Exclusive: Tanuj Virwani on hosting Splitsvilla 15, says ‘My wife said I should give it a shot, she accompanied me to the shoot’

Tanuj Virwani made his debut on reality show as a host with Splitsvilla 15 alongside Sunny Leone. In an exclusive conversation with ETimes TV, Tanuj spoke in detail about switching acting to hosting duties, how his wife Tanya Jacob convinced him to take up the dating reality show and a lot more.

I saw some of the previous seasons and the entire format of the show, the vibe of the show, thought maybe the things that I could bring to the table. I think it's also an extension of your personality. You're not acting, like when I'm in a movie or I'm on a web series I'm playing a character so I'm a vessel. The writer writes the dialogues the director tells me what I need to do and I'm simply conveying the message over here it's an extension of myself so even though we have a format it's a lot more fluid in nature there's a lot more back and forth there's a lot more scope for improvisation so I thought about it for a couple of days and then I had a chat with my wife as well and she was also of the opinion that I should give it a shot.

She was very very supportive in fact she accompanied me during the shoot briefly and she really had a blast. She's like, 'oh my God this is so much fun', everything, the drama, the fun elements, the love, the banter, the romance, the challenges, the suspense of who's going to get saved this week and who's going to get eliminated so many different things. When this plays on TV, it stretches for over three or four months but when you're shooting it in real time, you're shooting start to finish in a month and it just goes by like it's crazy.

You know, honestly, if you asked me six months back, I would never have even in a million years thought ki yaar mai kisi din host karunga because I don't have any prior experience of hosting. But when the makers got in touch with me and they said, hey, listen, they're seriously considering me to host Splitsvilla 15, I was like, okay, this could be interesting.

I love trying new things and I think that when you're scared, you should totally do it because something cool and unique can be born out of fear as well. Yeah, it drives you. If you haven't tried, then you haven't lived. It's that simple, you know. I'm not saying you will be successful in everything that you do but you should at least give it a shot. I mean, the fact that people who are from the business and who know exactly what they're doing have chosen you. So they obviously have a reason to do so. They don't just wake up one fine day and say, hey, listen, let's just go with Tanuj, you know, like there's so many options out there. So I'm like, let's respect the fact that they chose me and maybe there's a reason why they chose me. And it's time that I became worthy of that reason.

Splitsvilla is a show that is celebrating companionship and love. You know, you may be able to go further, faster alone, but it's always going to be further together. So that's the one thing that all the kids kept getting lessons from both Sunny and me because we are two people who are in love with our respective partners so we are in that phase at that stage of our life you know where we are able to kind of give that advice here.

We had relationships and we had affairs or feelings. You actually learn a lot as you go along and I just feel that these guys have the advantage of youth and they're really wide-eyed and really excited and energetic, but we have the advantage of experience. So I feel it's a give-and-take sort of equation, you know like they provide so much of levity to the show and so much of honesty that they bring to the table because they're the unmitigated selves for better or worse. If they're upset, angry, happy, sad, joyful, it's all real emotions. And in return, because we know that a really wide audience is going to be watching the show.

When it reruns and everything that we want them to give a good account of themselves. So sometimes we would take them in the corner and be like, ‘Hey, listen, you know, it's still a show’. You need to keep in mind that there are 200 people on this set; it's the way you conduct yourself. I'm not saying don't be yourself. I'm not saying be fake. Don’t let your heart blind your better judgment you know. The one advice I would give all the contestants is you have to strike the right balance between heart and mind. And only then will you go far in the show otherwise it's a pretty hardcore format, you know.