‘House of Villains’ stars Shake Chatterjee (left) and Jax Taylor.Photo:Matthias Clamer/E! Entertainment (2)
Matthias Clamer/E! Entertainment (2)
Love Is Blindfans rememberShake Chatterjeeas the guy who asked women in the pods whether they work out and if he could lift them. Then, perhaps unsurprisingly, his fiancéeDeepti Vempatileft him at the altar, but Shake didn’t mind because he still had a reservation at Nobu to look forward to.
Now, thanks to hisLove Is Blindreputation, the reality star is seeking redemption on E!‘sHouse of Villains— precisely because he doesn’t actually see himself as a villain.
“I felt misunderstood,” Chatterjee, 36, tells PEOPLE of why he wanted to join the series. “I wanted to win the money, but also a part of it was just showing a different side of myself that didn’t really get shown at all onLove Is Blind.I’m a veterinarian, which is a big part of my life, butLove Is Blindglossed over that empathetic, soft, caring side of me, completely, on purpose, to prove their point. So I’m like, ‘Huh, maybe this villain show will show how nice and wonderful I am.’”
Shake Chatterjee on ‘Love Is Blind’ season 2.Netflix
Netflix
That said, Chatterjee does admit thatHouse of Villains“brought out the villainous side of me in a lot of ways.”
“I won’t say I’m as resistant to the villain title now,” he continues. “To me, it wasn’tHouse of Villains, it wasSchool of Villains. Because I went in there just being myself and I’m like, ‘Oh, wait, no, this isn’t working. I’m going to get destroyed if I just go in there with this attitude.’ I had to learn very quickly from the best villains in the game how to survive in that environment. And through that, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m a villain too,’ when I need to be a villain, anyway.”
Chatterjee confesses he didn’t recognize most of hisHouse of Villainscastmates, who includeThe ChallengestarJohnny “Bananas” Devenanzio(The Challenge),SurvivorlegendJonny Fairplay(Survivor),The BacheloralumCorinne Olympios,The Apprentice’sOmarosa Manigault Newman,Flavor of LovestandoutTiffany “New York” PollardandVanderpump Rules’Jax Taylor.
Shake Chatterjee and Omarosa Manigault Newman on ‘House of Villains’.Casey Durkin/E! Entertainment
Casey Durkin/E! Entertainment
The Netflix star believes that his castmates who came from competition shows, like Devenanzio, 41, and Fairplay, 49, had an advantage when it came to this game.
“They would pick up on things right away,” Chatterjee says. “Things that would have gone completely over my head, they were the first to catch on.”
Fairplay actually helped Chatterjee out a little when it came to the competitive elements of the show.
“Both Bananas and Fairplay were picking up on this stuff, but Fairplay was the one who would fill me in,” Chatterjee says. “Bananas kept some things to himself. He shared them when it was ready, but Fairplay, he was like, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m thankful that at least for now, you and I are buddies.’ Sometimes that changes as the show goes on. You’re friends and then all of a sudden…”
Shake Chatterjee on the ‘Love Is Blind’ season 2 reunion.Adam Rose/Netflix
Adam Rose/Netflix
Such was the case for Chatterjee and 44-year-old Taylor, who — as theHouse of Villainstrailerteased — butted heads throughout the season.
“Things were OK in the very, very beginning,” says Chatterjee, who now lives in Miami and started working as a loan officer in addition to his job as a vet. “But the nature of the show is, we’re competing with each other. This show almost forces you to do some sneaking around and some backstabbing.”
Chatterjee says he and Taylor “were put into a situation where we’re competing pretty early, and I knew I had to get an edge on him, so I did whatever I felt I had to do.”
As a result, “he reacted a certain way,” Chatterjee says of the Bravo star. “Jax and I didn’t get along with very well, but his reputation speaks for itself. It’s going to be very entertaining to watch.”
Tommy Garcia/Bravo
Chatterjee can’t say how the competition played out, but at the end of the day, he feels “honored to be included with these guys.”
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House of Villainspremieres Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on E!
source: people.com
