After surviving every suspicion, betrayal, and Circle of Shaq, Krystle D’Souza and Rida Tharana outplay the Innocents and emerge as the winners of The Traitors Season 2. In an exclusive conversation, Rida reflects on her unexpected victory, her betrayal of Prish, her equation with Krystle, and her candid views on Mallika Sherawat and Parul Gulati.
Rida Tharana on winning The Traitors 2
Reflecting on her win, Rida Tharana says the achievement still feels unbelievable. “I can’t believe myself that I have reached this far,” she shares, recalling how she started out as a creator from a little village, speaking about the things she wanted to, before travelling the world solo and sharing her experiences with her audience. For her, being part of a show like The Traitors 2 is a milestone she never imagined.
Rida is quick to clarify that she would not describe her gameplay as outsmarting others. “I’ve just played the game the way it is for me,” she says. She also points out that viewers got to see her as she is, including moments when she experienced emotional breakdowns and struggled with lying or putting on an act. “I’ve had my own journey,” she adds.
On betraying Prish, Rida says she feels her every move is questioned, while similar decisions by others are praised. “I think at this point we can all agree that anything I do is always questioned, but anything anybody else does is looked down upon, oh such a smart move,” she says.
Rida on Krystle calling her worst traitor
Addressing Krystle D’Souza calling her the “worst traitor”, Rida says the comment may have been taken too seriously online. “I know Krystle, we’ve spoken and everything. She was kind of taking it in a sarcastic tone,” she says. Rida adds that while she had a roadmap to the finale, she does not consider herself the most exceptional traitor.
On Mallika Sherawat
Rida Tharana says she was initially in awe of Mallika Sherawat, whom she considered a true feminist, but her opinion changed during The Traitors 2. “If you’re such a confident woman, you don’t have to constantly put other women down to pull yourself up,” she says. While praising Mallika’s one-liners, Rida says she was taken aback by comments directed at fellow contestants, including Rhea and other women. “She was amazing to watch, but at the expense of other women in the show was not something I expected,” she adds.
Shahneel Gill had accused Parul Gulati of allegedly cheating on The Traitors Season 2 by bribing her assigned production crew member, known as a “shadow”, to leak insider information. Rida says she was not immediately suspicious of Parul, but the allegations made her look back at certain moments in the show differently. “I’m not saying I was suspicious about it, but when all of this information came out and we kind of knew that somebody had gone out, and then you go and watch the episodes again, the way I caught a Traitor or the way Tanya put her points out or the way Abhishek put her points out, it was slightly different,” she says. Rida adds that once viewers watched those episodes with the allegations in mind, some moments appeared to take on a different meaning. “When you watch the episodes with that particular narrative, it kind of comes off different as well.” However, she says her first instinct was still to give Parul the benefit of the doubt.
Rida’s approach was also influenced by a comment Parul had made about her during The Traitors 2 premiere. Rida says the remark was deeply personal and hurtful, particularly because she felt Parul had made it without knowing her side of the story. “But there's a comment that she made during the premiere that really did hurt me. It was something very personal to me. She did that particular comment because she thought it was funny and ran PR around it just to kind of find it cool. And when this happened, I was like, you know, even when I want to give you the benefit of doubt, I just don't want to know your side of the story, because you were never kind enough to think about my side of the story,” she signed off.
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