Shalini Pandey recalls chilling incident when South director barged into her van while she was changing: ‘This is a girl who has just done her first film…’

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Stating that she has also worked with “horrid and chauvinistic men” in her career, Shalini reportedly said in a chat with Filmygyan, “I don’t come from a film family. Initially, I didn’t have an idea. I am a complete outsider. Having said that, I left my family, and I did not have anyone to go back to. Mere pass hota hi nahi tha to ask how one should be in such situations. Now, when I look back, I am glad I was like that. I was naive, but I had hard boundaries. Like, I would snap.”

Recalling the aforementioned chilling incident she faced on set, she said: “Very early in my career, I was doing a South film, and the director walked into my van. He didn’t knock, and I was changing. He just opened the door and entered. This is a girl who has just done her first film. People usually tell you to be very sweet and not rub people up the wrong way. They’re like, ‘otherwise, you won’t get films’. I had been told all that. As soon as he entered — I wasn’t even thinking, it was just a reaction — I yelled. I absolutely lost my shit. I was 22.”

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Shalini continued: “Once he left, people told me that ‘I shouldn’t have yelled’. But, there have to be manners. Just because I am new, you cannot just enter without knocking. You cannot do that to me. And I realised that was something that I carried with me. I would come across as an angry person to people. But I had to do certain things to protect myself. Later on, I realised how to manipulate such things rather than just snap at people.”

Having made her acting debut in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s controversial Vijay Deverakonda-starrer Arjun Reddy (2017), Shalini returned to Telugu cinema with Nag Ashwin’s Mahanati (2018) after working in the Hindi film Meri Nimmo (2018), which was her sophomore movie. She later appeared in South Indian films such as NTR: Kathanayakudu (2019), 118 (2019) and 100% Kadhal (2019). She was most recently seen in the Bollywood historical drama Maharaj (2024) and the Hindi crime drama streaming series Dabba Cartel (2025). Shalini will next be seen in actor-director Dhanush’s Idly Kadai.