Reality show alum Shalini Passi was recently in Mumbai, a city she has long known but sees differently with every visit. From reality television and her work in the creative space to writing, acting and navigating newfound public attention, Passi’s life has expanded considerably over the last two years. She speaks about Mumbai, the people she has known for years, and how she wants to play herself on screen, if at all she chooses to act.

On what keeps bringing her back to Mumbai, Passi says the city’s biggest appeal is its ability to let people be themselves. “Mumbai doesn’t care and I like that. It is very accepting. It’s a place where your dreams come true if you work hard enough,” she says.

While reality television has put her in front of a wider audience, Passi has briefly explored acting. She has auditioned for a couple of projects and will appear in a small part in a Madhur Bhandarkar film but says she is not interested in playing a character simply for the sake of acting. “I’m not an actor. I don’t want to play some other character. I want to play me,” she shares.

Passi has known Shah Rukh Khan for years and the families have been friends. “I only got to know them when I got engaged. He loves his craft and there’s nobody more obsessive about his cinema than him. He loves reading and he’s a great learner. If you tell him something, the next day, he would have learned everything about that topic. He’s a great friend. Anybody who’s worked with him is just in awe of him,” she says.

Passi, who is 50, opens up about beauty and ageing. She says she experimented with fillers and Botox during the pandemic but did not like the result. “I tried it during the pandemic, but I found my face looking not like myself. I didn’t like the way it looked. Today, everybody looks the same. I want to look like me. I want to look like a better version of myself. I don’t want to look like somebody or like a person in Dubai,” she explains.

Passi has also known Aryan Khan since he was a child and worked with him on The Ba***ds Of Bollywood. She recalls that he made her sing Mitwa for the series, though the portion was eventually cut.

She says, “It was wonderful to see him grow up and now on the sets. He’s absolutely obsessive about his work and you know that the way he’s written the show. The show is so him — his kind of humour and the twist. Nobody could have thought of it. He is extremely intelligent. He never wanted to be in front of the camera, but I thought that would change. But even now he doesn’t want to be in front of the camera. Now I’ve asked him for a bigger role in the second season of The Ba***ds Of Bollywood.”