Mandira Bedi recalls feeling ‘disrespected, excluded’ when she became a cricket presenter; says she was called ‘bimbo, dummy’ | Bollywood News

Mandira Bedi became a trailblazer when she stepped into the role of a cricket presenter, challenging long-standing norms in a male-dominated space, back in 2003. Her presence on television changed the landscape of sports broadcasting and she is still remembered for her poise and ability to discuss the basics of the game during cricket panels. But the path was far from easy. In a recent interview with Zoom, she spoke candidly about the challenges she faced when she first entered the field. The scrutiny, she recalled, was intense, and the environment was often unwelcoming.
“It was hard to begin with because, you know, when you’re the first person who does something that is different, you are under a lot of scrutiny. So people will, you know, judge you. People will have things to say about you. People will dislike you. People will have an opinion. People will like you. People will hate you. It’s going to be a mixed bag.” She explained that despite the tough start, encouragement from the internal broadcasting team helped her reframe her approach. “The thing is, you’ve got to hang in there. And I had a long enough tournament. The first week was a disaster. There was an intervention and they sat me down and said, Len, no pressure on you. We’ve auditioned a thousand women to get to you, so we know you have it in you.” This conversation helped her shift perspective.
“Honestly, it was like a switch in my brain. Heaven and hell is in your head. You flip that switch and from everything being a disaster, everything just became, ‘Wow, who gets a chance to do this? How amazing is this?… No questions are off the table, so just feel into it and feel good about it’.” That change in mindset transformed the rest of the tournament. Slowly, opinions began to shift, both on the panel and among viewers. “I managed to change a few people’s minds about me. It was such a lovely sort of learning curve. the time I came back, people who had seen me up until then on TV shows as characters now knew me as Mandira. They knew me my name. Because when you’re a host, when you’re an anchor, people know you your name. And that’s what changed.”
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The shift wasn’t just on screen. After returning from the tournament in South Africa, Mandira saw a marked change in how the public perceived her. “I scheduled four or five interviews every day, because suddenly everybody wanted to know about me and know about me as the person… I came back to a different India… people were interested in my life and what I do and how I live and who I am.” Looking back, she believes the pressure hadn’t only come from outside. According to her, resance came from some of her own colleagues on the panel. “The judgment actually came from the people who were on the panel. They were not very accepting of me. So that’s when I… if I asked a question, they’d just stare me down and talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. And I’d be left like, you know, do I even ex here? I did feel very disrespected, and I didn’t like the way I was… I felt very excluded.” But after the intervention, she stopped holding herself back. “I said, I’m here to stay. They’ve taken the pressure off me. Nothing’s off the table. So I would ask whatever it is I wanted to ask. And it being live television, if they didn’t answer, I’d ask it again. Eventually, they had no choice but to len, even if they didn’t respect me as a person, they had to show some respect on screen.”
She recalls that with time, the dynamic improved. Acceptance grew, and with it, the tone of the broadcast evolved. “Eventually, they realized she’s not going to back off… And soon, everybody came on board and accepted me… Towards the end of it, it was just so much fun. We were all, you know, we’d have a few laughs. And you know, when you see a panel that’s having fun, the audience sitting at home also has fun.” The criticism, though, wasn’t limited to the studio. Online backlash was intense. The network made a conscious decision to shield her from it in the early days. “They just said, stay away from it for a little while… And only when I found my feet and I was feeling good and comfortable, I said, “Go ahead. Now see whatever.” When she finally saw the comments, they were harsh. “It doesn’t feel nice to be called a bimbo or an airhead or a dummy. But they said stuff like that about me.” But then, Mandira’s  focus had shifted from proving others wrong to embracing the experience on her own terms. “I was like, You know what? I’m here and I’m finishing this tournament and I’m having fun.”
Mandira Bedi initially gained recognition playing the title role in the 1994 television show Shanti. She also appeared in many Hindi TV serials such as Aurat, Dushman, and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Following this, she began hosting the ICC Cricket World Cups in 2003 and 2007, the Champions Trophies in 2004 and 2006, and the Indian Premier League for Sony Max. She was last seen in the 2025 Malayalam film Identity.