Actress Mini Mathur won Amazon Prime Video’s captive reality show Alliance on Thursday. After taking home the trophy and Rs 50 lakh prize money from the Kunal Kemmu-hosted show, Mini spoke to SCREEN about her victory. She said she hopes her win encourages makers to move beyond stereotypes about who can succeed on reality shows. Mini also opened up about the ageism and sexism she encountered during her journey on the show.
Mini Mathur on winning Alliance
Talking about her victory, Mini Mathur said, “It feels absolutely amazing, feels like a dream. Day one, I didn’t feel this would even be a possibility, because I was just struggling with the idea of whether I would be able to stay in captivity for that long. I am not the reality show type; for me it was just a question of survival in the first week. As the weeks rolled along, I started enjoying the game and focused on things that excited me about Alliance and that helped me.”
Mini Mathur also addressed the criticism and assumptions surrounding her gameplay, particularly the perception that her strategy was driven by longtime friend Nikhil Chinappa. She said, “I am glad that I have proved them wrong by walking out with the trophy after six weeks. If they think Nikhil was the only thing that was driving me, I don’t know how I survived the final weeks without him. The reason I dodged this question on the show was because it is a silly assumption. We are an alliance. We are friends for 25 years and had each other’s back. We played the game for 24 hours, and you guys saw 50 minutes of it. What makes it to the edit may be some statements where it looks like he is giving me the moves, whereas there were so many instances when I did that. I don’t see the need to dignify or pull somebody else down. We are friends and are going to help each other out. The fact that he left in week 4 and I played the game on my own is proof that I just didn’t survive; I won.”
View this post on Instagram
Mini Mathur on ageism and sexism that existed on Alliance
Speaking about the ageism she witnessed on the show, Mini Mathur reflected on competing alongside contestants decades younger than her. Mini said, “I am the mother of a Gen Z. One of the things that was bothering me was, I am a woman in her 50s; there are 23-year-olds who are gamers, live streamers who entirely exist on social media. Social media is a small extension of the real work on the ground that I have done all my life, so there was a big disparity in the kind of worlds we have come from. My entire question was how I would survive with these people. You will be amazed at how much your neuroplasticity comes in when you don’t have your phone. You get interested in conversations and people.”
She added, “I have learned so much from people like Vanshaj and Payal. I spent my time understanding what they do. Now I plan to do live streaming with them. There was a certain amount of ageism that came in the beginning where they thought that a stereotypical 50-plus person, or the one who will get into fights, will only last for a week. The real conversation is in the arena where I defeat you, and all that chatter stopped then. Also, I am an MBA and a post graduate, so it was expected of me to know the quiz questions. I was very sure that I wanted to play the physical game with the big brawns and the fitness enthusiasts. Defeating them on their home turf was the big win for me. I enjoyed it. This was more of a competition with me to see if I still have it as a woman in her 50s.”
View this post on Instagram
Talking about the patriarchy on the show, Mini Mathur said she hated it and added, “We underestimate people who are beyond a certain age and gender. I hated the male dominance on the show. The worst part of a week for me was where we had to make new alliances, and I would see all the boys would go into little holes and decide to play with each other and choose one of us. I would just hate it. Never in the show would you have seen me walking up to anyone to say that I wanted to play with them. I was sure what I brought to the table, and I was like, whoever wants to play with me, come to me. I never left my team. I was in the Legends from day 1 to 42. It rankled me that the boys got to pick the girls. I wanted to be the girl that picked the boys, and I did that.”
Mini Mathur on Sohail Khan’s presence on Alliance and Salman Khan’s appearance
Lastly, Mini Mathur reflected on Sohail Khan’s stint on Alliance, saying his impact extended far beyond the challenges. Mini said, “The show was about 2 things – the challenges and games, and the alliance or politics that happened in the headquarters. Unfortunately, Sohail bhai was feeling under the weather most of the time. So in the arena, if he was on your team, people would be like he may not be well enough to play, but at home, he was lovely. His energy would be calm. Because of him so many people would not want to say the things they wanted to. He would have a chat with the girls. He was soft spoken. He is Sohail Khan. We know what he is made of. If he were in his element, he would rip every one apart.”
View this post on Instagram
“He was just a good energy around the house, and Salman bhai coming was amazing for him. He felt reinforced to last till the finale; otherwise, he wanted to get out,” she added.
Mini Mathur defeated Aly Goni and Ruhee Dosani to lift the Alliance trophy
Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
