Aug 06, 2026 1:35pm IST
‘Alliance’ Winner Mini Mathur On Avoiding The Gender Card: I Wanted To Win In The Testosterone Club (EXCLUSIVE)
Mini Mathur emerges as the winner of “Alliance,” beating Kushal Tandon, Arslan Goni and Ruhee Dosani in the grand finale. Mathur, known for her gigs on TV as a host, made her debut in the reality TV space with this show. Mathur tells Variety India that she gorged on a plate of Sushi when she reached home after six weeks away from home. She says her family and she sat down dazed on the bed catching up on all the gossip, “I was a bit stunned, dazed because I didn't want the phone. I just sat with the family till daybreak.”
Mathur shares that her husband, filmmaker Kabir Khan, was completely invested in the show, “Kabir was so into the game, and he was watching every single episode. I think my kids were absolutely thrilled. I am sure Kabir is very, very proud because he knows that it wasn't easy to put me in six weeks without sunlight in that studio. I think they now look at me with renewed respect.”
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Talking about her competitors, Mathur opines, “I think Ruhee was very strong. Even Agu Stanley Chiedozie would have been a very worthy competitor because he had brains, strategy and skill. There was Kushal Tandon and Arslan Goni, but Ruhee, Agu and I had a well-rounded approach to the game."
Reflecting on whether new shows like “Alliance” will rob the OG “Bigg Boss” of its sheen, she says, “I don't think 'Alliance' takes the sheen away. I think it gives it a cloak of dignity because you are not sort of grappling in the mud with people over food and kitchen politics and being noticed only because you give the worst abuses and the loudest ones.”
Mathur stresses that variety is the need of the hour, saying, “It's time television and platforms like Prime Video elevated their content. People will enjoy what you give them. If you don't give them better stuff, they will never know it exists. I think viewers also have had enough of just nonsense people talking this common-denominator-level talk. It's time for television and platforms to elevate their content so that we can actually send out good stuff. Shows like 'Alliance' and 'Traitors' actually give us something to think about.”
Mathur stresses she is a feminist and feels one need not play a gender card to be noticed or get opportunities on a platform, “That notion in itself is anti-feminist. I wanted to play this game without a gender card or even an age card. The fact that I am a girl is immaterial to how well I play, and would I feel safer being a part of a power center, a male power center, so that I'm safe and I play under their shadow. For me, being a feminist means I lead my own alliance. I play with the people who I trust. The one thing that I wanted was for everybody to not treat me as somebody who was just good at math and spelling and quizzes and riddles. I wanted to win in their bastion, which means that the whole testosterone club."
Mathur feels happy knowing that the final task also needed a show of physical strength and not just mental skills. She shares, "For me, physical power does not equal power or strength. Strength is sometimes in the mind and your heart. I wanted to fight that stereotype. So, I was hoping and praying that the last week would be about physical games from their bastion so that I could play at their level and defeat them at their own game, not what I was specializing in. And that's exactly what happened.”
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