In the combustible mix that's a reality TV show, there's often a provocateur and a victim, but there's also a bystander, an observer, a voice of reason. In season 3 of The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, that part was taken up, quite gladly, by Bhavana Pandey. She was not only at an arm's distance from the underlying issue between Maheep Kapoor and Seema Sajdeh, with Neelam playing the peacemaker, Bhavana was the closest to sitting on the fence between between Mumbai and Delhi, given the rivalry between the two cities in the new season.

Bhavana on not missing the drama

“What happens in a group of friends is that if everyone is noisy or everyone is shouting, it becomes chaotic. So you need every kind of person in a situation or a group. So probably, I was the calmer one this season. You don't mind enjoying or watching the drama. I'm very happy that the drama is all around me, and not involving me. I didn't miss the drama, trust me. Nobody wants to be in the centre of all the drama,” Bhavana tells Hindustan Times in an exclusive interview.

“It's so strange that you forget what happens in your life, but when you see a show on you, you see how many dynamics have changed over the last 5 years,” says Bhavana, who felt the tension between Maheep and Seema reminder her of her own issue with Maheep last season. Still, she chose not to intervene. “I feel like it has to come from within. As a friend, what you can do is you can support both the friends, not necessarily pick a side without any reason or rationalisation. When Seema intervened between me and Maheep in season 2, I told her, ‘Seema, let us talk. Don’t intervene.' I'm a one-on-one kind of a person," says Bhavana, adding, “I didn't know the extent, how deep the hurt was. Neelam was the one who was already talking to them. Neither of them had confided in me, so how could I get involved?”

Bhavana does feel that she was more opinionated this season. Having an opinion needn't necessarily come with confrontation. She's had plenty over the last two seasons, whether it's the undercurrent she addressed with Maheep in season 2 or the tension with Seema that erupted at the lunch table in season 1. “We actually, in real life, did not speak to each other for 3 days after that,” Bhavana reveals. Sure, there have been the ups as well, like her renewing vows with husband Chunky Panday in season 2.

The only drastic change for Bhavana in season 3 was her elder daughter Ananya Panday moving out into her own flat. “That was a big step for her, and for us, because already, our younger daughter doesn't live with us anymore,” says Bhavana. Her younger one, Rysa Pandey, is studying filmmaking in New York. “Obviously, when Chunky is in a scene, he makes it really funny, but it (Ananya leaving) was supposed to be an emotional moment, which I tried but they didn't let me get emotional,” says Bhavna, laughing.

On playing host

Bhavana's most essential role in Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives was to play a nice host to the new Delhi participants. After Shalini Passi invited them to an art ball, Riddhima Kapoor hosted them at home for Karva Chauth, and Kalyani Chawla took them out for drinks, Bhavana felt the need to return the favour by organising something special in Mumbai. “That was my feeling throughout the show, which I shut down multiple times because everyone else was like, ‘Calm down, this is all you’re thinking about,'” recalls Bhavana.

On the Mauritius holiday with the gang, Bhavana realised there's no point forcing conversation on anyone. However, a lingering feeling bothered her. “The holiday didn't end the best way. The last night, we're all having dinner separately. It should've been the other way round, that the first day, we're having dinner separately, and the last day, we get together because that's how much we bonded,” reasons Bhavana. So instead of hosting them for a dinner at her place and making room for more “fake and filtered” conversations, she signed them up for a surprise visit to the Rage Room. “It wasn't left on the best note, so I thought everyone should get a chance to release their pent-up emotions. I know everyone didn't love the idea, but some of them did. But I've realised you can't please everyone,” Bhavna states.

On Call Me Bae

Bhavana also gets the Delhi women because she was born in the capital city. Since her father was transferred to Mumbai, she moved to the coastal city at a very young age of 5. That's why she wasn't of much help to Ananya Panday when the actor was preparing to play Bella Chowdhury, a South Delhi social media influencer, in the recent Prime Video India show, Call Me Bae. Bhavana did serve as a sounding board, she adds. “Somewhere, she wasn't sure. Because it's going to be 8 episodes, she's going to be in every frame, kind of carrying the show, would she be liked. The show is over-the-top. There's comedy, so it can go either way. I am just that confident for her. I'll just say, ‘Go for it, it’s amazing, I loved it.' Whenever I feel she's inclined towards something, I'll encourage her 100%,” Bhavana says.

One of the calls Bhavna received for Ananya's breezy performance in Call Me Bae was from Shalini Passi. Little did she know that a month later, Bhavana would be returning the favour after watching Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives. “A lot of Shalini's scenes were not done in front of us. When I watched her on screen, I watched for the first time. So I called her up and said, ‘Oh my god Shalini, you’re Bae!'” Bhavana points out that like Bae, Shalini has also done a course in almost everything, from underwater weaving to basket making. “Plus, Bae is a wealthy girl with a soft and kind heart. And I think Shalini has that too. She comes from a very affluent family, but has a kind heart. The similarities are uncanny, but Shalini herself told me she's Bae," says Bhavana.

Ananya can take some inputs from Shalini now that she's started filming season 2 of Call Me Bae. Both shows are produced by the same banner – Karan Johar's Dharmatic Entertainment. “Ananya thorougly enjoyed season 3. She was very entertained by Shalini. I think she sent a message to Shalini and told her how much she enjoyed her. Shalini is very unique. She's made for a show like this. She brings so much character and drama to the show and keeps you hooked. So ya, Ananya loved Shalini, loved her,” adds Bhavana.

On the Delhi girl who became a Mumbai woman

Bhavana also agrees with Ananya that she's more Mumbai than Delhi, even though she went back to Delhi University for B.Com Honors at Shri Ram College of Commerce. “I have to say I loved my college years in Delhi because there's no campus like the Delhi University campus. It's just beautiful. Mumbai doesn't have those kind of campuses. Even the canteen, only we know how many samosas and bread pakoras we've eaten there. Somewhere I got the best of both worlds because I went to college in Delhi,” says Bhavana. That's exactly why she took her Mumbai BFFs to visit SRCC during the show – “I wanted to show off” (laughs). She even got calls from her college friends, regretting that she didn't invite them to be a part of the scene. “I think it was so last minute because they had difficulty with permissions so I couldn't inform them,” Bhavana laments.

She admits that she got her fair share of taunts from Delhi's academic circles for not following the conventional trajectory of an SRCC graduate in 1995 – becoming a Chartered Accountant or pursuing an MBA degree and entering the corporate world. “At my age, at 50, I would've been the CEO at an MNC today. At that time, people just said, ‘Oh my god! She just left SRCC and became a flight attendant’,” Bhavana recalls the time she worked as an air hostess at Lufthansa Airlines for a year and a half. “I just wanted to travel. I wanted to take a couple of gap years. I thought I'd go back to post-graduation, but I met Chunky in that duration. I got married and never went back to it. And then life took its own course,” Bhavana says.

She believes she manifested marrying Chunky because she always wanted to return to Mumbai and settle there. Her fascination dates back to the 5-year-old Bhavana, who had moved to Mumbai with her family. It was already dark by the time they reached the city, where they spent their first night at Horizon Hotel in Masjid Bandar. “The hotel was next to the sea, but you couldn't see anything because it was all black. The whole night, I could hear the sounds of the waves. Next morning, when I went to the balcony, the first thing I saw was the sea. And I just fell in love with Mumbai there and then. I don't know what it was – seeing that black thing at night and being fearful, being a little scared listening to the sounds, and then in the morning, waking up to the most beautiful view,” says Bhavana, adding, “Even though I can't swim, but there's something so beautiful and serene just looking at the water. It was almost like waking up to a new chapter in your life.”

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