Mini Mathur: 'For me, the excitement is to create, write and direct a film'

Host and actress Mini Mathur has been garnering appreciation and praises for her portrayal of Shefali Mathur in Amazon Prime Video's recently released Mind The Malhotras season 2. As the talented beauty has been winning the hearts for her impeccable portrayal, in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Mini shared how she shot the show during the pandemic and how it initiated a discussion of modern issues among the audience. Excerpts from the interview:

While having a conversation with Cyrus, he revealed that many OTT lovers messaged him about the second season. Did it happen with you as well?

Yes, I've also got a lot of queries. But for me, it's not just now for the entire year, the past year, I have been even when we were shooting the series, a lot of MTM fans were like can't wait for it. We binged all the 10 episodes together, so when is it coming?

With first season being such a big hit was there any pressure or responsibility when you started shooting for the second season?

Well obviously, when something hits the mark so well, you want to not just replicate the goodwill or the good content, you want a better it for sure. I mean we didn't work under pressure of that. But we wanted to give the viewers. Obviously, you also know there's nothing quite like this on any platform that exists at the moment like something that revolves around an urban modern family. Something that all of us together can sit and see. Something that doesn't have children's profile pe alag, parents profile pe alag. Nowadays, we're constantly looking for. And as a parent, I can tell you, we continue looking for shows and films that we can watch together as a family. So, it is unique in that sense and we wanted to take it a few notches higher which we have hopefully not only in terms of content and storyline but also in terms of we've tried to do it in our performances as well. So, we feel that it is a new and improved version of the show and I hope that MTM fans also feel the same way.

Despite being a comedy the first season resonated with the target audience. So, was it an additional responsibility for you to keep the essence intact for MTM 2?

Absolutely, I mean, I don't think any show that can resonate with you was if it does not connect or see something or say something socially relevant going to connect with you in a socially relevant way. So while the relationships are spoke to a lot of the audience thing or, you know, my mom is just like that, or my kids are just like that. And oh my God, my husband behaves the same way. And should I be seeing a therapist? We also had a social commentary. We had issues that we took up last time which people don't really dwell on, but they are omnipresent in every relationship. And for example, just take therapy for a change, okay? Everyone talks about therapy like arere. She's in therapy as if something crazy wrong with their marriage or they're about to divorce. But we bought it out in the open and we bit of sort of normalized the fact that it's okay to seek a therapist not to solve or sort a broken marriage but to prevent a marriage from going down the wrong path. And even in this season, we have taken a lot of issues into consideration. Some issues that teenagers of the three kids Gia, Dia and Yohan what issues faced them. We've taken environmental concerns. We've taken by curiosity a lot of different aspects of the social class the show represents into account. And yes, that makes it a very wholesome show where you're not just watching somebody crack up and say funny things but also tell you things that are reflective of what's happening in society today.

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When you were approached for the season, you said yes because of its entertaining plot or subject which initiates an important subject in society?

I like the fact that it did both. See, there is nothing that you can put out for the audience if it's not entertaining. So for it to be entertaining is an absolute must. Whether it's a show or it's a film. If your film is not entertaining, nobody is going to watch your social values that you want to talk about. So, the point is to say relevant things, but package it in a entertaining way and that's what I thought the show did in the first season and continues to do in the second season as well.

What is the common trait between Shefali and Mini?

One of the things that appeal to me greatly when I was offered Shefali Malhotra as the lead was that she was so relatable to me. I'm also somebody, who doesn't look at parenting in a very conventional, sort of maternal way. Kabir and I still feel like we are raising little cousins and they live in our house and we're just showing them the right path and we've grown up literally with them and it's the same case with Rishabh and Shefali. So I found her very relatable. I found that she was just me on some hyper steroids. She was some me to raised to the power of 10. So how I would look at the situation, she would do that but she would just you know make it more quirky and more politically incorrect and she would just say it like it is which is also a lot of what I am like. So I thought it was easy to play. I must admit that I thought it would be easier to play somebody I connected with so well at an elementary level. I connected with Shefali, I just could understand when it's so much easier to portray a character especially in comedy when you can get under her skin. So today, when I'm on set, I am Shefali. People refer to me as Shefali and I react as Shefali. So everything is a hyperbole, everything is over the top and not over-the-top stupid way but in the over-the-top way that sometimes all of us tend to react, when we get out of control.

Were you concerned or stressed to shoot the show during the pandemic?

It is so difficult to shoot during the pandemic. I mean don't just ask me and I have literally shot a lot of shows that I do ka second season. A show that Cyrus and I do for Discovery in the middle of COVID. And Mind the Malhotra's we shot, yes, when the fear was very much there and because we are doing comedy, which is so much about communication and it's so much about how you feel on the set, the mood, it was difficult to constantly aap socho we're sitting in makeup and I have to remove my mask to get my makeup done where it again, then you walk to the set everyone had on set immediately has to mask up. Everybody has to be vaccinated. Thankfully, all of us pass without a major incident but that's because we had to be super careful. And yes it did make the effort of shooting very very exhausting. But you will never make out on the shoot.

When you are a host, you have a different kind of aura and when you're an actor you're altogether a different person. How you switch between these two characters?

That's a nice question. Actually, the thing is that as a TV host you have to be a hyper-real and a very aware and witty version, spontaneous version of yourself. Which means at that point you rely upon your how much you read and how much education you have and your background to really bring that energy on stage. As an actor you have to be a lot more controlled, you cannot take flights of fancy that are not a part of the character you're playing. So you can't really think as you. You have to think as Shefali. So, I had to literally thing would Shefali do this and I would get into extensive arguments with Sahil (Sangha the director) as well. Saying woh badam nahi khayegi woh kaji khayegi like it was that. So, that way it was the first time I was learning how to rein in a performance because as a host I go there and I give it. I just belt it out. I gave it my all I say what I feel. I move the way I feel like, you know, I wear what I want to and here, you had to stay within the parameters of Shefali. Even though she was very relatable, I had to think like Shefali. So people find it therefore so much more difficult to separate Mini and Shefali now. Because I was literally like, only Shefali on set.

How do you sum up your journey in the entertainment industry?

But I still hope that the really nice part of the journey is still left. All I can say is that I am very proud that I've stayed in it for over 20, 25 years without having people not wanting to see me. So, I've managed to a certain longevity, where people still are interested in what I have to see if we're and what I have to play. I think that's a success. I have really no complaints and I would say it's I have been fortunate enough to be at the flux of when we were moving on from Doordarshan to television and cable network, just arrived when Zee TV just happened, Star TV happen. Then when Music Television became such a big thing, then I was at the cusp of when we discovered travel shows. Shows on beauty, game shows in and then singing reality shows that it India's probably the first reality show, Indian Idol. So, India's first travel show, Namaste India, Indian holiday. All of these, I've been very, very lucky to have been riding the top of the wave. And so I'm hoping that now that OTT platforms like Amazon have so many varied characters, it's a good time to be an actor as well, where you're not going to be expected to payrolls. Play roles, which only stereotypes and which put you in a corner, but they have so many different aspects of women, playing characters in shows. So I think I've managed to stay clear from the downside and stay right on top of the waves.

Being a filmmaker's wife have you ever thought of directing a film or a show?

I have. So I have to tell you behind the camera, is something that is been dangling on my head for along time. And everybody asks me this, that I thought you were gonna ask me a very predictable question. I thought you were going to ask me why aren't you in Kabir's films. My answer to that would be very different because we keep our workspaces very different, and the last thing I would do is act in my husband's film so that the janta can say, oh, ho aap toh director ki biwi ho toh aap iss role mein ho. So that is something I want to stay clear of. As far as now that I've spent a large part of my life. In an industry, seeing it from a back of the camera lens, because our house is always almost full of our friends, who are directors, who are writers, who are performers. So I see a lot. For me, the excitement is to create, write and direct a film. It wouldn't be to people expect, ki acha aap produce kijiye ki you have great network and everybody why don't you produce a film? That's not where the game lies for me. For me eventually, the goal would be to direct something. I can't say what. But in the near future, I would definitely like to create something. Whether it's a film or a show, whatever. I will, I'm on it.

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