Actor Kushal Tandon stepped into the captive reality space once again after 15 years of participating in Bigg Boss 7. While Kushal didn’t make a very good first impression on Alliance, he quickly emerged as the most talked about contestant on the show. In an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, the actor shared how Ekta Kapoor pushed him to do Alliance and also reflected on his bond with Sohail Khan as well as his friendship with Zaid Darbar.

Kushal Tandon on his bond with Sohail Khan

Kushal’s strongest friendship on the show was with Sohail Khan. While many thought that he was nice to Sohail because he came from the Khan family and was Salman Khan’s brother, Kushal Tandon shared, “He is Sohail Khan; I don’t have to be rude to him. He is a very sweet person, and he is Salman’s brother, and from the Khan family, so I will not be b**chy to that person, even if he is like that to me. My bond with Sohail was very natural; he was in my team from day one. He understood the game late and would get hassled, but I held his hand and took him forward. He was my therapist at a time when I was not talking to a lot of people on the show.”

Kushal also recalled how the Khan family and Arbaaz Khan appreciated his game. He said, “I went to Sohail’s party and the whole Khan family appreciated my journey. Arbaaz told me that the show was all about me, and it’s very rare for someone to rise so much in a show like this.” Kushal also discussed how people judged him and Sohail Khan’s bond and added, “I used to talk to him. People question me as to why Sohail Khan chose Zaid over me for the ace nomination on the show; that part hasn’t been shown. But we had discussed that before, and he had told me that he would vote for Zaid since Seema had told him to do so. Seema also told me to my face that she loved me, but didn’t want me to become the ace, because I would bring a dictatorship in the game. ”

“Sohail bhai and my bond is very natural and pure; I love him. Even when he was told something about us when he came out, he told me, ‘Who cares? Our real bond is there; we don’t have to show it to the world and prove it.’ We know what our friendship is like. On the show, when others tried to manipulate him against me, he never believed them.”

Kushal Tandon on his friendship with ex-Gauahar Khan’s husband Zaid Darbar

When the contestants for Alliance were announced, people assumed some kind of rivalry and fireworks between Kushal Tandon and Zaid Darbar. Since Zaid is Gauahar Khan’s husband and Kushal was her ex, many assumed some tension would flare up between the two; however, both Zaid and Kushal bonded very well and shared quite a mature bond. Talking about their equation, Kushal said, “We are mature people; Zaid and I bonded very naturally. I never looked at him as my ex-partner’s husband. We bonded like two boys at a boarding school. That was 15 years before we all moved on, and god bless everybody. People thought we would fight or have some rivalry, but that should not be the case in any way.”

Zaid Darbar had also spoken about their equation in an interview with SCREEN. He said, “Kushal has done a lot for me on the show, and he favored me in front of everyone. Nobody usually does that; he must have had his reasons, but it helped.” Reacting to Zaid’s comment, Kushal said, “He knows I did a lot for him in the game. When I was the ace, I took his side.”

 

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On the work front, Kushal Tandon will be seen in two web series which are backed by Ekta Kapoor; the official announcements will be made soon.