Alliance winner Mini Mathur: Call me manipulative, but my strategy worked

Mini Mathur may have won Alliance Season 1 without the usual reality-show drama, but her biggest talking point was the strategy that helped her reach the finale. She avoided rigid camps, refused to pick sides and chose to stay neutral, a move that some contestants and viewers perceived as manipulation. Mini, however, believes it was simply a game plan that worked."You can call me manipulative, or you can call that not taking sides, but it was working for me," Mini told India Today in an exclusive chat soon after her win.The first-ever winner of Alliance admitted that she never expected to go this far, especially since she did not fit the typical reality-show mould. "I'm feeling absolutely on top of the game right now. I did not expect to get here, but I had been working on it. I am so glad it happened," she said.Having never participated in a reality show before, Mini admitted that even agreeing to live under 24x7 surveillance was a huge decision. More importantly, she wasn't convinced someone like her could thrive in a space usually dominated by louder personalities. Calling herself a 'bit of a private person', the host-actor said, "Once I was in, I am a very competitive person and my family and my friends who play game nights with me will be testimony to that fact. But I felt I was not the reality-show stereotype. So for me to imagine that I would get all the way till the end was a bit tough. I thought I would survive probably a week, but here I am."Mini added that even as arguments broke out and camps formed around her, she chose not to pick sides. That may have also earned her the tag of being diplomatic, something she doesn't seem too bothered about. Defending herself, the former VJ said, "When you don't take sides and become part of a camp, it's very natural that people will think that you are being wishy-washy, and you are not taking sides. But I don't think it's necessary to take sides. I think it's important to identify what the argument is about. And there are always two sides to an argument. There is no one right and one wrong. So, like some people are playing in black and white. I like to play in the grey, because I don't believe there is one right or wrong." And if people want to call that manipulation, Mini is fine with it. She said with a smile, "You can call me manipulative, or you can call that not taking sides, but it was working for me. Because I would sit with both sides and show them the real side, which really helped. Maybe not for the kalesh in the house, but it did help. People trusted me and asked for my opinion. You may not have seen that on the episode, but they did rely on me."For Mini Mathur, another high was proving herself in the physical tasks. While people expected her to ace quizzes and puzzles, she wanted to beat her younger competitors where they probably least expected it. "So because I am somebody who pays a premium on fitness, I wanted to defeat them even in physical challenges, which I did. For me, the high point was winning the finale in a physical task, because that many would not have expected me to," she added with a smile.Her biggest emotional moment, however, came when husband Kabir Khan and their children entered the show. The reunion gave her the push she needed, but not before completely throwing her off her game. Mini said, "I remember my son saying, 'You are like a Megalodon at home, so you have to show your true colours'. And my daughter told me, you have to win for me. Seeing them there, it left me emotional for a day, because you kind of lose your strength. All those manipulative strategies that you are building in your head, and you see your family, and everything becomes mush. So for 24 hours I was useless, but I picked up soon after."On a final note, Mini said that while she isn't sure whether the victory will tempt her into another reality show, she is clear about what she hopes her Alliance journey represents. "That the stereotype of women over 45, having seen the best in their life, is over. I think it's the era of women power," she signed off.Mini Mathur beat Aly Goni and Ruhee Dosani to take home the trophy and prize money of Rs 50 lakh.- EndsPublished By: shweta keshriPublished On: Aug 6, 2026 14:27 IST