Shalini Passi
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A brief biography
As of 2024
Dec 1, 2024: The Times of India
It was billed as a Delhi-Mumbai face-off but the one who stole the spotlight on ‘Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives’ wasn’t a star wife but Delhi artist, collector and philanthropist Shalini Passi. In an interview to Neelam Raaj, she talks about her many passions
You’ve become quite the ‘It Girl’ but tell us a little about your background. I believe you wanted to be an architect.
Honestly, my intention was never to be the ‘It Girl’. ‘It Girls’ tick all the right boxes, they wear the perfect black dress, have lovely coloured hair, lenses and the ‘it’ bag. On the other hand, I’m very eclectic and my dressing is very maximalist. Growing up, I wanted to be an artist or an architect. But I was very weak in math, so I could not pursue architecture. I enjoy architectural photography now.
We glimpsed some of your fabulous art collection in the show. Tell us about how your collecting journey started.
My collecting journey started when I was young because I used to paint. My teacher in Modern School had many eminent artists as his friends like B C Sanyal and Manjit Bawa who came regularly to the art room in school and that’s how my art journey actually began. And I grew up looking at the works of modern masters in various galleries in Delhi and museums.
Some of the feedback has been negative. Did you expect that?
What I did not expect was the love that I’m receiving from all corners of the world. There are little girls, who are having sassy-Passi parties with hair bands and straws. My DMs are still flooded with messages.
Though you are quite well known, the Bollywood wives treated you like an outsider and were quite judgy. Did it ever get you down?
When there are seven women, there is bound to be both fun and friction, but all of them are very dear to me. It was won- derful getting to know everybody up close and there was a lot to learn from each one of them. I am in touch with all of them.
You did say you don’t hold grudges as it’s bad for your skin but we have to ask you this. Which of the Bollywood/Delhi wives is your favourite and which is the least favourite?
When I said, ‘I don’t hold grudges, it is bad for my skin’, it meant that when you are upset or hold negative feelings in your body, it affects everything — from your sleep cycle to your thyroid to your mental well-being. It releases toxins in the body which can also cause acidity. So, it’s not healthy and the last place it shows up is on your skin. People are using that line left, right and centre at parties. As for my favourite wife, that would definitely be me in my best mood, in my best outfit, in my best hair. And least favourite would definitely be me again on my least favourite hair days and the days that my face is puffy.
Have to ask you about the money shot — the one where you ran into the water. Was that scripted or spontaneous? And how real was the Shalini Passi that we saw on screen?
This was my first time doing reality television, and it was not scripted at all. We never expected it to rain so heavily in Mauritius while we were shooting. So, whatever you see on the show was very spontaneous. And, like I said, it was absolutely unscripted. I am as real as I can get.
What’s next on the horizon for you — a Bollywood movie?
There are a lot of offers. Cinema is a very powerful medium, and my inexperience in it and my enthusiasm for it might translate into something amazing. Let’s see where life takes us.
State-level gymnast, diver, dancer, singer, artist…and you even did a photo exhibition on deserted Delhi during Covid. How do you have so many hobbies/talents?
I think my passions feed into each other. I did not know anything about photography as a medium till 2018. I was actually very afraid of the camera and being in front of the camera and behind it was a new experience. During the pandemic, for about four or five months, when the lockdown had lifted, I would go around photographing the city early in the morning. It was a very sad time for the entire planet and, of course, for the city. But it gave me a lot of strength to carry on my other work, which is philanthropy, and also carry on in general. Singing and dancing releases anger and other negative emotions.
You have described your style as maximalist. What made you embrace the ‘more is more’ mantra?
‘More is more’ comes naturally to me. India is a maximalist country. When you walk down the street, you see women dressed in beautiful coloured sarees, they have braided hair and put flowers in their hair or they wear a nose ornament or earrings. We love colour, we love fragrance so being an Indian I obviously have to be a maximalist at heart.
27-yr-old drowns in Ganga while on trip with colleagues:
A Kerala man, Akash, 27, part of a group of 50 employees from a Gurugram-based private firm who arrived in Rishikesh Thursday for a leisure trip, drowned in Ganga at Neem Beach while bathing with colleagues, police said on Saturday. He was swept away by the river’s strong current. Police are making efforts to locate him, reports M S Nawaz.
