Mini Mathur reveals she lost Indian Idol season 5 hosting gig after she revealed her pregnancy: ‘I felt very let down’

Mini Mathur shared how she did not understand how her pregnancy would become an issue, and shared that she said no when she was approached again.

Mini Mathur emerged as the winner of the reality show Alliance, which aired on Amazon Prime Video. An Indian television host and actor and wife to Kabir Khan, popular Indian film director and screenwriter, Mini has been working in the industry for decades. In an interview with Hauterrfly on their latest episode on The Male Feminist, Mini recalled how there were instances in her career when pregnancy affected her professional opportunities.

Mini Mathur talks about hosting shows years ago.

What Mini shared

Mini revealed that she was told to let go off the gig of Indian Idol host after she revealed that she is pregnant with her second child. Mini said, “When I was expecting Sairah, which was after the fourth season of Indian Idol, and I told the team as they were going to start Season 5, that I am pregnant and I am going to be fine during the auditions but by the time we are doing the finale episodes I will be showing. So I was told to not do the season on my face. Reason? Indian audiences will not be able to accept a pregnant host.”

'I was called back for Season 6 but said no'

She concluded, “I felt very let down, with the fact that these people are not even able to see what is happening in the world. I was called back for Season 6 but by that time my heart was not on the same page. I told that I do not want to be do thar.”

Mini Mathur began her television career with Tol Mol Ke Bol with R Madhavan, before becoming an MTV VJ for many years. She became a household name with her stint in the singing reality show Indian Idol. She has since worked across television, streaming and films, including the series Mind the Malhotras.

How Mini and Kabir met?

Mini and Kabir have been married for 28 years. Speaking about how they met each other, Kabir had told Neha Dhupia on her show No Filter Neha, “Mini and I have actually, made a conscious decision of not really working together because we are both from similar fields, but we said that okay let’s keep our professions apart. But having said that we have shot together, we met on a shoot. There was a channel called Home TV and they were doing this very big show at that point in time where the first prize for that show was like a flat in Bombay and that’s how we met. I was a freelance camera person and Mini was a presenter and actually, we both went to the production house office to say that we might not be able to do the show because we both had date issues. We didn’t know about each other’s date issues, we met for the first time in that office, in that meeting, and in the course of that meeting our date issues sort of disappeared and we decided that we do want to do this show and that was fun because they made us travel all over India together and we got to know each other in the course of that journey and that’s how it started.”