New Delhi: The highly-anticipated Indian version of reality show The Traitors will see Karan Johar play host to 20 contestants. The trailer, which dropped on Thursday, will see ‘Rebel Kid’ Apoorva Mukhija match her wit and cunning with actor Arjun Kapoor’s sister Anshula Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra, Maheep Kapoor from Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, and other celebrities.
The trailer has generated great interest among Indian viewers, who have all started sharing their two cents on social media.
“What is this ameero ka off season Splitsvilla?” wrote one Instagram user under Karan Johar’s post. Another one wrote: “The game we played on school trips and holidays is now basically a reality show.”
People have also started naming their favourite contestants, such as influencer Apoorva Mukhija; others have compared it to the multiplayer online game ‘Among Us’. Johar’s post has garnered over 23,000 likes in five hours, and has 21,700 reshares so far.
The Traitors
The treachery and trickery will unfold at Suryagarh Palace in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The show will stream on Amazon Prime Video starting 12 June, with new episodes every Thursday at 8 pm. The three-minute trailer also features Telugu actress Lakshmi Manchu, and television stars Jannat Zubair, Jasmin Bhasin, and Karan Kundrra.
All the contestants have a spicy backstory. Mukhija’s remarks on Samay Raina’s YouTube show India’s Got Latent with podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia triggered social media outrage and led to multiple FIRs. Uorfi Javed is known for her daring costumes and her own reality TV show, Follow Kar Lo Yaar (2024). The Traitors will also feature fashion commentator Sufi Motiwala, who is represented by Karan Johar’s Dharma Cornerstone Agency (DCA).
They all have a single objective: to win the Rs 1 crore prize money after completing a series of physical and psychological missions. Players marked ‘innocents’ must find and eliminate the ‘traitors’ from among them, who will be secretly chosen at the beginning of the show by host Karan Johar.
The reality show is based on the Dutch series De Verraders (2021), which has iterations in 30 countries. The American version is hosted by Alan Cumming and the British version by Claudia Winkleman.
Game of trust, deception
In the trailer, Karan Johar is dressed head-to-toe in a black, magician-like ensemble. Viewers are privy to snatches of contestants trying to figure out who the traitors are.
In the clip, Uorfi Javed vows to shave her head if found to be a “traitor”, while rapper Raftaar, also a contestant on the show, says that he will “stop rapping”. “Yaha trust is rare, but dhoka everywhere (Trust is rare here, but deception is everywhere),” declares Johar.
Some people, however, have criticised the Bollywood filmmaker for taking up the project. “You’ll do anything at this point to avoid directing a movie…who are you Riri? Wrote one Instagram user. Another one expressed disappointment at the content itself: “Indians are fed up of seeing content like this! With the likes of Karan Johar and others! Same thing, old wine, new bottle. Have some mercy on us and give us good content.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)