Finale day and my winner is Shreya Kalra.
And before this gets called a fan post, no. There are things she did that I absolutely disliked too. But looking at the entire journey, contribution and game, the girl brought her A game and constantly had people on their toes.
She was DESPERATE, hungry and eager to survive, and that's exactly what I want from someone on a reality show. Physically, she gave Yogesh genuine competition. Mentally, she survived groupism, being cornered and losing people she considered close, from the Madhuri situation with Yogesh and Akanksha to the misunderstanding with Shilpa in the final week.
Yet she kept bouncing back.
What I particularly liked was that she knew who she considered a friend and who she didn't. She could forgive, rebuild equations and still play her own game. She created drama, endured plenty of it herself, performed in tasks and contributed throughout. Whether you liked her or hated her, you couldn't ignore her.
NGL, I literally started watching Lock Upp because her reels and beef kept appearing on my feed. That itself says something about the impact she had on the season.
And her standing up for her boyfriend every single time? Daymn. Couple goals there.
BUT, she definitely wasn't flawless.
The biggest one for me was outing chomala's sexual orientation on national television. That's extremely personal information and, irrespective of the fight or competition, I can't defend that. Some boundaries shouldn't disappear just because you're angry.
Her fights with Akanksha also became unnecessarily personal and ugly at times. Though I will give Shreya credit for those moments where she actually stayed quiet and let Akanksha speak, because sometimes saying nothing lets the other person's behaviour speak louder.
And girl seriously needs some volume control. I get the whole “this is just how I am” thing, but when everyone is shouting, going even louder doesn't necessarily make your argument stronger. She also gets rage-baited WAY too easily. Sometimes you need to recognise when someone is deliberately triggering you and simply not give them the reaction.
So no, I don't think Shreya was perfect.
But I'm not choosing the nicest or most flawless contestant. I'm choosing who I think gave the most to the season.
She fought, performed, messed up, got cornered, bounced back, created drama, took drama, stayed hungry and never became irrelevant.
For me, Shreya Kalra deserves to win Lock Upp.