After her unexpected elimination from The 50, where she failed to receive even a single vote to save her, stand-up comedian Sumaira Shaikh has finally spoken up about the strong groupism inside the reality show.
In an exclusive interaction with The Free Press Journal, Sumaira called out Prince Narula and Shiv Thakare, accusing them of backstabbing contestants by giving false hope while prioritising only their own alliances. While she acknowledges their experience and strategic mindset, Sumaira believes that the game became extremely unfair for solo players who entered the show without any pre-existing bonds. She also revealed the contestants she genuinely supports and roots for going forward.
Sumaira slammed Prince and Shiv for forming powerful groups inside The 50 and ignoring the outsiders. “Obviously, this is a group of people who have already done reality shows earlier, and many of them have done several shows.
So there is Prince Narula’s group, there is Mr. Faisu's group, there is Shiv Thakare’s group. Rajat Dalal also has a strong personality and has done shows before. So all of them have formed their own groups - like strong alliances. These four or five people, along with many others, are supporting each other. It’s very collaborative for them, and it works well for them because they back one another. But it is not good for people like us who don’t have any friends inside the show, because obviously, we will lose first.”
On Prince Narula and Shiv Thakare backstabbing contestants, Sumaira said, “Prince is very smart and he doesn’t trust anyone. If I go to him on the first day and say, ‘Take me in,’ he will say it to my face, ‘Yes, yes, come, come.’ But he cannot trust me because he has just met me. He only trusts people he has known for many years. So I think it’s not just Prince, many people are doing this by forming alliances. Even Shiv Thakare is not changing at all when it comes to deciding whom to save and whom not to save.
In fact, you can clearly see that these people are backstabbing others, very obviously. I did not get betrayed personally, and I wasn’t treated unfairly either. Nobody knew me, so I was eliminated. Nobody told me they would save me. But there are people who were told, ‘You go to the danger zone, we will save you,’ and then there were no votes. So they are very sure about whom they want to save and whom they don’t. Prince knows he is playing according to the format of the show. I don’t think it has anything to do with who he is personally or who Shiv Thakare is personally. I am sure they are sweet people and very good people. This is just the game. That’s all it is.”
Sumaira also makes it clear that she stands firmly with solo contestants. “I only support solo players. I want all these groups to break, their friendships to be ruined, their bonds to end, and I want them to go solo in the next reality show and face what we solo contestants faced in this show. For me, Sapna Chaudhary ji is playing alone, Manisha Rani is also playing alone. Digvijay Rathee - I really like him. I loved that Digvijay nominated Prince. He knows Prince will not be eliminated, but still he said, ‘No, I will do it.’ I like people like him. I like such things.”
