Mandira Bedi says she was ignored by cricket legends while hosting World Cup: 'Would put my head down and cry'

Mandira Bedi has spent almost three decades in film and television as an actor and host. Apart from being a part of popular movies and shows, she has also participated in panel discussions for the cricket World Cup. In a recent interview with Humans of Bombay, Mandira narrated how she was ignored by cricket legends while hosting the World Cup. (Also read: Anup Soni shares rare pic with Mandira Bedi from Shanti sets, fans react)

Mandira Bedi shares miserable experience as TV host

The actor, while recalling her debut as the only woman on the cricket panel told, “It was not easy, because they had never had a woman sitting on the panel. So, the legends sitting on the left and the right, they weren’t particularly excited about having a woman on the panel. I would ask a question, some of my questions were really silly, irrelevant, stupid, but my brief was, ‘You ask the questions that come to your mind. Whatever you have in your mind, it’s not off the table, go ahead and ask’. So, if I have those questions in my mind, then somebody at home has got similar questions in their mind. I am not supposed to represent the purist, I am supposed to represent the common person.” 

She further said, “I would put my head down and I would cry , and people sitting on my left and right would say, ‘I will just go and get some coffee. Would you like some coffee?’ and just leave. I was just miserable and nobody said anything to me for the first one week. I was stuttering and stumbling and I was nervous, and I was not getting any support from anywhere. I had a co-host. His questions were acknowledged.”

Mandira Bedi's acting career

Madira made her acting debut with the television show Shanti (1994-1998). Her first Bollywood film was Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in lead roles. She later featured in films like Shaadi Ka Laddoo (2004), Dus Kahaniyaan (2007), Ittefaq (2017), Vodka Diaries (2018), The Tashkent Files (2019) and Saaho (2019). 

Mandira was last seen in The Railway Men (2023), featuring KK Menon, Babil Khan, R Madhavan, Boman Irani and Divyendu Sharma.