Mini Mathur, one of Indian television’s most beloved hosts and wife of filmmaker Kabir Khan, has finally broken her silence on why she exited Indian Idol, the show that made her a household name across the country. In a recent interview, Mini shared that the real turning point came during her pregnancy in Season 4.According to the Indian Idol veteran, it wasn’t her decision to step away from the show, the makers had other plans. “I didn’t get bored with Indian Idol,” she clarified while speaking to Vickey Lalwani. “They changed the hosts after Season 6. But during Season 4, when I was expecting my daughter, they said, ‘I don’t think Indian audiences are ready to have a pregnant host.’ That really hurt.”‘I just felt very, very upset. So what if I’m pregnant?’Mini, who hosted the show alongside Hussain Kuwajerwala across several seasons, was disappointed by the channel’s perception of audience readiness. “My identity was linked with Indian Idol,” she said, explaining how deeply the show was woven into her professional image. “I was very popular as their host. And internationally, there are pregnant women hosting shows — Project Runway, for one. So why not here?”She did return to the show for Season 6, but that would be her last stint. “Season 6 was my last season,” Mini confirmed. “I hadn’t decided to not go further. They just changed the hosts, and that was that. And I was okay with that.”‘The moment you ask me to engineer emotion, I’m out’While the pregnancy experience left a mark, Mini revealed another shift that made her rethink her place in reality television. She spoke about the increasing pressure to script emotional content, something that clashed with her core values as a presenter.“Somebody just said ‘create’ — there were two actors, maybe Dharam ji and someone else, and they asked me to recreate a moment,” she recalled. “But when we started Indian Idol Season 1, there was no such thing as moments. Moments got created because we were real.”
For Mini, that line between authenticity and fabrication was not one she was willing to cross. “The moment you ask me to engineer an emotion and pretend like it just happened, I’m out of it. Because I want to be real. I can’t be an actor on a reality show.”Over time, Mathur felt that several reality shows began to follow a formula, one that prioritised manufactured breakdowns and emotional hooks over genuine storytelling. “I found that very manipulative,” she admitted. “Why did Indian Idol Season 1, 2, and 3 do so well? Because we were being real. These were real people. Real tears.”
