Hiding the hurt. Love is Blind season 2 star Abhishek “Shake” Chatterjee is speaking out about his controversial remarks at the reunion — and why he feels like his fellow contestants “cast [him] aside” afterward.
“Did I seem a little like, aggravated at the reunion? I was,” the TV personality, 33, says in Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip from the upcoming debut episode of his podcast, “Life is Blurry” (created in partnership with CitizenofSound).
In the episode, which premieres on Tuesday, April 12, Shake speaks with 90 Day Fiancé alum Stephanie Matto about the ways that reality TV can shape your image, for better or for worse.
“I was so hurt and upset by how everything happened,” he continues. “Everybody [was] just like, ‘Oh you’re the villain. All right, peace, dude. We don’t want to be friends with you.'” Explaining that he had hung out with the cast multiple times before the show premiered on Netflix, Shake says he felt that “the entire cast” was “so, so obsessed with their own image” they didn’t “want to be associated” with him because of how he was portrayed. “That was hurtful to me. And it made me lash out.”
Shake adds: “I mean, I said a lot of accurate, true things. But the way I said it was [as] a man that was hurt and lashing out.”
The veterinarian explains to Us that a lot of that hurt stemmed from the fact that he had been friendly with the rest of the cast until the reunion. “Less than a week before the filming of the reunion, I was watching the Super Bowl with Deepti [Vempati], Shayne [Jansen], Kyle [Abrams] … If you had all these things to say, why don’t you say it to me then?” Shake wonders. “Some people, I was like, ‘I was there for you, man. I was there for you for a lot.’ Like Shayne. I loved him and I felt betrayed.”
The aspiring DJ got engaged to Deepti on Season 2 of Love Is Blind, but repeatedly mentioned that he struggled to develop any physical chemistry with her. Hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey put Shake on blast for prioritizing looks above all when the premise of the show is focused on getting to know someone without knowing anything about their appearance.
“Love is not purely blind to me,” he replied at the time. “I want it to be partially blind. I want it to be: ‘Love Is Blurry,’ OK?”
Though his comment didn’t go over well with the rest of the contestants, it did inspire Shake to create a platform for people he considers to be “misunderstood” like himself to talk about difficult topics. While he couldn’t use the phrase “love is blurry” for his podcast due to “copyright issues,” the reality star chose “Life Is Blurry” because “it actually lends itself nicely because my podcast isn’t just about love.”
“There’s a lot of things that are confusing, unclear, foggy, blurry,” he continues, explaining the inspiration behind the podcast name. “[But] the more you look at them, the more you learn and your opinions change. So to me, this is an opportunity to really talk about not only love, but finances, modern dating … cancel culture, sex work” and more. “Because these are all blurry topics.”
The first episode of “Love Is Blurry” will be available on Apple Podcasts and YouTube on April 12.
