Chetna Pande on ‘Khatron Ke Khiladi’: I will come out as a fearless person

Mumbai: Actor Chetna Pande is confident about her prospects as a contestant of “Khatron Ke Khiladi” as she believes mental and physical strength will help her during her stint on the reality show.

Hosted by filmmaker Rohit Shetty, the adventure-based reality show is about celebrity contestants facing their worst fears and performing a series of death-defying stunts under the supervision of a host to win the coveted title.

Pande, best known for “MTV Fanaah” and “Class of 2020”, is one of the contestants for the 12th season of the show, which will be shot in Cape Town, South Africa, later this month.

The 32-year-old actor said initially she was in two minds about saying yes to “Khatron Ke Khiladi” as it coincided with her prior commitment for a movie.

”They had approached me a month and half back and it was not an immediate yes. I was excited to do the show but I had prior commitment to a big movie, for which I was signed. When ‘Khatron Ke Khiladi’ came, I was in two minds as I wanted to be part of both the show and the movie.

”But things got a bit delayed from the movie’s end so I said yes to the show… It took ten days to decide over it,” Pande told PTI in an interview. The actor, who has also played actor Varun Sharma’s girlfriend in Shetty’s “Dilwale”, said she always wanted to do a show like “Khatron Ke Khiladi”.

Born in Bareilly, Pande said she has been into physical fitness and sports from an early age.

She was a national level badminton player and had represented Uttarakhand during her growing up years. But she couldn’t pursue the sport as a career due to an injury she sustained on her right arm when she was in college.

”I have been prepared for challenges. And at this stage of my life, I feel I am mentally and physically prepared for a tough show like this,” Pande said.

”I got COVID-19 twice and so I was not in the best of my health a month ago as my stamina had gone for a toss. But I started working out. I didn’t know how to swim and so I did that too,” she added.

“Khatron Ke Khiladi” is a show that challenges the contestants and Pande believes that the key to successfully completing the tasks is to remain ”calm and composed”.

”It needs insane guts to do stunts, which I may not get to do in real life. I am sure I will come out of it as a fearless person. I am looking forward to it,” she said.

As an actor, Pande said her goal is to keep experimenting with her choices.

”I moved from a MTV show to a reality show to doing web-shows and even ‘Khatron Ke Khiladi’ is different. I don’t want to be monotonous,” she said.