Xtreme Vogue Mumbai Desk: Komal Qureshi
Bollywood celebrities have often complained about reality shows not being real enough. Sonu Nigam, former judge of Indian Idol, accused the series of using auto-tunes to improve their contestants’ performances. The current judge, Neha Kakkar, has often faced the heat for crying too much on the show. Now, the former host of the series, Mini Mathur, recently spilled secrets about Indian Idol and what made her quit the show.
The actress-model started her career in showbiz as a television host. She gained recognition by hosting several MTV shows and concerts. Mini became one of the most popular presenters in the 2000s. Mini appeared on several mainstream reality TV shows like Jhalak Dikhlaja, KBC, and Kaun Banega Crorepati.
Mini Mathur hosted Indian Idol for six seasons. She was the first host of the show, along with Aman Verma. The actress shared a great rapport with the contestants as well as with the judges, Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal and more. It was pretty upsetting for the viewers when the host did not reprise her role in Indian Idol season 7. While talking to Cyrus Broacha on his podcast called On Cyrus Says, Mini shared her reason for quitting the show.
The host shared a great equation with the contestants and said, “I was truly invested in every single person. Even when the cameras stopped rolling, I didn’t drop my smile. They would come to my house for dinner, I would sit with them for hours.” Sadly, Mini Mathur did not share the same bond with the makers of the show. As per DNA, while talking about them, she said, “I called it quits only when I realized that now, there is no longer a real reality. I did six seasons. After that, it was just a question of making money, but by then, the husband had started making money… But I really didn’t appreciate that reality had become constructed.”
She shared an anecdote when she was asked to ‘create a moment’ between Dharmendra and Hema Malini. Mini said, “Moment karte hain ke hota hai? Can you leave it to my experience to create something which will move them, maybe?’ This is not something I’m going to do, and of course, it wasn’t just Idol, I did a lot of stuff after that. And it all had the same chhaapa.”
On the work front, Mini Mathur was recently seen in Mind The Malhotras, a family dramedy.
