don’t think the show has anything to do with it. I feel like this is your personal choice. I would love to play again, with full integrity, as a traitor or as an innocent, and that’s how a game should be played. Even if it’s Monopoly that you’re playing at home, don’t cheat. It’s not fun. How do you look at yourself and say, ‘Oh yeah, I won, but I cheated’? What’s the meaning in that?”
Meanwhile, another moment from the season that travelled far beyond the palace was Dalip Tahil’s unexpected compliment to Rida Tharana. The interaction became a social media talking point, with viewers debating whether the senior actor had made Rida uncomfortable. Dalip later clarified his side, and Rida, while speaking to us, also shared that there was no malice behind the exchange.
“I don’t think he made me uncomfortable. It just came out of nowhere. I did feel a tad bit uncomfortable, but not because of anything like that. It was just a game show, and then you have someone coming and complimenting you out of nowhere. I really loved that my Malayali roots were spoken about. My anger was spoken about. But I was just looking at it and thinking, ‘Did we really require this?'” The Traitors 2 co-winner said.
Rida also made it clear that she has spoken to Dalip since the episode and does not believe he intended to make her uncomfortable. The content creator said, “He absolutely meant no harm. It was just a cute moment, but just something I did not expect because I myself was a bit confused.”
as traitors, while Shalini Passi, Sahil, Salathia and Dalip Tahil were also part of the top 5.