Splitsvilla season 7: A whole lotta hot stuff, girls in tears and a brand new king

It's episode 17 of MTV Splitsvilla and as we judder towards the end of the season, there is now a new Queen: Israel's Dana Vana, aka the lady whose foundation doesn’t match her skin tone. Last week, the first order of business for Queen Dana was to dump Mayank Pawar aka Mr Asia. The obviously upset Mayank, who said to Dana, “You hurted me emotionally.”Emotional atyachar aside, episode 17 was all about getting a new king. In true Splitsvilla style, the process for getting a new king was long, complicated and frankly a bit of a drag. Here’s what happened.First, the girls woke up to gifts, presumably from the show’s sponsors. Sadly, it seems all Tissot had for the girls were caps, which is a bit of a shame. We didn’t see any watches, so we’re guessing the sponsors weren't feeling too generous. There were also gifts from ManForce, but nobody was keen on revealing the contents in those bags.Once that was over, the girls had to unanimously choose a name to be a contender for King. It’s pretty stupid for the producers to even have this condition in the first place since everyone knows there are two groups in the villa and it's no surprise which names were selected. The Abhishek group, led by former Queen Khushi, Scarlett (who insists she is Abhishek’s sister) and Ranji (who is basically still there to fill quorum) nominated Abhishek. The other group is the Mayank Gandhi/King Shravan section, comprising Rashi (who is Mayank Gandhi’s someone special), Apoorva (who likes Shravan) and Priyanka who was betrayed by Abhishek when he plotted to get her "connection" Ayaz out of the show.As usual, the girls were unable to come to a decision, but went ahead and put their chosen names in the box. Meanwhile, taking a leaf out of Emotional Atyachar’s book, Shravan got to listen in on the girls' conversation. If this isn’t creepy, we don’t know what is. Ultimately, Shravan had to choose one partner based on the conversation he heard.Sadly for Shravan, Khushi needled Apoorva about how she wasn’t really interested in Shravan in the first place and hinted that she was just using him because he was king. While Apoorva went with "No comments" as his response, Shravan got pissed.[caption id="attachment_1744091" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Screenshot from MTV Splitsvilla.[/caption]All of this Hindi TV-serial style behaviour was followed by a Splitsvilla task. Shravan declared that for the next task, he’ll partner with Priyanka. Everyone was shocked by this (including Priyanka herself) and now Apoorva was clearly pissed. Shravan said he did this because Apoorva did not toe the group's line by saving Yasir in the last episode.So now for the King’s task.All three remaining boys (Abhishek, Yasir and Mayank Gandhi) were asked to pair up with a girl. The task: each boy would be asked a personal question about the girl and if they got it wrong, then the girl would have to eat a red chilli. The partner of the one who lasts this chilli-flavoured hell would win and compete against Shravan.By the way, it turns out that despite Khushi’s undying support, Abhishek doesn’t think they have any chemistry between them. So much for connections and love. Also as an advantage, Khushi can have two tablespoons of honey.The game begins with idiotic questions like whether the girl prefers briefs or boxers (only Apoorva prefers briefs), what age she had her first kiss (Apoorva again wins with the dubious distinction of kissing at 14) and other personal details of the contestants that not even the boys could remember.Mayank Gandhi walked out mid-way because he couldn't bear to watch Rashi crying thanks to all the chillies she had to eat. Apoorva also quit because she gobbled too many chillies since her partner Yasir seemed to know next to nothing. So Abhishek was left as the king’s contender.This was followed by Splitsvilla in its full glory. Shravan and Abhishek would now have to go through a obstacle course which comprises of a trench, logs in uneven shapes, a weighing beam aka taarazu, steps which led to a huge duffle bag that hid a key and back down again to unlock the King’s title by placing the key into a bizarre chest-like object.In the taarazu, the two girls that each boy had chosen were made to sit on each side. A little above them was a dagger. The boys had to carry logs from the start of the obstacle course and place them on the other side of the weighing beam to help their partner get the dagger. The dagger would help cut the duffle bag.Can you guess who won? Is your spine tingling with anticipation?As the task wore on, it seemed as though Abhishek would lose, especially since it looked like he was more worried about his T-shirt in the trench than the result of this challenge. But MTV, it appears, had decided enough was enough and Mad King Shravan finally lost. Mostly because Khushi was able to grab the dagger quicker than Priyanka.So all hail Abhishek, the new king of Splitsvilla.In case you thought that this brings the drama and the season to a close, think again. Next episode: A Shravan and Apoorva fight.Splitsvilla airs on on Saturday 7 PM on MTVDisclaimer: Splitsvilla airs on MTV India, which is part of Viacom 18, a joint venture between Network 18 India and Viacom Inc. Firstpost is published by the Network 18 Group.