Actress Mini Mathur recently took a trip down the memory lane and shared a series of photos on social media from her debut as a TV host on the game show Tol Mol Ke Bol. The nostalgic post features Madhavan. In the picture, Mini Mathur and her co-host R Madhavan can be seen filming for the show. While Mini is seen sporting a saree, R Madhavan is dressed in a maroon kurta. Reflecting on her journey, Mini recalled how she landed the hosting role. She shared she was fresh out of MBA school while working part-time as a model.
Captioning the post on Instagram, Mini Mathur wrote, "January 1995. My first day on a TV set as a TV host. And the story goes like this. I was a fresh-off-the-boat MBA, working with J Walter Thompson. I used to model part-time those days and Doordarshan had just moved over to Zee TV, India's first satellite channel. One day, out of the blue.. the now legendary Sanjay K Roy called me in to audition for one of India's first game shows - Tol Mol Ke Bol.
Mini Mathur added, "The first season had made Rituraj K Singh(RIP) wildly popular and he was moving to films. They needed new hosts and here I was.. in my lame office salwar kameez and permed hair. I didn't think I would get picked and I had that “fresh postgraduate” wala confidence so I wasn't nervous one bit. But from the moment he called action, I felt at ease. The camera was my friend, it never intimidated me. I could chat with it, not talk at it. I was home." For the unversed, Rituraj K Singh rose to fame with his stint in the show Tol Mol Ke Bol. He died of cardiac arrest on February 20 this year.
"My co-host was to be this new, cute boy from Jamshedpur Madhavan (we all know how that story went) And together we travelled the length of India making people guess the right price of things to win them. The most popular round was when contestants had to guess the price of the saree I wore in each episode. My look was dictated by what the sponsor gave for that week and if my mother's jewellery matched it! And my young happy skin needed no make-up," Mini Mathur wrote.
Opening up about the show, Mini Mathur wrote, "TMKB was a great learning ground… I learnt how to modulate my voice, how to handle fans and compliments, how to catch my light, and signed my first autograph … to be on TV those days were a big deal! Sanjoy and Mohit are great foodies so in every city we shot in, they took us to the best local restaurants.. I learnt so much about life from both of them. So I quit advertising and moved on to be a full-time TV host. And boy do I have some Mad stories! Want more?
On the professional front, Mini Mathur has appeared in several shows and films including Mind The Malhotras, Dil Vil Pyar Vyar, The Storytellers In The Living Room, Khwaish, Yeh Crazy Dil and I, Me And Main among others.