Priyanka's turns scary in Katron Ke Khiladi

She's hardly the dost-host in Rio de Janeiro where the stunts for Khatron Ke Khiladi (Fear Factor) are being shot.

According to news filtering out of the beaches of Copacabana where the first batch of stunts were shot last week with the 13 contestants, hostess Priyanka Chopra was not kidding when she had said she would make the contestants hate her with her instructions. According to at least 2 contestants who spoke from the location, Priyanka has transformed into quite a whip-wielding dictator in the sizzling climes of Brazil. She makes the contestants work relentlessly and hardly provides them with a moment of breather to replenish their energy.

Says one of the exhausted contestants, "She carries not a whip, but a whistle which is as good as whip. The whistle is with her throughout from 7.30 am in the morning till late evening when we pack up. And she uses the whistle to intimidate us like no other woman in our lives has ever intimidated us." In fact the contestants are so fed up of the whistle that they plan to steal it and throw it in the ocean.

But Priyanka is relentless in her adherence to the regime. Says a source from Rio, "Priyanka is determined to prove she can orchestrate the contestant's stunts as effectively as Akshay Kumar in the first two seasons of Fear Factor. She is up at dawn and ready to play hard ball with the contestants by 7.30 am every morning. The stunts start by 8.30 am but not before a very close and careful briefing by the stunt director to make sure no one breaks any bones on location."

Throughout these stunts, Priyanka is as detached dispassionate and ruthlessly professional as a doctor performing an intricate surgery. She does not fraternize with any of the contestants, not even Dino Morea whom she knows well. Says the source, "The only time she loosens up is towards the evening when she seems more relaxed. Otherwise she is so professional, it's scary."

Priyanka says she's doing her job exactly the way she is supposed to. "We are not here for a picnic. It's a tough regimen," she says.