Anshula Kapoor’s recent stint on The Traitors turned out to be far from what she expected. While viewers tuned in for the usual twists and drama, Anshula’s experience behind the scenes was darker, lonelier, and emotionally bruising.
When Anshula first signed the dotted line, she believed the show was going to be an intelligent, mind-challenging game. The makers had pitched it as a sharp, strategy-based format. But once she stepped into the game, reality hit differently. It began to feel like another extension of Bigg Boss, where survival often meant emotional manipulation and calculated taunts.
One aspect that seemed to rattle other contestants was Anshula’s bond with her aunt, Maheep Kapoor. Both entered the show as family, and though others had previous connections too, their relationship drew attention. She said, “Honestly, it was very comforting on the first day, but then we started picking up that everybody else was extremely uncomfortable that we knew each other from before.”
Realizing the friction it was causing, they consciously decided to widen their social circle within the house. Anshula explained how both she and Maheep tried to be as transparent as possible, reminding themselves it was a game and not worth risking real-life bonds. She credited Maheep for staying level-headed throughout. “Whatever happens here is not going out of here,” Maheep had told her.
However, nothing could fully shield her from the growing unease. Being a Kapoor came with its baggage inside the house. Anshula revealed that she was constantly judged for her background, her surname, and the privilege associated with it. She claimed, “I don’t deny that I come from privilege, and also, I am not the only person on that show with a certain amount of privilege.” She added that some contestants deliberately tried to poke at her vulnerabilities to unsettle her.
The mental strain built up steadily. What started as strategic mind games gradually dug up old, painful memories. Anshula confessed the last mission in the game triggered a personal trauma. She described it as mentally exhausting and said that although a psychologist was present on set, the help she needed never truly reached her. She recalled, “I was mentally done by then; the negativity was getting to me. It was psychologically bullsh* and I didn’t want to subject myself to this.”*
After the show, Anshula sought professional help immediately. She admitted to returning to intensive therapy sessions because the environment and conversations inside the house reopened emotional wounds she wasn’t prepared to face. It wasn’t about sympathy, she clarified, but about acknowledging how deeply unsettling the entire experience had been.
She shared how the ordeal affected not just her but those close to her. Her brother Arjun Kapoor, partner, and siblings stood firmly by her side. Maheep, having exited earlier, gave Arjun an insight into the state of the house and its suffocating atmosphere. It helped him understand where Anshula was mentally when she returned.
What left her even more shaken was a medical diagnosis she hadn’t anticipated. “I did a psychological test after the show, and I was diagnosed with PTSD,” she revealed. The production team had run mental health checks before confirming participants, and there had been no signs of this then. The fact that she developed it afterward, purely because of the show’s environment, left her questioning the cost of reality television fame. She firmly stated, “That’s not something you sign up for, and no amount of money should be okay to give you that kind of mental health triggers.”
Anshula’s story peels back the glittery surface of reality shows, exposing the damage it can cause beneath the entertainment.
